The Great Melting Pot - Trip to Australia, Part I

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Crowded night scene at SOH

We spent the first week of our trip to Australia in Sydney and one of its suburbs, Macquarie Park, where the Macquarie University is located, about 30 minutes northwest of Sydney by train.  Aside from the two days when Kirk was sequestered at a workshop, we did most of the must-sees and must-dos for the itinerant tourists in Sydney.  Without losing a minute, as soon as we deposited our luggage at the hotel in Sydney after about a 24-hour journey, we went out for a long walk heading toward the popular Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour.

Dining at the Studio Cafe

Other than the familiar sights and sounds of any crowded cosmopolitan city, the overwhelming impression we got of Sydney was the size of its Asian population and how well integrated they are in the society.  The metropolitan area of Sydney seems to me like a huge Chinatown, or what I imagine the city-state of Singapore would be like.  In addition to Chinese, who immigrated en masse to Australia during the gold rush era in the 1850s, the population of Australia is made up of immigrants from all over the world beginning in the 17th Century.  According to published demographics of Australia, about 24% of its total population was born outside of Australia, of which those from the UK make up the largest contingent, followed by New Zealand, Italy, and China.  Over 8% of its population is of Asian descent (consisting predominantly of Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Indian), while the Australian Aboriginal comprises only 2.3%.  To an outsider's eye, all these immigrants, of various colors and stripes, seem to be co-existing well together and to have assimilated seamlessly into Australian society, occupying diverse social roles and stations in life.  In any case, the result is a cornucopia of languages on the streets and of cuisines served in restaurants.  But it is not always what you expect.  I had a very odd but hilarious experience once in a subway car listening to a conversation among some Asian teenagers (ethnic Chinese and Indians) complaining about their teachers and classmates in the purest and thickest of Aussie accents.  For me the incongruity of oriental faces and Aussie accents was both comic and delightful.     

Another aspect of Australian culture that we found striking was their laid-back attitude.  A common response to queries in our dealings with Australians was "No worries [mate]," as the Qantas clerk said to us when we asked about having less than an hour to transfer from the domestic terminal to the international terminal by bus to catch a flight at the Sydney airport.  Another example is their rather relaxed attitude regarding airport security -- nobody checks your IDs or boarding passes when going through security, or when getting on the plane.  I wonder whether this laid-back attitude is an offshoot of their colonial past, when Australia in its great distance and isolation, represented to early settlers a land of milk, honey and sunshine, with the sure prospect of charting a new life.  Only the desperate or the unrepentant optimist would make such an arduous sea journey -- Mr. Micawber and Family, being both, did swimmingly well in this land of new promise.