Australian expats carve out a life far from home
New York City may not look like Australia, but many Aussies have found a little bit of home in the metropolis
New York has long had its Chinatown, Little Italy, Spanish Harlem. More recently, it's also had a Little Australia.
The neighbourhood in lower Manhattan is home to a community of Australian expats who have started businesses and carved out a life thousands of kilometres from their rugged, beautiful land.
'I knew there would be some Australians when I came here but I didn't realise there were this many,' said Zack Perinoni, 29, a Melbourne native who moved to New York about four years ago. 'But I shouldn't have been surprised because they're ... everywhere.'
By some estimates, about 13,000 Aussies live in New York City, leaving their mark on blocks just north of Little Italy and south of the East Village.
The Tuck Shop - 'the great Aussie bite' - serves savoury meat pies and slices of lamington, or sponge cake; Bondi Road was named after a beach in Sydney.
The Sunburnt Cow offers burgers 'with the lot' - or everything you can imagine; and Ruby's caters to those with a hankering for a 'flat white', or espresso and milk.
At the popular restaurant Public, the dishes are straight from Down Under.
Less than a decade ago, it would have been harder to spot an Australian or hear their national chant, 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!'
'There was nothing here at all. No Australians. Nothing,' said Will Ford, who along with his brother Frank and a friend, opened Australian restaurant Eight Mile Creek in 1999.
'When we were first here, it was a very small ... community. There wasn't any place to connect,' said Frank.
That's not the case anymore. The brothers held a big party recently to celebrate Australia Day, which honours January 26, 1788, when British ships sailed into Sydney, creating the first permanent European settlement on the continent.
Australia's new foreign minister, Stephen Smith, talked about the relationship between the US and his homeland.
'It's a very strong alliance - an alliance which transcends changes in governments,' Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith arrived in New York shortly after the body of Australian actor Heath Ledger was found in his Manhattan apartment.
Ledger's January 22 death struck a chord in the expat community.
They had lost one of their own, said Nick Mathers, the owner of Ruby's, which is across the street from Eight Mile Creek.
Mr Mathers said people from his relatively small country had looked up to Ledger and other Australian actors like Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Eric Bana.
