Where expats party on Australia Day

Australia's flag will fly high in London on Australia Day. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

JAYKE Mangion first saw the trend four years ago, about the time he opened his first eatery.

The Melbourne-born advertising agent arrived in London eight years earlier and celebrated Australia Day much like any other young bloke, usually about the loud Aussie-themed bars and nightspots at every corner of the British capital.

But then he opened Entrée restaurant in Battersea Rise and threw his own Australia Day celebration to tap into what he saw as a trend in an evolving demographic of Australians.

"I just noticed that people wanted to celebrate the day differently particularly here in south west London because there had been very much a shift from just backpackers to young professional Australians, some with young families," he said.

"Many were making their home here now and it's not like before, 15 people staying in one room and travelling about ... it's no longer about places like Earls Court and Shepherds Bush."

That change in the type of Australian visitor or traveller on a working visa could account for why Australian-themed bars in both those suburbs in London closed down in recent times as well as Australian bars in places like Acton, Wimbledon and Putney.

Waitress Lea Bingham, 27, setting up the Walkabout Bar in Temple, London for Australia Day. The venue capacity is 920 people and they expect to fill it this Sunday. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

There are 400,000 Australians living in Britain at any one time and while the demographics of the type of traveller wanting to live and work in the UK has changed their affection for Australia and desire to celebrate the national day remains as strong. They may assimilate with Britons for 364 days a year but come Australia Day, the national holiday is celebrated with enthusiasm and pride and an Australian beer or two.

Mangion says his two Rosette awarded restaurant has celebrated Australia Day since it opened and year-on-year has attracted growing crowds for Aussie-based breakfast and lunch menus complete with locally-sourced barramundi.

On the other side of London in Fitzrovia, Scott Wilson, owner of up-market nightspot Jetlag, has also seen a change. He has no direct connection to Australia, although says he stayed in Manly once, but saw and heard that Australians wanted to celebrate their national day but maybe more like they would back home.

He said his bar would show the AFL and NRL finals and Australians would come and tell him for Australia Day he should do this and that.

He took their advice.

"Last year on Australia Day we had the best day on the bar we ever had," he said. "We have a capacity of 160 and we stayed at capacity from about midday. People wanted to celebrate the day and this year I'm expecting we will be busier."

Lea Bingham, 27, setting up the Walkabout Bar in Temple, London for Australia Day. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Jetlag is celebrating the day with all-day screenings of Aussie flicks like Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom and Priscilla and later playing Triple J's Top 100. And to add to the charm staff will serve imported kangaroo steaks, king prawns and Pavolva.

"They just love all things Australian, that's all we do is everything Australia on that day and they just love it," Wilson said.

On the Thames River, up-market restaurant Vinopolis is advertising an Australian wine masterclass on the day. A manager said yesterday the tickets were selling well. Of course the Walkabout Australian-themed pub chain will also see their busiest weekend, particularly the chain's Temple bar based as it is near the Australian High Commission, a sort of rallying point for Aussie strays, which itself is holding a gala black tie Australia Day event. The original Covent Garden Walkabout closed last year which is expected to make the Temple Walkabout even more popular. The party there starts at 8am with beers and pies yesterday being brought in by the crate load.

Stocking up on beer ... Lea Bingham setting up the Walkabout Bar in Temple, London for Australia Day. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

"It is always a big day but does seem to get bigger and bigger," a spokeswoman said.

Many Australian expats will celebrate Australia Day at home. Many flags get flown outside the windows of terrace homes, particularly in south west London, akin to an Olympic Games village where foreign nationals proudly fly their national banners for pride and inspiration. The skies here are likely to be grey, the mercury unlikely to rise above 8C but there will be barbies - even if they will be more likely to have pork sausages rather than beef and small prawns imported from Honduras which supplies most of the supermarkets.

A spokeswoman for Barry Humphries aka Dame Edna could not say how the entertainer and his wife Lizzie Spender, who only became an Australian citizen officially last year, would see the day.

"I'm sure he will be if he could but he is on tour now," she said of Humphries, who last year on Australia Day was named Australian of the year in the UK.

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