This started 60 years ago when Yanks were not as familiar with us as they are now and our accents and yarns were novel. Before our conscript Army went to 'Nam my brother was among a contingent RAAF construction personnel seconded to the US building the Da Nang air-strip.
The Aussies could never buy a beer nor leave the boozer early because the Yanks wanted to hear the accents and yarns. The average American was unfamiliar with their own country so were ripe for the picking with tales of our own. Easy to imagine the drop-bear's elevation in folk lore. Bro says he did "see a shot fired in anger", the Yanks hated spiders in the tents.
