I'm an Australian living in Australia and I snickered when I first saw anybody wearing their collars popped.

I haven't stopped.

Having traveled around the world (Sydney based) I will admit the Australian sun does seem to be much hotter and intense then any other place I have been to.

Its also one of the reasons tourists get such bad sunburns here as they hit the beach without any protection.

It's actually the lack of air pollution that makes the difference.

LA has a SPF 30 sitting above it for most of the year. For most of the time, Australia does not.

Interesting. Do you have a source for that? I have wondered what the actual reason is for a while.

closer to ozone hole, more uv

ozone hole LOL that's an old one.

Ozone relative thickness deficiency doesn't explain the head-cracking sunshine in Cairns, which is closer to the equator than the south pole.