Down Under on the up

Murdoch and Minogue - Australia touches all our lives

Australian leader John Howard is in London to mark 100 years of his country's constitution. Once Australia looked to its motherland for guidance. Now they are showing us the way. By BBC News Online's Megan Lane.

One hundred years ago, Australia threw off the colonial yoke and began forging its own identity on the world stage.

Today, Australians are playing a part in reshaping the culture of the former ruling power - Britons use words picked up from Australian films and TV programmes, drink wine from sunny Antipodean vineyards, and even embrace Rolf Harris as the nation's favourite artist.

Cultural force: Neighbours changed the way we speak

Not only do thousands of Australians flock to the UK each year to work as teachers, bartenders and accountants, young Britons travelling to the Antipodes return enamoured with all things Australian.

"The traditional image was of Australian backpackers congregating in Earl's Court [London], but now they end up all over the country," says an Australian High Commission spokesman.

"A lot of Australians are coming here with a new sort of confidence. Once they came because Britain was seen as the mother country."

'Wot's up, cobber?'

Like it or not, imported soap operas have Australianised the mother tongue to an extent.

Aussie-speak

Uni - university

Tinnies - cans of beer

Arvo - afternoon

Barbie - barbecue

Bonza - excellent, jolly good

Drongo - idiot or nobody

Dr Joan Beal, a senior lecturer in English at Newcastle University, says although Britons use few Australian words and phrases, those adopted crop up frequently in conversation.

"Take the word "uni" for university - now it's so widely used that when I tell people it's an Australian term, they don't believe me.

"Its spread is almost certainly down to television. Neighbours and Home and Away started here in the 1980s, when British soaps weren't as youth-orientated as they are now."

As more young people than ever before went on to higher education, "uni" came into common usage: "They needed a slang term for university."

Brits in Oz

33,000 young people on working holidays a year

550,000 tourists a year

1960s and 70s: 80,000 migrants a year

1990s: 8,000 migrants a year - 10% of total, second only to New Zealanders settling in Australia

Young Britons regard Australia in the same light as their parents once viewed the United States, she says.

"Amongst young people, it's considered cool to be Australian. The lifestyle is seen as appealing - there's the glamour of the surfing culture, the perception that the sun always shines over there."

Dr Beal in part puts the popularity of all things Australian down to the Australians themselves.

"It's becoming increasingly independent from Britain, and a world power in its own right.

"Australians are losing their cultural cringe. Once upon a time, the poshest Australians were the ones who sounded British - today a middle accent is the most prevalent."

Ozzies over here

At least 150,000 living in the UK

Many more arrive on British, Greek or Irish passports

700,000 tourists a year

Dr Beal - a die-hard rugby league fan - says the Antipodeans' sporting prowess is changing the culture of the game in the UK.

"All but one coach is Australian, and all the star players are Australian.

"There was a letter in Rugby League Express last week complaining that commentators are using Australian terms - saying 'field goal' instead of 'drop goal', 'bomb' instead of 'up and under'."

Cultural achievement

Dr Stephen Alomes, the senior lecturer in Australian Studies at Deakin University in Victoria, says the British myth that ideas and culture originate at the old imperial centre is out-of-date.

Cate Blanchett played England's Virgin Queen

"Shane Warne has provided copy for the tabloids; Germaine Greer and Clive James write copy for the broadsheets.

"Phillip Knightley and John Pilger are research journalists who look beyond everyday news. Patricia Hewitt in government, Geoffrey Robertson in civil liberties, bring new approaches."

Witness the surge of interest in Aboriginal art, and the success of entertainers as diverse as the opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland, the musician Nick Cave, and the actors Leo McKern and Cate Blanchett, he says.

Even the continent's gastronomic delights have come into increasing favour in the past decade.

Australian wines now account for 15% of the UK market. In Ireland, sales have grown about 32% a year since 1994.

This year, Jacobs Creek wines toppled Heineken beer out of the top 10 tipples in the UK for the first time, according to Checkout magazine.

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, in London for centenary celebrations this week, will surely charge his glass at the news.