7 Aussie Sayings and Australian Drinks Lingo Heard in Melbourne
I lived and worked in Melbourne for 7 months on a Working Holiday Visa and one of my favourite things to do was get to know what Aussie sayings meant and learn the Australian drinks lingo.
Working as a waitress in Melbourne CBD and mainly serving Aussie customers, I had no idea what they were saying with their Aussie phrases and accent. I slowly learned the meanings through getting the gist or directly asking or in some cases getting it completely wrong and being a classic pohmmie*. Here are some of my faves!
*Pohmmie is Aussie slang (or Australian slang insults) for British people.
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7 Aussie Sayings Heard in Melbourne
Contents (jump to)
Here are the best Aussie phrases I heard around Melbourne before I had to return to Wales in March 2020 and some stereotypical Australian sayings at the end.
1. How ya going
Is it a question? Is it a greeting? Locals always seem to know and foreigners like me either answer them wrong or actually ask them is that a genuine question or slang for hello?! (I only asked my colleague who was a born and bred Melburnian, not a customer. I’m a fab waitress) 😉
It’s a mixture of both really, quite like the way we say ‘alri’ in Wales. So on arrival in a Melbourne restaurant you’ll be greeted with a ‘how ya going’ in a polite way to say hi and welcome you to the venue.
2. Arvo
Arvo means afternoon so you’d hear ‘I’m off to the beach this arvo’. Not to be confused with Avo which is (surprise surprise, an abbreviated version of Avocado).
Other common abbreviations you’ll hear are words like Maccas for McDonalds (it’s actually named this on their app) and one of the best Aussie sayings of ‘Barbie’, which is the much-loved and treasure of Oz: barbecue!
Booking.com3. As
‘As’ is a word that comes at the end of everything. An exclamation mark if you will. When an Aussie likes something, it’s sweet as!
4. Too easy
Too easy is something I took ages to get my head around. Aussies would just say it in reply to all sorts and is kind of the same as them saying yes. I’d ask if they’d like more water and the reply would be ‘too easy’. I laugh thinking back on my encounters with these aussie expressions.
This is said as much as they say no worries mate.
I love this one because it’s the lexical definition of an Aussie and their landscape: laid back!
5. Good on ya
Well, more like ‘good onya’ in the typical Aussie accent. Good onya is a job well done and a saying in reaction to being told something. The British equivalent is good for you.
6. Yeah, nah
It it a yes or is it a no? Yeah, nah I don’t really no. But I think it ultimately means no just in a roundabout, polite-ish way.
7. Op shops
As well as the funny Australian sayings I heard in Melbourne, I also learned different names for all sorts like flip-flops are called thongs, ‘the bush’ is always about 2 hours inland from the city and in Melbourne they call a charity / second-hand store an ‘op shop’.
Related Post: 37 Things to Do For Melbourne Culture
Stereotypical Australian Phrases
G’day mate – One of the most famous australian sayings for hello
Sheila – Australian slang for girl
Barbie – Australians’ favourite pastime, a Barbecue
One of the most famous Australian sentences to say is probably ‘put some shrimp on the barbie’.
Bonus Australian Words
Lollies – Sweets
Mozzies – Mosquitos (ye, I didn’t think they were there either)
No Worries – It’s Okay
Runners – Trainers
Straya – Australia
Side note: if you haven’t got the gist yet, Australians abbreviate everything. When Coronavirus hit, I seen the most hilarious meme going around that perfectly summed up Melbourne phrases and culture:
A Post You’ll Love: 20 Phrases Only Heard in South Wales
Australian Drinks Lingo and Meanings
Coffee
We need to start with the most important thing to Melburnians (after AFL of course) and that is coffee. They sure do love their coffee and coffee made right! Spoiler alert: The coffee is always good in Melbourne. But it can be hard to figure out how to order and what to order.
Never, ever walk into a Melbourne coffee shop and say ‘can I have a coffee’. They will look at you with rolled eyes because they know you’re not from ’round these ends!
You need to figure out how much milk you want (if any), how you want your milk served (frothy or flat), which type of milk (skinny maybe), how strong you need it (3 shots perhaps), served in a glass or cup (cup is a mug btw) and finally, how sweet. Phew.
Australian Drinks Names for Kids
Slurpee – For $1 you can get a slurpee from the 7/11 which is sort of a slush-puppy in different flavours and you see kids loving them around Melbourne.
Raspberry – I had no idea what this was and thought it was another one of the Aussie sayings I’d have to learn. I’m used to squash for kids in restaurants and pubs in Wales. A raspberry is popular amongst the under 18 Melbourne population. It’s not as I thought, raspberry cordial with water, it’s (and this was apparently obvious that I was mocked for) raspberry cordial with lemonade.
Spider – So obvious when you see one but try having a customer order this from a fresh-off-the-plane Welsh girl. I acted like I knew and ran to my British manager who’d been living in Melbourne for years. He told me a kids drink I knew: it’s a coke float! If you also don’t know what coke float is, it’s coke with ice cream on top. Gross, I know.
LLB – Another day, another abbreviation: Lemon, Lime, Bitters. This drink is the most popular drink I heard in Melbourne and somehow this and a BLS (see next point) had alcohol in it but was a kids drink?! (It’s low percentage).
