50 Signs You’ve Been A Backpacker In Australia

You know you’ve been a backpacker in Australia when…

1. You have a love/hate relationship with goon. (Yes, I am happy that I started this post off with a nice big picture of my finest goon!!)

2. You’ve taken a selfie with a kangaroo.

This post contains affiliate links. Please note if you buy or book anything through my links, I may earn a little commission that helps keep this site running, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

3. You know the frustration of Aussie wifi.

4. You don’t even bat an eyelid at $10 drinks any more. (Although you do try to make all the happy hours!)

5. You’ve earned next to nothing picking an entire damn bin of fruit.

6. A 5 hour car journey is no longer considered “long distance”.

7. You’re ruined by sunsets. Not much will beat this!

8. You’ve started saying “how you going?” and “no worries mate” (or even “no wozzas”!) in every day conversation.

9. “smoko” “servo” “arvo” “bottle-O”

10. You really don’t expect hostels to be great. (But it’s a nice surprise when they are!)

11. You’ve played goon pong. A lot. In fact, you’re becoming a master.

12. You’ve lived off 85c bread, 65c pasta, and rice/noodles.

13. You’ve shopped at Cotton On, Factorie and JayJays at least once. And The Reject Shop!

14. You’ve eaten more Domino’s than you care to admit because duh, $5 pizzas!

15. It’s not McDonald’s. It’s Maccas.

16. And Hungry Jack’s, not Burger King.

17. You’ve been skint at least once.

18. You prefer either Sydney or Melbourne.

19. You’ve completely changed your plans at least once.

20. You fell for the drop bear myth – and then convinced someone else!

21. You’ve made lots of use of the free barbecues!

22. You own a blue cool bag from Woolworths or Coles. Or maybe even Aldi.

23. You still don’t understand the rounding up/down of money.

24. And why are $2 coins so much smaller than $1?!? And then 20c are bigger?!

25. You’ve become desensitised to batshit crazy TV adverts.

26. You’ve been converted to Tim Tams. They really are better than Penguins!

27. You’ve slept above or below a stranger in a bunk bed.

28. But then become friends with them.

29. You know loads about farm work now even if you were never interested in doing it.

30. You’ve opened up to jobs you never thought you’d do.

31. You’ve seen a venomous spider – and survived!

32. In fact, you’ve seen massive non-venomous spiders which you find scarier, and survived. (But only just!)

33. You have a preference between Coles and Woolies.

34. But never choose IGA.

35. You have gone to Maccas just to use their wifi.

36. You know the complete hell of a “goonover”.

37. But Passion Pop equals a more sophisticated evening. (And beer is REALLY luxury!)

38. Indonesia is now on your travel list even if it wasn’t somewhere you’d ever considered.

39. And Fiji.

40. You are worried about leaving the country with your (newly) liberal use of the C word.

41. PayWave is the best invention ever (but back home you think it’s unsecure).

42. You’ve made friends with at least one (or ten) German(s). And Brits for that matter.

43. There will always be at least one crazy experience where you go, “remember when THAT happened in Australia?!”

44. Even after all this time, you still like seeing kangaroos – but preferably not up close while driving.

45. You’ve spent entire days of your trip waiting for the lights to change so you can cross the road.

46. And then when it starts beeping, it’s like a military emergency to get across as quickly as you can.

47. Especially on junctions where you really can’t understand why cars can turn left into your path while crossing.

48. You get confused when it rains.

49. When (or if) you leave Australia, you have a lot of friends to visit around the world.

50. After everything, through good times and bad, you’ve made a hell of a lot of great memories and you wouldn’t change a thing!