Do you know why Australia is often referred to as 'Down Under'??

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Richard K

Because thats the way they named things waaaaaay back in them there days...it was South of the Equator and "Down Under" all the other continents. AND it stuck ever since and will forever and ever. The Aussies seem to like the nickname, so they won't let us change it. God knows I tried, man did they take a strip offa me. They seem to be proud of it. LOL!!!

rhsaunders

Sure. If you look at a standard globe of the world, Australia is on the bottom half. Of course, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, and Antarctica are there too, but Australia is the most important.

ardanienalmondite

It's really a result of people's perception of the world based on maps, rather than a result of true physical location, because there is no up or down in space, the earth doesn't have a top or a bottom.

The most common world map design shows the northern hemisphere at the top and the southern hemisphere at the bottom. So Australia is considered to be at the "bottom" of the globe.

There are actually variants of the world map that are reversed and have the Southern Hemisphere on top and the Northern Hemisphere on the bottom, but this is not the widely accepted map style. Therefore, Australia is considered to be "down under."

punch

I don't suppose it has anything to do with it's position on earth?

epitome_ofsweet_misery

Because its in the southern hemisphere

Live_For_Today

That does not worry us Aussies in the slightest because it refers to a song " The Land From Down Under" that we played big time back to you Americans when we took the America's cup of you in the yacht race and we are very proud of it.

aussie5468

Because "Down Under" rolls off the tongue easier than "Really big island located a long way south of the equator"

Another American kn0bhead with half a brain............

pimpin bunny

because its on the southern hemisphere and its in the south well atleast thats my opinion