Down Under is a colloquialism differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or the Pacific island countries of Oceania collectively.Oxford English Dictionary (Electronic), Version 4.0, entry for "down under". The dictionary records the first published use in 1886 by J. A. Froude in "Oceana" p. 92 "We were to bid adieu to the 'Australasian'…She had carried us safely down under." The term originally referred solely to Australia and gradually expanded in scope. It comes from the fact that Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore located "down" and "under" almost all other countries on the usual arrangement of a map or globe which places cardinal north at the top.New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD2), entry for "Down Under"
"Down Under" represents Australia's distance and isolation from the rest of the world. During Apollo 11 in 1969, the signal from the moon was received at NASA's Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra, so television in Australia broadcast the video slightly before the rest of the world. A television executive boasted that "Just for once we were not at the end of the line, our accustomed place 'down under'".
The term has been in use since the late 19th century, — page 19 for details of the specific ship SS Australasian (1884). The full sentence on page 92 is "She had safely carried us down under as the Square gardener put it to me afterwards in London, scarcely believing it could be a reality". and the persistence of the media use of the term has led to its wide acceptance and usage in reference to Australia.
According to American film critic Roger Ebert's tongue-in-cheek Glossary of Movie Terms, there exists an informal Down Under Rule:
Examples of use The Men at Work song "Down Under" became a patriotic rallying song for Australians. The Russian-Australian boxing champion Kostya Tszyu was nicknamed "The Thunder from Down Under", as is Australian snooker player Neil Robertson. When the then Miss Australia Jennifer Hawkins was crowned as Miss Universe 2004 in Quito, Ecuador, she was called by the same nickname by host Billy Bush.Miss Universe 2004 Crowning 3:00
The Tour Down Under is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and since 2009 has been the inaugural event of the UCI World Tour Ranking calendar, which culminates in the Giro di Lombardia. References
Further reading