Australia VS America Country Comparison

Australia and America are widely considered as similar countries, but who knows? Maybe this will prove you wrong (and before I say all of these, I'm just going to say that while these are not all the differences, they're the main ones in my opinion. ok here we go):

1. The Driving Side

This one's pretty obvious, but yes, Australia drives on the left; while America drives on the right. Just gotta be careful if you're an American driving in Australia, or vice versa. It can be quite intimidating at first, especially when you're turning the vehicle, you have to make sure you're in the right lane. And by right I mean the correct lane and not as in the direction. But it's a pretty satisfying feeling when you've accomplished skilled driving, lol. Only 4 years (according to American law) for me to drive! Woo!

2. Voting

Now, in Australia, you have to vote. Like it is a must. That is, if you're 16 or older. However, in America, that is a choice, and you can vote if you want, or you don't have to if you don't want to. Oh and also, if you do want to vote, and you're American, the legal voting age is 18.

3.  School Systems

School systems are different in most countries, however, the ones in America and Australia are probably the most distinct in  probably the world. The most important thing here is that: In America, you have grades; in Australia, you have years. So basically American grades run like this: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade (which is my current grade at the moment). 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, and then college depending on the career. Also, to make our lives easier, us Americans put things in groups (but this happens in every school in any other country besides America. However, this is the American way): Pre-K and Kindergarten are Preschool, 1st through 5th grade are elementary school, 6th-8th grade are middle school, and 9th-12th grade are high school. In Australia, starting point is: Year 1, then goes through Year 6 (these years are called primary school). and year 7-12 is high school. Also, another major differences are the months. In America, school tend to run from August or September-May or June. In Australia, the school months are basically the normal calendar year, so January to December. I'll explain why this is in a next part..

4. Seasons

So basically, if you live North of the equator, or in other words, in the Northern Hemisphere, your seasons will be like this: Autumn starts in September, Winter starts in December, Spring starts in March, and Summer starts in June. In this case, for America, students need that summer vacation, or holidays as the Aussies would call it. So because of that sole reason, American school years tend to run from the "American" Autumn to the "American" Summer. However, if you live South of the equator, or in other words, the Southern Hemisphere, or in other other words, Australia, your seasons will be like this: Autumn starts in March, Winter starts in June, Spring starts in September, and Summer starts in December. But unlike America, the Australians don't want a solid summer vacation for like 2-3 months. But instead, they have terms, and basically have a while of school, and then 1-2 weeks of break (for every season). and then the same thing happens again.

5. Candies VS Lollies and Chocolates

Now, Britain owned both America and Australia at one point, but since America was its own stubborn self, we adopted saying candies for any "sweet junk" food. However, for Australia, (New Zealand too but that's irrelevant) they just wanted to follow the British way, and they adopted "lolly" for any junk sweet food, and chocolate for well chocolate. Us Americans call chocolate "candy" too, but like chocolate and lollies are quite distinct in Australia.

So basically you're gonna see the Australian slang version, then what a normal American person would call it. I know for a fact, some of these will make you laugh, but it's just the country's style let's just say.

Australian Person:                      American Person:

Macca's                                             McDonald's

Arvo                                             Good Afternoon

Straya                                               Australia

Barbie                                                 Barbeque

Bogan                                                  Redneck

G'Day                                                    Good Day, Hello, What's up

Esky                                                       Cooler (As In like portable refrigerator guess??)

Bottle-O                                                   Bottle Shop, Liquor Store]

Fair Dinkum                                               True, Real, Genuine

Petrol                                                          Gas (As in Gas Station)

Servo, Service Station                                Gas Station

English: Chemist                                         Pharmacy

Fairy Floss                                                  Cotton Candy

Rubber                                                           Eraser

Chewie                                                           Chewie Gum

Thong                                                              Flip Flop

Both Australia and America both have quite a lot of nicknames. And different people call it different things.So just choose for yourself. Maybe you can make your own nickname! But here are the famous, known ones are:

Australia:                                                         America:

1.The Land Down Under                                1. United States

2. 'Straya                                                         2. United States of America

3. The Land of "OZ"                                         3. OOSA

4. The Sunburnt Country                                 4. USA

5. Lucky Country                                              5. The Land Of Opportunity

6. Aussie                                                          6. The States

7. OZ

8. Land Of The Long Weekend

America: The Bald Eagle (Yes, the white and grayish-brownish-blackish big bird you see in America.)

