The Obvious Way Australia Makes Up For Lack Of Night Life

Even though we are the nation who invented Schoolies Week, Australia is often noted for a distinct lack of night life. I don’t know how many other countries there are where the largest city had to start a community movement to unsuccessfully stop a 1:30am lockout from CBD venues (minus the casino, one of the most violent venues in the city) but I’m not going to Google it. It’s depressing. Too many people I know missed out on clubbing in Sydney due to the controversial lock out laws which led to the closure and sale of many of the harbour cities most iconic venues. Not only was our nightlife questionable to begin with, the NSW government was now actively battling against it.

Although older ute-driving types who did ten grams of coke off Chrissy Amphlett’s head when she was opening for ‘The Chisel’ in ‘The Cross’ will tell you that Sydney used to be a party place, many international travellers seem to note that Australia has always had a pretty chill approach when it comes to night life. More specifically, we don’t have much of a ‘night culture’. And to be fair, I get it.

When I’m travelling I’m always a little blown away by just how late some cities seem to stay up. In Europe, late nights aren’t just for weekends, tables full of locals crowd venues in numbers that rival the tourists. Sometimes when I’m out in Italy, I go for that extra negroni, not because I want to get drunk but because it’s novel for me to get one at 11pm on a Tuesday and negronis are delicious. I sip it and I think about what a treat this whole experience is. Perhaps I even wonder why my home country lacks this night culture.

Then my friend Amanda (originally from the USA) pointed out why and it all seemed so obvious to me; Australia has a morning culture.

Please hold all dad jokes about ‘morning culture’ being a way to say hi to someone called culture.

Why do I think Australia has morning culture? Because it’s everywhere, we’re just so used to it we don’t see it.

Did it annoy you before when I mentioned overseas visitors critique our lack of night life? Well think about all the times you winged about coffee while abroad. That’s how used to coming from a morning culture you are, you’ve come to expect the best at the earliest time.

Morning culture is freshly ground coffee, big breakies, surfers watching the waves, pre-work yoga, something pricey on toast, bumping into people you know and rehashing a bit of banter someone used on you yesterday. It’s taking some time to relax before you begin your day. And in the inverse of it’s dark nightly sibling, morning culture isn’t just for the weekdays, it’s for weekends too.

Is morning culture these chilli eggs from Two Sisters Garage?

Australia is one of the first countries to start the day and boy do we like to make it last, even if we’ve slept in. That’s why in any town you could ever visit they serve coffee until 3 o’clock and breakfast all day. It’s why day drinking in beer gardens and verandas is so bloody lovely. Although she’s cancerous, sometimes we don’t want that gorgeous sun to say good bye and why we retreat into our shells in the months she’s not around as much.

When the sun has set, some of us choose to go out and booze up until we’re prematurely kicked out of the venue. We go home, we kick-on and we wake up with a cranky head. Then, we unknowingly celebrate our morning culture by and heading out for a big breakfast to piece together the night with our favourite people.

Is Australian morning culture this double rainbow over a caravan park?

I am aware Australians didn’t invent cafes and day drinking however, I think the different way we do it just backs up my point. Korea for example has an awesome cafe culture but they mostly serve sweets and have an average opening time of 11am. 11AM! Most of us are three coffees with an extra shot deep by 11am. While Korean cafes are opening at 11am, French cafes are kicking out the breakfast menu and showing guests an all lunch menu. 11AM! What kind of crime against Middle Earth breakfast laws is this?

Cafes aren’t the only part of Australian morning culture but its where I believe you can see it the best. Unlike Italian espresso bars, people aren’t using their coffee as an excuse to rush. It’s an almost meditative time to chill out a little bit before we spend the whole day doing the things we’d rather not. Maybe that’s why everyone thinks Aussies are so chill?

Is Australian morning culture this cockatoo eating a muesli bar?

Now you might think morning culture isn’t as fun as a night culture and maybe for the time of your life you’re in right now, it isn’t. In no way am I saying day culture is better than night culture or that overpriced Vegemite sour dough is in any way compensation for the destruction of city’s ability to be interesting after sunset. And I’m not suggesting you can only have one or the other, plenty of places have both day and night culture. What I would like to leave you with is simply an appreciation for that first part of the day with all of it’s unique and overlooked quirks, charms and spirit.