Accents

There are very very few ways to tell what part of Australia someone comes from based on accent. Sure there is a country accent if anything, but its just a more quintessential Australian accent and its the slang that is more often the differentiator. That and things like beer sizes, what you call a potato cake/scallop, the type of football they follow can all direct you to what part of the country someone grew up in.

As Justin says there are some words that pop up but they vary a bit.

Potato cake and scallops is one. Drinking fountain and bubblers is apparently another. Schooners, pots, middies, ponies, glasses - the beer thing is odd. Even a 'pint' (which is far more common than it was a coupe of decades ago) - I swear some serve smaller US-sized pints and others British.

I get the impression the differences relate to NSW/Qsld versus the normal parts of Australia (excluding Tassie, they are even more odd).

I always thought Qslders used 'eh' alot but that could be wrong. Differences in accent are more likely to be class - bogan, upper, middle, rural (although the latter is not really a class, maybe a subset of classes) rather than geographic.

one lady I met was from BRISSIE sorta said HE ah instead of here as for aussie accent myself from city centre London UK most people I met assumed I was aussie cause of my cockney accent

In general terms, a bank teller, brickie's labourer, school teacher, or dentist in every state and territory city, sound identical to their counterparts elsewhere ... in other words, geography in itself is not a major factor, such as it is in the UK or USA. There are four other indicators that have more effect:

• socioeconomic background ... there is a distinct working-class "Australian" accent, reflected in the exaggerated speech of Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin, and there is a small cohort that exhibits a "toffy" form of speech, however the majority are between the extremes

• level of education tends to iron out a lot of differences, with most tertiary educated people exhibiting a standard received English style (that is still distinctly Australian of course)

• there are significant differences between city dwellers and country folk, and this difference can amplify (or be amplified by) the two factors above

• and heritage ... I think even after 2 or 3 generations here, the accents of children of NESB migrants remain slightly but recognisably different to those with Anglo Celtic ancestry, especially Greek, Italian, and Middle East, but less so for Asians.

So while the states and territories are generally the same, I can often pick a Queensland speakers as distinct to say a South Australian ... but I expect you need to be a native and a student of this stuff to be consistently accurate.

And finally there is Aboriginal Australian, which to the inexperienced ear can sound like a different language ... and to a significant extent it is, or at least is a genuine dialect. Australian English has been much influenced by Aboriginal speech, in my view.

There was what was known as " the Queensland drawl" when I lived there in the 70s. The further north you came from, the more the drawl.
I also worked with a Queensland girl back in about 1971 who wanted to buy good old sellotape. Newsagent sent her to the chemist. Chemist sent her back to the newsagent. Here in NZ, Durex does not stick down parcels.

Thanks for all the answers!

No worries, cobber ...

I was raised in Sydney, but many years ago lived in Adelaide where I knew some Kiwis. Although I couldn't hear it, they said I spoke differently to the locals. My brother moved to Queensland where he and his wife had children who grew up as Queenslanders. Some of the slang was totally different, as young schoolchildren, they would carry their "Ports" to school where they would have their mid-morning break, known as "Little Lunch".

Beer sizes/glass names and the type of footy you follow is an easy way to tell where you come from (even you could tell, Luca :) ). It is quite strange for a NSWelshman to visit QLD and see big boofy blokes drinking small beers.

I reckon you can always tell a South Australian accent because it has a lot in common with the Kiwi accent. And I was quite surprised when I went to Tasmania to find that they have a real drawl too, much like a QLDers.