BLS – Bitters Lime Soda. Same as above. The bitters is the alcoholic bit.
Which brings us nicely to…
Alcoholic Aussie Drinks Names and Australian Drinks Lingo
CC and Dry – I could talk about a few different alcoholic beverages but there’s one in particular which stood out for me because every Melbourne local raved about either this or an Aperol Spritz at Christmas time (their summer). CC and Dry is Canadian Club whiskey with dry ginger.
Furphy – Furphy is a common beer found in Melbourne and it’s brewed nearby in Geelong (part of the same State, Victoria).
Pot – No such thing as half a pint, you have a pot which is around half the size of a pint.
Schooner – This one got me. It’s half way between a Pot and a Pint. So a 3/4 Pint of some Australian drinks name.
Oh, and if you have a beer and lime for your Australian beverage, it’s always fresh lime and never cordial. Fresher, to be fair.
Esky – A cool box that you definitely need in the Summer to keep them beers cold for your Christmas barbie!
Slab – A crate of beer bottles.
While in a pub or beer garden, you’ll probably hear the word ‘dart’ or ‘tailor’ which is short for ‘tailor-made’ and all are slang for a cigarette.
Oh, and Australian drinks are bought from bottle shops or bottle-o’s. Alcohol isn’t served in corner shops or supermarkets, it has to be in a separate area and stopped after a certain time.
Also, did you know that to serve alcohol in the State of Victoria in Australia you need to get an RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) certificate and costs $60 before you even think of getting a bar or waitress job.
Lastly, something I couldn’t find anywhere in Melbourne was squash as we know it. No Robinsons. Ribena was all I found.
I miss Melbourne bad going over these words and saying them in my head the way the Aussies do but had lots of fun writing it!
Thanks for reading my guide to Aussie Drinks and Aussie Sayings!
Here’s Some Aussie Posts For Ya:
- My First Month in Melbourne: Travel Journal
- Road Trip Itinerary For The Great Ocean Road
- 20 Quirky Places to Eat in Melbourne
- How to Get A Working Holiday Visa For Australia
- Moving to Melbourne on a WHV Guide
- What to Do in South Yarra, Melbourne Suburb
- 1 Day in St Kilda, Melbourne Suburb
- What Can $30 Get You at an Asian Street Food Market in Melbs?
- Street Art Guide For Melbourne
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I didn’t know aussies metered out their beer so specifically. Figured they just drank pints of everything. Lol.
Same I was shocked at their different options!
“Too easy mate” or “Too funny” were some expressions I’ve picked up a lot. I also spend my first lockdown with a host family and they used to have quite the road rage vocabulary. Haha, personally I prefer the British accent but it’s funny that Australians shorten everything. At one point I even saw a Covid lingo. “Sanny” or “iso” “The rona brought out all the pagpies”.
Carolin | Solo Travel Story
Yep I left Australia in March 2020 and already the Covid slang was coming in!
This is great! Have always been an American fan of “how ya goin’?” So cool. And great to see I’d have no problem ordering coffee. Black, usually. ☺️
Is it the same as ordering coffee in the States?
Great I love this i had to learn so many of these also I lived I Australian for 12 years
Great what part of Oz?
I loved reading the local slang – avro – would never have guessed that would mean afternoon! I now think that Aussie’s must have the most amount of words that actually mean something different. A clear indication of being a local would being able to remember them all!
Definitely Renee. And Arvo is so close to Avo (meaning avacado)
Haha I love learning the local slang! I’ve heard of thongs for flip flops, but my other favorite on the list would have to be op shops! Sounds so fun haha
I agree Pam and I was so confused at first but quickly got the hang haha
I love learning new lingo when I go somewhere new but Aussie slang really is something else. When I visited I remember being so confused by schooner when I asked for a beer, and the explanation didn’t help much either. I have a couple of Australian friends now and slowly learning some of the more common words but every now and again I find one that just makes me shake my head and laugh a bit. So much fun learning them all
I was in the same boat as you Emma! The schooner is still an odd one for me to grasp but I actually think it’s great, not too much and not too less haha.
This was a great fun read. I knew many of them from my Ozzie friends but there were some real off-beat ones here – the “too easy” one was the weirdest for me, as it just didn’t make sense.. I shall remember this post if I ever get to Melbourne. The one I would have most difficulty with is asking for coffee – all the combinations would send my head spiralling, I just like it plain with milk, no sugar.
Thanks Barry. Yes the coffee culture is very important in Melbourne and they take ordering very serious and took me a while to catch on. I have become an Espresso girl lately.
Very interesting reading this and it was great fun as my mind read all these with an Australian accent! Thanks for sharing!
Haha it makes it so much better with the Aussie accent. I love their lingo.
Super cute post! I love learning local lingo/slang – and hearing it in my head with an Australian accent is fun.
Hi Peggy, I totally agree and I had fun writing this post!
What a fun post! I knew a lot of these but some were unfamiliar. The drinks lingo, especially for the beer, was totally new to me so I now have a handy guide for when ordering booze! Very much enjoyed this – good on ya!
Haha thanks Mitch. It was such a fun post to write and I always loved learning the lingo while living there.
Love reading your memories you have a lovely way of explaining everything and amusing 👍keep writing