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Australia and the USA have many things in common and many similarities, some obvious one like language, country size and culture to some extent. But there are also many major & minor differences between these two countries when it comes to day to day like activities.
We have put together differences that you may not have noticed or known before:
States
USA has 50 official states. Its capital is Washington is a city inside the District of Columbia (DC). The District of Columbia(DC) is a federal district that is not a part of any state.
Australia has 6 states and 2 territories. Its capital Canberra is in Australian Capital Territory(ACT).
Population
USA:
With over 330 million people, the USA is significantly more populous and urbanized.
Australia:
Australia’s population is around 26 million, with much of the country being sparsely populated.
Driving
USA:
Starting with a basic, in the USA, people drive on the right side of the road.
Stop signs are very common at the intersections where the vehicle which is already at the stop sign will get priority to drive ahead.
Usually the leftmost lane on freeways is the carpool lane, where only the vehicle with 2 or more occupants are allowed to drive. It is also called “High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes” (HOV) and represented with diamond sign.
Australia:
Australians drive on the left side of the road.
There are mostly roundabouts at the intersections, where the vehicle usually from the right and the vehicle turning right from the opposite side of the roundabout gets the priority.
Carpool lanes are not common in Australia.
Unit of Measurement
Temperature is measured in Fahrenheit(F) in US while in Australia it is measured in Centigrade.
Weights are measured in Pound(lb) in US and in Australia, Kilogram(kg) is as unit of measurement for products like sugar, fruits, rice, meat etc.
Major fuel for vehicle is referred to as gas in US and the unit of measurement is per gallon. In Australia, fuel is referred as petrol as most of the places in world and is measured per litre. 1 Gallon is equivalent of approx 3.78 litres.
Distance mileage is measured in Miles in US while in Australia it’s measured in Kilometers.
Public Holidays
In US, Independence day is observed on 4th July as official national day while Australia day is an official national day in Australia and celebrated on 26th January.
Thanksgiving day is second biggest festival in US and is celebrated on the last Thursday in November. The next day is often referred to as Black Friday as lot of retails put the products on sale for high bargain price.
In Australia, Thanksgiving day in not as big as US and Aussies rarely celebrate it.
Although not a public holiday but Halloween is very big in US, where people dress up as scary characters and kids go for ‘trick or treat’ candy hunting door to door. In Australia, people have started to celebrate it in recent years.
Restaurants
McDonalds, KFCs, Subway, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza are common in both US and Australia and there is almost one McDonalds within 5 km radius in city areas.
In Australia, Maccas is the popular nick name for McDonalds.
Some of the other popular fast food restaurants in US are Burger King, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr, In-N-Out Burger, Taco Bell.
In Australia, Hungry Jack and Red Rooster are some of the other popular fast food restaurants. Hungry Jack is equivalent of Burger King due to the name copyright issue.
Postal Address
Beside the houses, apartments are popular in US while units are popular in Australia for the residential purpose..
The address format for mail is very similar in both countries and represented as
Street number, Street Name
City, State, Zip/Post Code
Only small differences are:
In US, the apartment number is written after the street name like
35 Main St. Apt#24
San Francisco CA 94107
In Australia, Unit number is written in front of the Street number and often used with slash as well like
Unit 24, 35 Main St.
Melbourne VIC 300
24/ 35 Main St.
Melbourne VIC 300
In US, the states are represented with 2 letters like CA, MI, MD etc
In Australia, states are written as 3 letters like NSW, VIC, QLD etc
In US, the zip code is 5 digit like 94040, 48204
In Australia, it is referred to as post code and it is 4 digit like 3024, 2204
In US, the postman uses the van for mail delivery while in Australia the postman delivers in bike.
Telecommunication
The international country code for USA is 1 and for Australia, it’s 61.
In US, the land line has 3 digit codes prefix, eg. (415)-123 4567.
In Australia, the land line has 2 digit codes prefix, eg. (03)-1234 4567.
In US, the mobile phone is referred as cellular phone. It’s prefix code is similar to land line and assigned as per corresponding city of residency. The phone code for both land line and mobile has prefix 415 in San Francisco while in New York it is 212.
While in Australia all the mobile phones prefix is 04 across Australia, regardless of where your corresponding city or state of residency.
In US, Verizon, AT&T and T-mobile are major phone/mobile providers.
In Australia, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are major phone/mobile providers.
Others
USA:
Every cities have centralized area referred as Downtown eg, downtown LA.
It is customary to leave 15% tips when you eat in restaurants.
Toilets are commonly referred to as restrooms and mostly only full flush option is available to flush our the toilets.
Financial year starts from 1st Jan to 31st Dec. Tax Returns are filed after end of year(31st Dec).
One cent coin is the lowest denomination in currency and there are still 1 cent coins in use if needed in cash transactions.
Australia:
Most major cities have CBD(Central Business District), Melbourne CBD.
It’s not necessary to leave tips.
Toilets is the popular word for toilet and half flush & full flush options are available to flush out the toilet hence saving some water.
Financial year starts from 1st July to 30th June. Tax Returns are filed after end of June.
The lowest denomination in currency is five cents and cents are rounded up or down to closest five cents in cash transactions.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this page are for general guidance & information only and based in Melbourne and San Francisco. Always refer to official government sites for the up to date information.