Australia: The Kangaroo (Literally, EVERYWHEREEEE)

A little warning, don't confuse wallabies with kangaroos. They may look the same, but trust me they are not. You will anger tons of Australians (if you're American) if you say so.

Both Australia and America use the dollar, but not the same type. Also, the American dollar is a bit more powerful than the Australian one. Both the dollars though rank in the top 15 most powerful currencies- with the American ranking 9th, and Australia ranking 11th.

The American Dollar is also referred to as the USD for obvious reasons, and the Australian Dollar is referred to as the AUD (Australian Union Dollar).

In America, we basically call those coins cents. So, like, if you're at the grocery store or some store or whatever in America, and they say you're change is $8.75, that means that you're taking 8 full dollars, and the digits after the dot means the cents. And also, if ya'll are curious, this is what the American cent symbol looks like: ¢ or ￠.

The actual coins' names range in an order, from least value to most most value: Penny 1￠, Nickel 5￠,  Dime 10￠, Quarter 25￠, and $1 coin. The $1 coin is getting rarer.

In terms of the crisp bills, (lol), they also range in an order, well obviously. $1, $2, $10, $20, $50, $100. Again, there are more bills, these are just the most popular ones. Except the $2 bill is getting rarer. Also, all the bills you'll see in America are green. We're so boring, ya da ya da ya da, I know.

In Australia, they still call coins cents, but instead of calling the bills "cash" or "money" or whatever, they call the bills or money (whatever you wanna call 'em) banknotes. Banknotes is like the only term you will find in Australia for the crisp bills.

The Australian cents range like this: 5￠, 10￠, 20￠, 50￠, the $1 coin, and $2 coin. The banknotes, however, are much more colorful than those of America. They all have their own color, well the most popular ones anyway. Anyway, here they are:

$5 (pinkish-red)

$10 (bluish)

$20 (red)

$50 (yellowish-orange)

$100 (greenish)

Let's get this straight. Both America and Australia are very large countries. However, the population varies drastically:

America's Population As Of 2021: 331.42 million.

Australia's Population As Of 2021: 25.79 million

America's Most Populous State: California (40 million)

America's Least Populous State: Wyoming (Around 570,000)

Australia's Most Populous State/Territory: New South Wales (8.196 million)

Australia's Least Populous State/Territory: Northern Territory (244,000)

America's Most Densely Populated State: New Jersey (1,218 people per square mile)

America's Least Densely Populated State: Alaska (1 person per square mile)

Australia's Most Densely Populated State/Territory: Australian Capital Territory (171.40 people per square mile)

Australia's Least Densely Populated State/Territory: Northern Territory (0.18 people per square mile)

  Ok, so America doesn't have any distinct "cuisines" like Mexican or Italian. I guess we're famous for our burgers, chicken wings, and that what not. Some pizza here is good, but let me warn you right now. Please do not ever try the cafeteria food here, especially school cafeterias. But that would probably be abnormal for foreigners. But let's just get this straight, American cafeteria food sucks. If you want that type of food, go to any other country. That aside, here are the most famous American meals, or what is said to be from America:

1. Cheeseburgers/Hamburgers

2. Buffalo Wings

3. Ruebens

4. Pecan Pie, Apple Pie, Key Lime Pie (and other pies)

5. Chocolate Chip Cookies

6. Corn Dogs

7. Lobster Rolls

8. Philly Cheesesteak 

Ok....I know you're making the assumption that Americans are very unhealthy, we love our fast food. Yeah, I'm not gonna blame you, but America is very obese. One of the most obese countries in the world.

Ok, meanwhile these are famous Australian foods, or well, foods that are said to be made in Australia or said to be from there: 

1. Chicken Parmigiana

2.  Barbecued Snags (Sausage For Americans)

3. A Burger 'With the Lot'

4. Pavlova

5. Meat Pies

6. Barramundi

7.  Vegemite

Ok, in all honesty...vegemite tastes disgusting. I don't get how Aussies eat it, and how its so popular. But other then that, Australians are much healthier then Americans. 

