Save this article for later<\/p>\n
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n
Got it<\/p>\n
AAA<\/p>\n
I was standing outside the Australian High Commission in London last May, volunteering during the federal election, when the question came, as I knew it would, from a fellow expatriate. \u201cWhat part of Australia are you from? You have a broad accent.\u201d Then, a weird look.<\/p>\n
Recently, actor Margot Robbie, who was born in Dalby, Queensland \u2013 and stars in a screen adaptation of the English classic Wuthering Heights<\/a>, currently playing in cinemas \u2013 revealed to The Graham Norton Show she had needed a dialect coach back when she appeared on Neighbours, as her accent was so strong. \u201cThey [the producers] were like, \u2018You\u2019re just awful to listen to,\u2019\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n For nearly three decades, I\u2019ve endured questions and taunts about my voice. I date this back to the emergence of a certain flame-haired fish-and-chip shop proprietor turned MP from Queensland. It was after Pauline Hanson came on the political scene that I began being singled out for my ocker twang, firstly by a boy in year 11. Ever since, many have asked me to \u201cplease explain\u201d why I sound like I do. Not that I think I owe them an explanation.<\/p>\n I\u2019m from northern NSW. My mother is Canadian, but to this day, after living in Australia for about 40 years, she is asked: \u201cWhat part of America are you from?\u201d My father is from Sydney, and I suppose you\u2019d say he has a more normal, professional-sounding voice.<\/p>\n When I moved from the country to Sydney in the late \u201990s, comments about my tone became more common, particularly during my first few years there. I started doing community television. But I was later told that the main presenter, an elderly Australian woman, couldn\u2019t stand the sound of me and I\u2019d have to go for elocution lessons before I was allowed on air again. I gave up after a few lessons. Why did it matter if I didn\u2019t sound like I came from Sydney or Melbourne? Were these the only places that existed in our country?<\/p>\n Related Article It got worse when I started working. As soon as I opened my mouth one day, a colleague asked, ever-so tactfully: \u201cHave you just come down from Queensland?\u201d A male sports reporter told me in front of the male sports editor that I spoke like a certain sitting MP. Later, we all heard her, when she made history as our first female prime minister. She sounded just like me, while speaking on the world stage.<\/p>\n Repeatedly, by friends as well as strangers, I was asked to say \u201clook at moi\u201d, as did TV \u201cbogans\u201d Kath and Kim. Looking back, I wish I\u2019d told them what my famous namesake Aimee Lou Wood<\/a>, star of the White Lotus series \u2013 who was once mocked for something else personal, her teeth \u2013 said to an interviewer last year: \u201cCool, and now I want to stop f—ing talking about it.\u201d Instead, I always went along with it, even though I wondered why how I sounded mattered so much. Australia was supposed to be a diverse, classless society. And wasn\u2019t what I was saying more important?<\/p>\n When I moved to the UK in 2007, though, I soon realised my accent was my best weapon. It came in handy as a doorstopping reporter in London. It literally opened doors for me. Sounding like the Australian version of a \u201cchav\u201d was disarming. When I met people, they not only leant in, some told me they liked the sound of me. While working on one newspaper, I took a call from its proprietor, the Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He didn\u2019t mention my accent, but it seemed it was doing me no harm.<\/p>\n After living in Africa for several years and brief stints in Asia and Canada, my accent has softened. But I\u2019m glad I haven\u2019t lost all trace of it, especially since taking up comedy last year. With One Nation on the rise, I suppose my accent might be mistaken for parody. But I\u2019ve decided, after all the years of being laughed at, I\u2019ll be the one making the joke. I\u2019ve used it in stand-up sets. I\u2019ve finally found my voice.<\/p>\n Amy Fallon is a journalist and media consultant.<\/p>\n Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Margot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f4610d380da3bebca523444ac8468840c082dac7.jpeg\")
Margot Robbie in a scene from Neighbours in 2009.\u00a0FremantleMedia<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/248940405ecae6c58f57c40d98d63ffb758016c6c7b07bca4ef6ce0f649d4aa5.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Gina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/a6aca1beab9c98e86879e2c88c384995a6c01528.jpeg\")
Gina Riley (left) and Jane Turner in Kath & Kim.ABC<\/p>\n