It might be something like (zuy), I think. There's this fronting of /w/ in various diphthongs, where the /w/ or /U/ is the second component of the diphthong, in a number of commonly-heard British and Australian accents, it seems to me. Something quite similar occurs in certain Southern US accents. Indeed, there seems to me (AIJARA) to be a common vowel shift among Australian (etc.), much of Southeastern US, and a good deal of Southern England (esp. Cockney, Estuary and the like). Consider, for example, the lowering of the /eI/ vowel, as in "g'day" (common AusE greeting if the cinema is any guide). Slow it down several seconds and you have a Southeastern US speaker saying the same thing.

Larry G infrared:

I see you're not getting any responses from Australians in this thread. The problem is that our own pronunciation sounds "normal", so it's hard to hear the variations. As far as I'm concerned, I pronounce the vowel in "zoo" pretty much the same way I hear the vowels in "My name is Sue, how do you do". There might be a little bit of a glide in there, something like (zV"Uw).
I can say this much: I would feel deeply insulted if anyone thought I spoke like Steve Irwin.

Peter Moylan (Email Removed) http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au (OS/2 and eCS information and software)

Larry G infrared:

In Australia - as in most other countries, I suppose - accent variation has both a social component and a regional component, but what's unusual about Australian English is that there's very little variation from city to city. Even Australians have trouble guessing the origins of other native-born Australians because there are so few regional markers. The initial white settlement was primarily to a single point (Sydney), unlike in the USA where different waves went to different parts of the east coast, so there was an immediate "melting pot" effect where multiple accents merged to form a lingua franca. Within a few generations travel became easy enough to give us a very mobile population. My own speech has been influenced by several parts of the country, together with some foreign influence, and in that respect I'm fairly typical.
The Macquarie Dictionary people have a project that attempts to map regional variations, but as far as I can tell they're mapping only the distribution of some words, which is different from mapping accent.
The effect of social class is considerably greater, even though we claim to have a classless society. I think linguists now distinguish about four general layers, from "cultured" to "broad". The main influence here is education rather than wealth, although I've noticed that Toorak - one of the wealthiest and snobbiest suburbs in the country - seems to have an accent that's considerably more "English" than my own.
That much is documented. Something that's not as well documented, as far as I know, is the variation in rural accents. It doesn't take much travelling around the country to realise that there's a big difference between rural accents and city accents. Furthermore, the rural accents differ from region to region, although the city accents don't (apart from some minor details).
A while back I had occasion to phone a cousin I hadn't seen since childhood, and who lives in the town where my grandparents used to live. I've moved about a lot, while he has lived in the same small town all his life. I was immediately struck by the huge difference between his speech and mine. It was almost like a foreign language at first, but within a few seconds I was able to adapt, because it was an accent I had known (but not spoken) in my childhood. In fact, when I was a child I could tell the difference between the accents of that small town and the next town twenty miles down the road.

Peter Moylan (Email Removed) http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au (OS/2 and eCS information and software)

Sara Lorimer infrared:


At the end of the day, when all is said and done, I'd have to say that he has a strong "John Howard" accent. OK, if you want to put it into one of the standard boxes, I suppose it's "general educated Australian"; but with a few rough edges that are very noticeably Howardesque. When the radio comedians do a parody of John Howard, they never have to explain who they're imitating.

For a slightly more upper-crust Australian English, listen to our Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, the man born with a silver foot in his mouth.

Peter Moylan (Email Removed) http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au (OS/2 and eCS information and software)