What Happened to the ‘Lovable Aussie’ Traveler?

Ben Groundwater says being an Australian abroad used to be “awesome.” “You’d find yourself the token conversation piece at get-togethers, where you could persuade people that you wrestled kangaroos for a living,” he writes on The Backpacker, a Sydney Morning Herald blog. “Doors magically opened, hassles were incredibly smoothed over, with the help of an Australian accent. But it’s all gone wrong…” In short, Groundwater says, Australian travelers are now often greeted with disdain. Among the possible reasons: Overexposure, “blokes on buck’s weekends,” politics and jealousy. He concludes: “The bottom line, however, is that anyone who’s travelled knows there are a lot of Australians out there acting like dickheads, and it’s giving the rest of us a bad name.” As you might expect, the post has stimulated some heated—and interesting—conversation.

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