English in Australia is the result of settlement which began in the late 18th century in the south-east of the country. For this reason many features of Australian English are reminiscent of southern British English, much more so than with English in the New World which was settled considerably earlier, from the early 17th century onwards.

Australian English shows a shift of diphthongs down and back in phonological space when compared with RP. In this respect is it similar to Cockney English, e.g. tray would be [trɛi] rather than [trei]. What is also typical is a raising of short front vowels so that bad sounds like bed and bed like bid. This may well be a feature of late modern English which was taken to the Southern Hemisphere but discontinued in Britain.

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