Every time you hear stories of what the Americans know about Australia, it’s always suggested that they think kangaroos hop down the main street (just think about that Simpsons episode… “I see you’ve played knifey-spooney before!”). I grew up in Newcastle, and found the idea of kangaroos living among us pretty hilarious – I think I saw one wild kangaroo once, up in the mountains, and we lived right next to the bush.
However, when I moved to Canberra, my whole perception of Aussie fauna changed when I locked up the brakes on my old Datto to avoid a huge kangaroo crossing the road in front of me on the main road in Bruce. A girl at work recalls watching in amazement as traffic was brought to a crawl as a kangaroo hopped down Northbourne Ave. It topped it off for me just the other week walking home from work I passed a grazing kangaroo in Haig Park, Braddon.
So there you go… there is at least one cliché about us Aussies that may resemble the truth. For some reason this reminds me of a joke I loved when I was a kid:
What are jelly babies most afraid of? Jelly dingoes.
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