‘( 'meodi/e' Dundee has already done about Slllll million worth ol~ business around the world. and in Australia — where you ean easily haye to travel hundreds ol miles to find a einema — you‘d be a pretty drill drongo it you hadn‘t seen it. liyen (ireg Norman who. being as the Australians put it. "l‘he Worlds 'l'op(iollet”. is only marginally less inlluential than the Pope (who apparently sent thousands ol lapsed (‘atholie Aussies seuttling baek to ehureh this (‘hristmas alter appealing during his Noyember yisit lor those on spiritual w'alkabout to 'eome baek‘ ). eyen he. the (ireat White Shark. has humth admitted lallibility. ‘l leek. I‘ve had so many appearanees to make and people to meet I hayen't had a ehanee {U see ‘( 'nu‘Udr/e' Dundee.
It is ol’eourse a truism that sport is a religion in Australia and one from whieh they look for not so mueh the miraeles that might have saved them the Ashes. but the inl‘allibility that l’at (‘as’h showed in winning the Day'is Cup. ‘(‘roeodile' Dundee. the laid—baek eroeodile hunter from the outbaek is a winner and a hero. He is. the Aussies would like to belieye. the quintessential Australian. lle reassures them that they are the witty. tough and maeho. ruggedly handsome people that in their hearts they know they are. Above all. they are winners.
l’aul llogan. or lloges as he is known at home. has been exporting his yersion ot. the Australian eharaeter ye ry sueeesslully for a
while now. llis teleyision show top—rated in Australia has been a eult hit in Britain and is seen in twenty -six eountries around the world. But until Dundee he was best known lor his teley'ision ads. in this eountry lor Fosters Lager and in the l'nited States for the Australian ‘l‘ourist Board. l'neompromisingly l loges. the ads are lull ol his ethnoeentrie humour whieh sends up both Australia and the host eountry's expectations of Australians. and they hay'e been devastatingly sueeessl'ul. ‘l‘ll slip another shrimp on the barbie lor youf l loges told Ameriea and ottt Httttt Amerieans took up the ol‘l’er. l’osters meanwhile enjoyed the most .sueeesslul lager
Sport is a religion
launeh Britain has seen. Ask a l’ommie what the Australians drink. and it he doesn‘t say l‘iosters he probably doesn‘t giye a l’ourex. Such a simplistie attitude to beer drinking down under is wide ol the mark. Beeris a yery serious business. eoming seeond only to running giant media eombines as the country‘s most eoyeted means ol~ earning a liying. When millionaire Allan Bond won the Ameriea‘s (up — and you‘d be l‘orgiyen tor thinking that it was the most signil‘ieant eyent in the country‘s not quite thttyear history — the eountry went wild. 'lhe next day was an unoltieial publie
4 The List 9 — 22 January
FEATURE LIST l . . . . i f ifhmf Paul Hogan has been fostering the Australian image tor years. but now his smash hit film. Croeodile Dundee has taken the marketmgot the Aussies into a whole new league. Nigel Billen takes a highly dubious look at the nation ol‘heroes.
holiday with the hard—drinking. popular ‘playboy' l’remier. Bob llawke making it elear that he eonsidered it would be yery‘ unreasonable ilanyone got the saek tor not going in to work that day. One ol' the lasting spin-olt's lrom the yietory has been that Allan Bond‘s Swan Lager. hitherto popular only in Perth. is now ubiquitous in Australia as the patriotie beer. Swan has the added attraetion that it is a stronger brew than most ol the other beers. Aetually theres only 1’; in it. but that‘s enough to giy e it the edge out other lagers although eaeh state stubbornly has itsown layourites. l‘osters is. lor instanee. primarily a Vietoria Melbourne beer. \XXX belongs to Queensland and l'oobey s to New South Wales. Atistralia is probablyoutstripped only by Belgium in the numberol lagers brewed and all are seryed eold in enormous quantities. 'l‘he driye—in moyie houses may be less popular than they were. but the driye-in Bottle Shops are beeoming an institution.
Aeeording to the Medieal .lout‘tial ol' Australia. the Australians now drink more than any other linglish speaking people. Rather unlortunately. eonsidering the eurrent Australian eoneern with juyenile aleoholism. the brand KB is known eyerywhere as‘ls'ids‘ Beer“ Maybe it‘s the ehildren who are a bad inlluenee: in Aliee Springs last year. a man held up on the now epidemie drinlcffriye eharge blamed his son
in neat rum.
liarlier in the eentury . Australia had an attitude to drink whieh eame elose to that olAmeriea during the prohibition years. l'ntil the l‘ilties. pubs whieh eyery'whe re are known as hotels regardless whetherthey olleraeeommodation wereloreed to elose at six. Now that restrietion and the ‘swilling up‘ period has gone. to be replaeed by more eiyilised. il~ hardly more moderate eonsumption. ‘ltotels‘ are still at least outside the big towns and eities pretty basie allairs. usually leaturing the lunetional trough under the bar w here debris ol all kinds is hurled. t Legendary ltttt‘ ltttitl is the l’ie l'iloater a meat pie lloating in tea). But not all the drinking is done in the bar. Australia is hot. dry and y'ei‘y big. so whereye r you are you need to hay e your supply t)l eold beer easily to hand. Australians buy little indiyidual leather elad polystyrene
Patriotie Beer
bottle holder's lot the bottle they
hay to earry around. l’or the ear. lor the iieaeh or the party they wouldn't be without their l1sky 7 a portable ieebos. l)istanee is measured in tinnies in prelerenee to kilometres. A tinnie is ol'eourse a ean ol lager. Hills MI lsa to l'ow'nsyille is a mere
ww- V i' *' ";"s) t el e llltlllL\ i rthetiineittik_e_tt
‘i. .-; -. '~ r!" 4