about Australian English

Hi, you guys, I talked with some Australians on the phone recently and it turned out that I, all of a sudden, became a non-English speaker. Cuz I could barely understand them.
This thread is totally no offense to any Australians or anything. I just want to know how others think of Australian English, especially people from the States and England.

"Snike" might be a better spelling: compare "made" vs. "maid". When I (an Aussie) lived in Vancouver I didn't really have much trouble being understood but there's a difference between being there in person and being at home on the phone to there.

YEAH, absolutely. Face-to-face conversations are a million times easier. But when it comes to talking on the phone, WOW, its unbelievably freaking HARD. Harder than I can ever imagine I would say. And it seemed to me that those guys I been talking to on the phone refused to "customize" their English to a more neutral way and sticked to the Australian way which included a lot of slangs I have never heard of.

Well, it's probably because I had too much exposure to American English, which turned my ears American. But I never had so many troubles when talking to people from England. I don't know, it's just Australian English is too hard for me.

And thank you for the explanations up there by the way.