The National Character

Other than the habit of wearing shorts everywhere (I've seen them at the Opera), what distinguishes The Australian?  I intend to ask this question to a few Aussies and a few non-natives, but in the meantime, I have to share some comments from Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz:

Australians mock almost everything, authority in particular and British authority most of all.  They have no national heroes in the American sense, only law-breaking folk heroes, like the horse thief and bank robber, Ned Kelly, an Irish convict's son who donned homemade body armour before battling police.  Or the drunken gold prospectors who erected a stockade called Eureka rather than pay mining taxes.  The Nation's best known song, "Waltzing Matilda", eulogized a sheep rustler.  

And again, when the author is crewing in a sailing race, and trying to understand a seeming contradiction in national character: 


As we motored to the starting line, I studied the competition...Even the largest boats bore raffish, self-deprecating names, befitting the Australian temper: Ragamuffin, Rapscallion, Occasional Coarse Language...
A gun sounded, and we quickly pulled ahead; Roger had timed the start perfectly.  "We've got them caned!" he shouted.  For all his jocular put-downs of himself and his crew, Roger was a skilled and cut-throat competitor.  It was part of the Australian sports mask - of the Australian personality really - never to seem to care too much or try too hard.


I'll let you know what I find out.  The shorts may remain a mystery.