Yes Harry, it is second nature to us to drink lots of water. You can dehydrate very rapidly in this country.
Funny you mention the distances. Back when I worked and lived in Melbourne I called into the local pub for the usual quick drink on my way home from work and I met two backpackers from Scotland. I ended up staying and talking with them for a few hours, then because it was getting late I invited them both to stay at my place for the night and enjoy a good home cooked meal, Aussie style (BBQ'd huge steaks).
Anyway, they happily agreed, jumped in my car and off we went.
About 20 mins out of Melbourne the suburbs started to thin out and it was becoming more country town than suburbs, and then about 10 minutes before reaching the area I lived in (actually an outer suburb but they wouldn't have known that) they started yelling for me to pull over and let them out!!!
They were actually in panic mode!
I asked what's wrong, and they accused me of kidnapping them to murder them out on some quiet country road
I laughed, told them to sit tight, and at that moment the street lights of my suburb showed up and they calmed down a little bit, but they were still nervous, I could tell.
A few minutes later I pulled into my driveway.
In conversation once in my house they asked why I had travelled so far and do I only do it once a week and stay in Melbourne all week.
No, I said. I travel this every day, it's not far.
They said they didn't even travel that far for their holidays back in Scotland
Then they asked how many people live here. When I said just me and my wife they couldn't get their head around the fact that just her and I lived in a large brand new 4 bedroom home on a large block of land.
I told them that's fairly normal too.
They were completely dumbfounded that Aussies travel so far just to go to work every day and often even further just to visit friends, most nights.
Distance here is nothing. A common saying in Oz is 'just down the road' which usually means about 100 kilometres or more because to us that isn't far.
I chopped them up and hid their body parts in the bush the next day
Nah, I drove them back to Melbourne the next day in the daylight and they were still shocked at how far we travel at the drop of a hat