Russell Crowe is a New Zilander, not an Aussie. Don't blame us!

You won't find Crowe in the convict list as he was born in New Zealand and merely lives in Australia between phone-throwing incidents. Neither are you likely to find Miss Minogue as her mother is Welsh. I don't know much about Ms Greer's ancestry so I can't comment but many other famous Australians are in fact British-born.

A few that spring to mind are popular beat combo AC/DC (Glasgow), recently dead singer Billy Thorpe (Manchester), actor Hugo Weaving (Nigeria of English parents), actress Naomi Watts (Shoreham), singer John Farnham (Dagenham), falsetto-voiced disco boys The Bee Gees (Isle of Man), singer Olivia Newton-John (Cambridge). The list is much longer but perhaps the most important is actor Tom Oliver aka Lou Carpenter (Hampshire) in Neighbours.

Which reminds me of the time when NZ was experiencing some net emigration to Australia, the then PM said that it was OK as it was raising the average IQ in both countries.

Yes, Crowe was born in NZ but perhaps, like me, he has the misfortune to have an ancestor who was first sent out to Oz thanks to the British judiciary. (A gr-grandson decided enough was enough and headed across the Tasman in 1864.)

;)

QUOTE/

Aus v NZ

By Dax Farrer

Posted Thursday 26th July 2007 13:33 GMT

Which reminds me of the time when NZ was experiencing some net emigration to Australia, the then PM said that it was OK as it was raising the average IQ in both countries.

/QUOTE

ROFL

Too Funny! Do you mind if I add this to my Quote Collection?

S

Just because some of the above people were born in NZ doesn't automatically make them exempt from what the article was saying - people sent out to Australia in the first half of the 1800s may well find that two generations down the line, the family moves to New Zealand, for example...

It seems there is another IT angle to this story - a chip. The large one that appears to be resting on the shoulders of some of our Antipodean cousins ;p

Easy mistake to make if you read the Australian press:

Australian actor Russel Crowe nominated for Oscar.

New Zealand actor Russel Crowe involved in brawl

Australian actor Russel Crowe Wins Oscar

New Zealand actor Russel Crowe throws telephone at hotel employee

etc.

Actually, that still doesn't discount the possibility of convict ancestry as there were returnees and (as the survey points out) there is a 1 in 30 chance of convict ancestry back here in blighty.

As the great Al Murray says, if he finds an Aussie in the audience, "Ah, returning to the scene of the crime then"!

"Just because some of the above people were born in NZ doesn't automatically make them exempt from what the article was saying - people sent out to Australia in the first half of the 1800s may well find that two generations down the line, the family moves to New Zealand, for example..."

Oi, I resemble that comment. Great Great Great Great... grandad deported for attending a Union meeting. And here I am, who was an elected executive member of a union myself :D

A few years after finishing his term in Van daimens land, my ancestor upped and shifted to NZ to get away from those colonial degenerates infesting Aussie :D

Why all the moaning, they had a free cruise, none of the are you a qualified plumber----------