Came across this great essay from the BBC’s H2G2 site (Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy) which explains Australia fairly accurately to the novice outlander. Some attribute it to Douglas Adamas, which I don’t believe (I’m an admirer of DA’s style of writing, and this ain’t it, Someone’s probably been confused by its placement on the BBC site)), but it’s still an accurate view from the outside: somewhere in the UK.
Highlights:
The second confusing thing about Australia are the animals. They can be divided into three categories. Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep.
Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the entire world. Although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock, and has venomous barbs sticking out of it’s back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk.
Happy Australia Day!
BONWAG 
I like Billy Connolly’s take on box jellyfish: “Not only do they kill you, they come gift-wrapped”