Australia and South Africa: What is the difference?

[Vasag]

Is it even worth the mental effort to try to differentiate between these two identical former British Colonial state countries? Both are hot, arid, and speak strange English. If there are difference, is worth the time to acknowledge them or should one do better things with their time?

[Tooting Carmen]

The legacy of Apartheid and very different racial compositions, for starters.

[Creoda]

Ask ChatGPT.

[Alenka]

Australia has 90%+ whites, South Africa has 8.4% whites.

[Tooting Carmen]

Australia has 90%+ whites

More like 80%.

[Loki]

Australia has 90%+ whites, South Africa has 8.4% whites.

Yes, that is the main difference: demographics.

Having said that, these days I prefer the SA government to the Australian one, which is beginning to look more like the draconian EU or US. More freedom for the individual in South Africa. Also, in foreign policy SA is ahead of Australia, in my opinion.

[Victor]

Lots of white South Africans play in Russian rugby clubs.

[Loki]

Both are hot and arid, but South Africa and Australia have vastly different wildlife. Whilst Australia has unique marsupials like kangaroos, SA has the animals that made Africa famous, like lions, elephants, rhinos, antelopes and so on. SA is great for a safari holiday.

Both countries have lovely beaches, though.

[Creoda]

Yes, that is the main difference: demographics.

Having said that, these days I prefer the SA government to the Australian one, which is beginning to look more like the draconian EU or US. More freedom for the individual in South Africa. Also, in foreign policy SA is ahead of Australia, in my opinion.
:disapproving

[Alenka]

Yes, that is the main difference: demographics.

Having said that, these days I prefer the SA government to the Australian one, which is beginning to look more like the draconian EU or US. More freedom for the individual in South Africa. Also, in foreign policy SA is ahead of Australia, in my opinion.
Good point. I totally agree.

[Occiput in Starlight]

Wilbur Smith depicted the British and the Dutch in southern Africa - from 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck established a supply camp at Table Bay, to the 1980s and newly independent Zimbabwe.

Australians can be modeled as halfway distant between Smith's two depictions.

[Hellenas]

Australia is better.

[Occiput in Starlight]

Smith's protagonists are all ethnic British southern Africans, but his greatest characters are Boers!