Ahh yes, two world famous cities. New York and Sydney. Planning to move to one but can't figure out which? This is for you. here are a couple quick stats/info of the two most populous cities in both countries:

Sydney's Most Famous Structure: Sydney Opera House

New York City's Most Famous Structures: One World Trade Center/Empire State Building

Sydney's Cost of Living As Of 2021: $1900-$2400 (in AUD) & $1467-$1853 (in USD)

New York City's Cost of Living As Of 2021: Around $1,000 (in USD) for one person.  Around $1300 (in AUD).

Sydney's Metro Population: 5,5367,000 (As of April, 2021)

New York City's Metro Population: 20,300,000 (As of April 2021)

Sydney's Main Transportation: Metro

New York City's Main Transportation: Subway

Sydney's Area: 4, 775 mi²    

Nw York City's Area: 302.6 mil2

Sydney's Time Zone: Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)

New York City's Time Zone: Eastern Daylight Time (ADT) (This is current time zone)

  Yeah, I know what the first word you'll blurt out when American politics comes into play. But rest assured, here are is a couple of quick info:

                                                          Types Of Government:

American:                                                                      Australian:

1. Judicial Branch                                                        1. Parliamentary System

2. Legislative Branch                                                    2. Representative Democracy

3. Executive Branch                                                      3. Constitutional Monarchy

                                                                                      4. Federal Monarchy 

                                                                Highest Court:

American:                                                                              Australian:

Supreme Court                                                                      High Court Of Australia

                                                                  Voting:

American (Can It Be Done By Choice): Yes           Australian (Can It Be Done By Choice): No

                                                              Current Powers

American (Called The President): Joseph Biden Jr.    Australian: (Called The Prime Minister): Scott Morrison 

                                                   Kingdom Countries Were Freed From

American: United Kingdom (On July 4th, 1776)  Australian: United Kingdom (On January 1st, 1901)

Just because I'm curious, and only if you want to, but comment down below what your opinions are on President Donald Trump.

    America has 50 states and 5 permanently inhabited territories. Australia has 6 states and 2 territories in its mainland. Here they are:

                                                          American States:

1. Alabama

2. Alaska

3. Arizona

4. Arkansas 

5. California

6. Colorado

6. Connecticut

7. Delaware

8. Florida

9. Georgia

10. Hawaii

11. Idaho

12. Illinois

13. Indiana

14. Iowa

15. Kansas

16. Kentucky

17. Louisiana

18. Maine

19. Maryland

20: Massachusetts

21. Michigan

 22. Minnesota

23. Mississippi

24. Missouri

25. Montana

26. Nebraska

27. Nevada

28. Nevada

29. New Hampshire

30. New Jersey

31. New Mexico

32. New York

33. North Carolina

34. North Dakota

35. Ohio

36. Oklahoma 

37. Oregon

38,. Pennsylvania

39. Rhode Island

40. South Carolina

41. South Dakota

42. Tennessee

43. Texas

44. Utah

45. Vermont

46. Virginia 

47. Washington

48. West Virginia

49. Wisconsin

50. Wyoming.                                    

                                                      American  Fully Inhabited Territories:

1. Puerto Rico

2. Northern Marianas Islands

3. American Samoa

4. Guam

5. American Virgin Islands 

                                                   Australian States

1. New South Wales

2. Victoria

3. Queensland

4. Western Australia

5. South Australia

6.Tasmania

                                             Australian Mainland Territories

1. Australian Capital Territory (ACT)

2.  Northern Territory

  Before i end this blog, I feel like it's necessary to talk about the cities to visit. I do have to say, there are really underrated places in both countries. Here they are:

America:                                                                               Australia:

New York                                                                               Darwin

San Antonio                                                                           Sydney

Santa Fe                                                                                Melbourne

Savannah                                                                              Perth

Honolulu                                                                                Adelaide

Cape May, New Jersey                                                         Cairns

Salt Lake City (really underrated)                                          Bondi Beach

Providence                                                                             Kangaroo Island, Southwest Adelaide

Portland, Maine                                                                      Alice Springs

Detroit                                                                                    Broome

Milwaukee                                                                             Yamba

Burlington                                                                               Esperance

   In the end, Australia and America are similar in a few ways (both speak English, both have a major immigrant population, and they both have robust democracies). But what I'm trying to say is that there are many more differences than similarities. However, both Australia and America are very unique, and they are both worth the visit! If you have any suggestions, or things you'd like me to add, just comment them down below! Thank you for reading! :)