The dunny continued...

Yesterday, in my post The dunny, I began pointing out the differences between your average Australian public toilet and your average American public restroom. Now my journey into the depths of the cultural differences continues...

The second thing I was struck by when I first came to Australia was just how clean their public toilets are. There aren't scraps of toilet paper lying around on the floors. The floors actually look like they've been cleaned recently. In most female toilet stalls there are neat little bins for your sanitary items (in some cases they are automated and don't even require you to touch them--just wave your hand over the top and they open as if by magic).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all public restrooms in the USA are dirty, scary places, I'm just saying that on the whole, Australians maintain a higher standard. This is particularly true when it comes to places like petrol stations or parks. In the USA, I'd really need to use the toilet in an urgent manner if I were to set foot in the bathroom of a gas station or in a public park. In my experience, these are some of the worst restrooms you come across. They often lack in cleanliness and there may or may not be the necessary items present--ie toilet paper or hand soap. I'd classify these as 'go at your own risk' sort of places.

When I first found myself needing to use a public toilet in a park here in Australia, I shuddered to think what I'd find inside the toilet blocks. When I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find a very clean restroom with all the required items. The taps were all functioning and there wasn't rubbish strewn around inside. It was a positive experience.

Now, I have thought considerably about why public restrooms in Australia are cleaner than those in the USA and I have a few theories. The first comes down to population density and traffic. I think that most public toilets in Australia probably get a lot less traffic than their US counterparts. This is because there is hardly anyone here in Australia. With a population of approximately 20 million, you often struggle to find a crowd of people anywhere!

Having said that, I do think that perhaps the expectations of a clean public restroom here are slightly higher and hence the standard is higher. It's all about what you are used to I suppose. As I said, my experiences in certain public toilets in the USA led me to expect all such places to be of questionable cleanliness. Even now after living in Australia, I find it hard to shake these expectations. If I had grown up here in Australia though, I think I would simply expect these public toilets to be as clean as any others.

So this has made me wonder what Australians must think of American public toilets. Anyone care to share their experiences? I'll poll the Handsome Australian and see what he thinks. In the meantime, feel free to comment!

The dunny

As luck would have it, the Handsome Australian and I were able to get away for an evening recently to enjoy a night out on the town sans the children. We had a cosy dinner at a historic hotel and then met some friends for drinks at a funky little bar in the city. You know what I was thinking about the whole evening? The toilet...well, not the whole evening, but it did cross my mind a few times.

As I made a quick visit to the Ladies' Room at the restaurant where we were dining, I thought for a moment about how different Australian bathrooms are to the ones you'd find in the USA. I mean, they aren't dramatically different--all the basic fixtures are the same, but the feel and finish of these rooms is different.

For starters, take the doors of the bathroom stalls in a public restroom (or public toilet as the Aussies would say), in the USA these doors are often three quarters of the way to the floor with large gaps on the sides where the hinges are. When you are in one of these stalls going about your business, you can often see out and see people that are passing by. Not a great deal of privacy when you come to think about it. I do remember when I first arrived in Australia, I was struck by the solidity of the doors on the stalls in the public restrooms--they went all the way to the floor and there were no gaps on the sides where the hinges are.

Before coming to Australia, I never considered the short doors or large side gaps in the American toilet blocks--I was simply used to them. Now that I've lived in Australia for so long, it strikes me as strange that American toilet stalls have to have such dodgy doors on them. I mean, seriously, what does it say about us if we can't hang a door properly? The true irony of the situation is Americans are generally more socially conservative than Australians, yet they are happy to use toilets where any Tom, Dick or Harry walking past can take a peep inside their stall and see what they are up to.

And what about those tiny toddlers that are on the loose in the bathrooms sometimes peeking underneath your stall door? In Australia, those kids have to amuse themselves with the hand dryers or the taps while their Mums go about their business because the full length doors on the stalls don't allow for peeping by little people. Score another point in the Australian column!

The doors aren't the only difference between Australian toilets and American restrooms...

Check back tomorrow for more philosophical observations on the good old Aussie dunny!

Learn the Lingo
dunny = toilet
toilet = the room where the toilet is (may or may not be the bathroom--toilets are often in a separate room from the bath, shower, sink, etc)
public toilet = public restroom
taps = faucets
Mums = Moms