After all that time abroad, I would challenge your claim to an increased feeling of Australian-ness. Living in New York (lucky you), I suggest that you might now have more American in you than Aussie. This is not a criticism, merely an observation: I see no disloyalty in adopting the modes and habits of the country in which you choose to live. Certainly I applaud your professional approach - Australians, by and large, are welcome workers in UK & USA, for the reasons you present.
As it is, I trust you won't be disappointed when you return to live in your country of birth.

Objectively, I suppose there is nothing wrong with writing 750 words of fulsome self-congratulation. But for some reason I find it tacky.

The tired stereotyping, the massive generalizations, they're all there.

"We don't have the chips on our shoulders of the British or the precocious confidence of Americans"

The fault-lines in the argument are also present, but blithely ignored.

"As a national character, we are doers, sleeves-roller-up-ers, getters-on-with-it. And this seems to be particularly so of those of us who choose to spend our careers overseas."

Or, as an entirely credible alternative, it is the "doers, sleeves-roller-up-ers, getters-on-with-it" who head off overseas, in order to gain fulfilment and appropriate reward from their work. The "national characteristic" in evidence would then be pragmatism, would it not.

And I'm sorry, this is simply naive:

"We tend to know more about the rest of the world than the people of larger nations"

I think the author might mean "the rest of the world knows comparatively little about Australia". A cursory glance at the Australian television news would tell her that we are equally as insular as WCBS Channel 2.

http://ten.com.au/ten-news-sydney.htm

The International News segment consisted (at the time of writing) of "Rudd Heads Home", "Bali Prison Riot" (because it houses Australian prisoners) and "Whitney Farewelled"

I think that we can conclude that distance does indeed lend enchantment.

Whoa there Pericles...if you;re not careful you'll be be accused of being un-Australian (whatever that actually means)

Thanks Kate,

I just e-mailed a copy of this to my 26 year old Electrical Engineer son who has become completely disillusion with our workplace stupidities, labor's political madness and our media's insanity.

I just wish he'd go make a home somewhere more sensible.

My son is the first in our family, as far as I can discover, to study for a university degree. He's also studying Electrical Engineering and is in his third year in 2012. He'll be 20 this April. To my way of thinking this is the profession of the future and I believe it will be the same for his son as well.

I've impressed upon him the value of working overseas, making connections, partaking of all that his younger years can absorb before he settles down.

I had similar opportunities when I was young and used my experience as a model for him to use as he chooses. During the 60s Australians were admired universally, but especially in S.E.Asia where just about everyone I met had some relative studying at an Australian university under the Colombo Plan. I recall vividly in Bangkok being befriended by two Thai Army officers [I remember their names still] who guided a mate and I through aspects of Thai hospitality and culture not experienced by the average tourist.

Being an Australian in those days opened doors and pathways with surpassing ease in the US, UK and Europe as well.

The value of worldwide work and travel cannot be overestimated. There can be no doubt that one becomes a better person the wider one's experiences.

I'm in the throes of retiring to S.E.Asia as I write this, where I can indulge my deep interest in the history and maybe write a little.

I distrust all generalisations about specific populations. You write: " And this seems to be particularly so of those of us who choose to spend our careers overseas. We're sacrificing family, sun and surf so we want to make sure we are getting the most of the opportunities of wherever we are as compensation. " Exactly, you describe a specific personality type. Every country has those types and they're always welcome, but to suggest all Australians are like that is silly. Australians are no better or worse than other humans. I well remember in London in 1963, being told by employers that they loved New Zealanders, but didn't like employing Australians because they were unreliable, didn't take the work seriously, and drank and partied too much.