“Thong” originally just meant a thin strap. So sandals with a thin strap between your toes are thong sandals. Swimsuits/underwear with a thin strap between your cheeks are thong swimsuits/underwear.

On top of what’s already been said:

plus bizarre slang

I can’t think of a single dialect which doesn’t have that.

I always liked the way it sounds. I prefer it over British English. Also, I love the word cunt.

Gaol is just the old way of spelling jail, the US also used to use the same spelling. It’s pretty rare I see the spelling in modern use today, even if we kept it longer than most (until the 60s officially). Americans shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses though, considering their large number of strange and unique spellings of common words compared to the rest of the English speaking world. A little part of me dies inside every time my spellcheck incorrectly changes “colour” to be spelt as “color”. Likewise, I’d like to point out that the term thong referred to footwear well before G-strings were invented.

I’m not actually convinced most Americans even know what true Aussie accents sound like. Most imitations are poor attempts at the Broad accent caricatured in American movies, even though most people speak with the General accent. My friends who speak with Cultivated are even assumed to be British.

No weirder than any other accent, TBH.

From a US-centric POV, I always thought the stereotypical Aussie accent kind of sounded like a Texas-ification of the “standard” UK accent. Including the use of wacky phrases and slang.

it sounds like an Australian accent. there are tons of accents that have their own history and context. it’s shitty to call them weird, bizarre, or bastardized and makes you seem narrowminded.

I mean, every dialect is just a bastardised version of an older dialect, including your own.

All the things you mention are a thing in all three dialects lol. Gaol is just the archaic spelling, thongs does also mean flip-flops, and cunt is more and more socially acceptable in both the US & UK, though nowhere near the casual usage in AUS.

Gaol is pronounced as jail in all dialects of English. If you’ve been pronouncing it gay-ol then I have some bad news for you.

It’s hilarious when they say “1999”. It sounds like NOINEENOINEENOIN!

I usually assume Australians are British. When the accent is not super think, it can be hard to hear the difference.

“Thong” is also a word for flip-flops in English (US), but I don’t think the younger generations use it.

I feel like I’m witnessing a cliche here; an American discovering that other countries exist. Wait until they realise America isn’t the centre of the universe.

I think they sound silly sure, but I generally like them so it’s not in a mean way, just a “yeah these friends sound silly talking about their bin chickens, multiple marsupials, and such”