We generally have no problems understanding each other as the "standard" language is largely identical. Australian spelling generally follows British English. We also generally use British English terms and not American ones (for example, we say "tap" and not "faucet"). This is a generally rule but there are a few exceptions where we use "American" terms..and some instances where we use our own rule (pretty rare). The occasional slang word is sometimes a source of confusion but this pretty rare due to the mass diffusion of British TV shows in Australia (there are hardly any Australian TV shows in existence...). With regards to the accent...there's definitely a distinct Australian "twang" which is more noticeable in certain vowels. They say Australian English is quite nasal-sounding. But perhaps to the "untrained ear" they are quite similar because I have on numerous occasions..been mistaken for a Brit (mainly by Northern Americans! and non-native speakers). British people can identify me as Australian as soon as a open my mouth....!

Yes, I agree with everything Adrian has said. Britain and Australia use the same spelling and almost all the same standard vocabulary, with very few exceptions. In most cases, if I saw a piece of written text about a neutral subject, it would be impossible for me to tell whether it came from an Australian or British source ie the standard written language is virtually identical. There are some slang and colloquial expressions that are different, we can almost always understand each other, having been exposed to each others' culture through TV and films. British people can always identify an Australian accent by the intonation and certain key vowel sounds, but other native speakers (such as people from the US and Canada) often can't tell the difference. As you probably know, we have many different accents within the British Isles, and in fact the standard accent from southern England is much closer to the Australian accent than it is to other British accents.Or in other words, Maria, I think that you would be able to hear the difference very clearly between the accents of someone from London and a someone from Liverpool (only a few hundred miles away) but you may not be able to hear the difference so easily between a London accent and an Australian one.

It differs in similar ways to how British and American English differ but we all understand each other easily enough. The main difference is pronunciation. There are also quite a few words and idioms that differ. Where British and American English words differ, Australians use the British version of some words, the American version for some words and their own Australian words for other words. There are also small differences in grammar but nothing particularly important. To put this into context, I am British and I often find Australian English easier to understand than the dialects of British English that are spoken in some parts of the UK! The wikipedia article on Australian English is quite good if you want more details.

They're similar enough that most Americans can't tell the difference between the two (which is why so-called "Australian" accents in American movies are really Boston accents), and when I was in the Netherlands, which has some of the most fluent non-native English speakers in the world, I was constantly mistaken for British. When I do a language exchange, people that have never heard an Australian speak before can generally understand me just fine (largely depending on the fluency of the person I'm speaking to) I often get told that I sound British. Australian accents ARE different from English ones, but I feel like Australian accents are generally much closer to Received Pronunciation than some accents within England. Accents don't vary as much within Australia as they do in other countries: speakers from big cities like Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin and Perth sound pretty much the same, but if you travel to rural areas you'll find that people speak with a much stronger 'twang'. In school we're taught to use British English grammar and spelling, and the Oxford Dictionary is the preferred dictionary here. There's an official Australian dictionary called the Macquarie Dictionary, but think the only times I've ever used that were in primary school. The grammar and vocabulary is pretty much the same as in England (everything I've ever written on italki is how I would normally speak), with some exceptions. Apart from news and game shows, our TV is overwhelmingly American and we've picked up a lot of American vocabulary, especially slang. There are lots of instances when we consider both the American and British versions of a word to be synonyms without realising that they're regional differences. Like any place, we also have our own slang.