Something we discovered Australians seems to like a lot is queuing up. It doesn’t matter where, in the supermarket, in front of the bathroom or in front of a pub. It also doesn’t matter how long the queue is, the normal Australian is content to queue up everywhere without any complaints.

That is in principle a very good thing. When I think of my bank branch in Austria, where the average Viennese bank customer can’t be taught to queue up in a line, they rather stand all together in a bunch and try to push themselves to the front of the line, it’s really annoying.

But the queuing habit of the Australians can go to far too. It almost seems that the Australians see a line and think by themselves, hmmm, there is a line, so let’s line up here - I don’t know why but just let’s do it.

Especially when it comes to going out at night. Australians know that they have to wait in front of each and every pub to get in the pub. I do understand that if you have to pay an entrance fee, there will be a line, because the paying process takes its time, but why on earth I shall queue to get into a normal pub is beyond my understanding.

Every local has a bouncer, even the pub around the corner. And almost every local set up ropes in front of the entry doors, so that everyone can queue up nice and properly. And there you are, the pub is half full, it’s freezy and the bouncer lets you in after you waited a certain amount of time.

Noone could really explain to me why this is like that. I would understand that if the local is full and the maximum amount of people is in the pub and only if someone comes out another one is allowed in, but in most cases the pub is far from being full. You just depend on the will of the bouncer. If he thinks now is the time you have waited long enough, he lets you in. And the only thing they check is if you are wearing the right type of shoes, that means no sport shoes. They are very fussy about that.