'capital of australia' in War of the Worlds

The capacity/capabilityof some Aussies to play on the gullibility/ignorance of Americans is immense – someone in Sydney once told a visiting American friend that Kuringai Chase was where the Aboriginals chased kuringais – naturally she asked me what a ‘kuringai’ looked like. Like a koala maybe ?

MMORPG’s Cinimod ?

I’m active in some as well, it’s a hoot getting Yanks and Poms and the Colonies into the one conversation, it’s like putting Jamie Oliver, George Bush and you into a heated debate..

At least the Brits know what’s what. In the very first of the very oldest of the original Dr Who series the ABC screened last year, Canberra got a brief mention. We were negotiating with the Russians as I recall…

OpenYourMind,
Very true – I might try quizzing some kids on the USA (or Canada, etc) capitals and see if they say things like New York.
But it would still piss me off if someone not from Australia took issue with my saying our capital is Canberra.

Tidbinbilla is right next door, so Canberra is possibly understandable as a reference in that context (I assume you mean the astronaut bit).

I do recall a wonderful study done of American high school students grasp of geography. They were given a map of the world and asked to colour in the USA. A large proportion returned the map completely coloured in.

It kind of annoys me Canberrans expect Americans and others to know what the capital of Australia is and then they act all shocked when the guess is Sydney or Melbourne.

From what I’ve seen, these same people often have no knowledge of capital cities of other countries – even countries close by. Australia’s capital is a little tricky to a non-Australian. Other examples are Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, South Africa etc.

Not quite Hollywood but Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of War Of The Worlds has a NASA guy trying to get a response from Canberra at the end.

My friend in Denmark once lost a radio prize by answering ‘Canberra’ as the capital of Aust. The annmouncer assured her it was Sydney.

I just remembered a funny story – more horrific than these because they are from our own kind.

When I was about 8 I attended primary school in northampton (midwest WA 50 odd Km north of Geraldton – Australia).

We had this pop geology quiz and I think one question went along the lines of – ‘ What country starting with C is situated north of the USA and is a part of the North American continent’

My best friend knowing my origins proudly announced “Canberra”….

I attended an American School whilst living overseas and was gobsmacked by some of the things that were done and said. There was a kid of about thirteen at the school who couldn’t grasp the fact that south east asia was not part of the USA.

As for the perception of Australia and Canberra, they had absolutley no idea. The kids at the school couldn’t even have named an Australian city, let alone misinformed you of the capital! the teachers were only a mild improvement…

That being said many a luch break was wiled away telling tall tales of drop bears, hoop snakes and worst of all; bunyips! Worst of all, they believed every word.

Maybe in some bizarre way we the Aussies are responsible for this ignorance…

I doubt it though.