Weird Australia?

Okay, so while this one is a bit strange, American’s are well aware of the amazing hot dog and soda combination that can be found at Costco. But still, Australia has a hardware store called Bunnings, where hot food can be found, bought and eaten. So while you’re by your two-by-fours and your drill bits, you can also get some sausage for breakfast right in the same store.

AND your dog is welcome in the store.

And this

Well, apparently in Australia, the crosswalks make a little noise that sounds a bit like “bok bok”. And people in Australia absolutely rely on that sound to make them pay attention enough to cross the street. As if the light flashing from red to green wasn’t enough! In other places in the world, pedestrian crosswalks don’t make any sound at all. Plop an Australian down in a city where the crosswalks are silent and see how they do.

No, the noise at crossings is to assist the blind.

Australians are never ending when it comes to strange food. Other than actually eating Kangaroo, Australian’s also have a burger that comes with “the lot”. What is “the lot”, you ask? Why, it’s a burger with a fried egg, cold beetroot, and some other questionable things that should probably not be stuck on a burger.

The article doesn't explain what the questionable things are, but they're usually tomato, lettuce and/or other salad items. What's weird about that?

Now, not to be confused with “a bush” like one might find in their front lawn. No, no. “The Bush” is actually just a term for any big piece of land. Usually undeveloped land that’s not quite desert, not quite savanah, not quite forest.. It’s just all universally referred to as “the bush”. The bush could be any piece of land that’s in Australia, from one end to the other.

No, they got that wrong. "The Bush" is anywhere away from a major city. It can be temperate rain forest, savanah, desert or tropical jungle. If it's not town, it's bush.

Strangely enough, Australia is the place that can claim having the world’s longest fence. But why? What could anyone possibly need a fence so long for? Australia has 75 million sheep. The sheep are kept for both their meat as well as the use of their wool. Wool is one of Australia’s most important exports. So, with all those sheep, you have to keep them somewhere, don’t you? Almost all of the sheep are kept on the southeastern part of the Australia. With all those sheep and all those predators, you have to do something to keep them safe! And thus, the world’s longest fence.

Once again, they didn't do their homework. In Australia their are rabbit proof fences, because the rabbit epidemic is so bad that their is little foor for grazing animals, and also Dingo proof fences to protect sheep from dingoes. And some of our stations (ranches) consist of some thousands of square miles. Sheep and cattle stations can be thousands of square kilometres in area, with the nearest neighbour being hundreds of kilometres away. Anna Creek Station in South Australia is the world's largest working cattle station.It is roughly 24,000 square kilometres (9,300 sq mi larger than Israel); much larger than the runner-up, Clifton Hills, another South Australian cattle station spanning 17,000 square kilometres (6,600 sq mi); and four times the size of America's biggest ranch, which is only 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi).⁾

Well, the topic is entitled /15-things-about-australia-the-rest-of-the-world-finds-weird/19/, but as you can see, I'm up to page 19, and not finished yet.

Most, if not all of the other references in this article are misunderstood, and, IMHO, just lazy journalism. Reasonable explanations exist for most of them such as some unusual place names. Like the USA hasn't got some weird place names?

If members have any other examples of weird things about Australia, I'd love to read them. But read the link first.