Do some Australians sound completely English?

[sparta]

Ok so I'm not sure if this is a thing. Do very well off/posh Australians basically sound English?

I got to know a girl whose family is all Australian, she lived all her life there but would Europe early. Her family are wealthy, think 3-4 houses; skiing, chalet, beach house etc. She sounds 100% English. I genuinely didn't believe her when she said she was from Sydney. She genuinely sounds like she's from southern England

I imagine so. My French lecturer at uni sounded completely British, as did a Dutch bloke I worked with and a Portuguese girl I shared a flat with, so if non native speakers can sound truly native, then go figure for an English speaker.

Weslth and class don’t go together in Australia. We also don’t have an upper class either so no equivalent of an RP. The rule is that the more educated/worldly/not descended ftom early settlers a person is the less they sound Australian and have more of a nuetrap accent/are likely to pick up an accent. They also have different baselines. Each city has its own accent and some sound fairly British. E.g. people from Adelaide pretty have an Essex accent.

So to put this into practice I am a first generation Australian (I.e. my parents are migrants) from Adelaide. When I spend some time in Australia I fall into an accent that sounds like an Essex accent. When I spend time in Britain I fall into RP.

I live abroad and I often get asked if I’m Australian.

What's "would Europe early"?

The Australian accent is meant to sound similar to a British one, it only doesn't to us because we're too used to hearing British accents. Possibly some sound more British than others?

There is some overlap I think. I agree with @bertiebotts, English people probably can't hear it but as I'm not English I hear that the vowel sounds are similar. However the intonation is completely different. Irish and Americans have overlap in their accents in the same way I think.

I thought somebody was Australian and they were from Nottingham.

In my experience, yes, some wealthy Aussies have very little recognisable accent

I'm an Australian and I'm often bemused by people who go to live in the UK for 12 -24 months and come back with a mostly British accent. It doesn't seem to take long to shed the Australian accent for a British one if that's something you want to do.

Like most places, accents tend to be more or less broad based on geography, education levels and socioeconomic factors. People who live in a multicultural environment are also more likely to smooth their own accents out and avoid slag to be more easily understood by the people around them.

I don't agree with PPs that people with early settler ancestors are more likely to have rough accents. I know judges, politicians etc who can claim that heritage.

If my DH goes back to visit relatives in rural Queensland, he comes back sounding like Crocodile Dundee!

However, in "Australia: Earth's Magic Kingdom", Dame Edna Everage sounds like Attenborough!

True it is all relative. Dame edna does not sound English but the mere absence of a very strong accent (in many english-speaking countries) is often labelled as 'sounding English'.

I get this. I do not sound English. I have no local accent though and this in itself seems to equal 'sounding English' to many.

My Australian accent has softened since being in the UK. I don't really love that and haven't deliberately tried to sound English. It was never very broad to start with - I have Aussie friends living here who sound as Australian as ever, because their accents to start with were very strong

There’s a slight crossover between RP and a particular type of neutral Australian accent that means that the speaker can flex both ways quite easily depending on who they are speaking to. My MIL and FIL are both like this.

I also notice it a lot in people who I know have an Australian spouse in the U.K., you can hear the tone come through an otherwise English accent.