Cute folktale, but this isn’t some “new theory” on the origins of Australian English. It’s just the attention-seeking rantings of someone with zero expertise in the subject. It’s disappointing that irresponsible journalists are jumping all over this and publishing blatant falsities which are backed up by zero evidence…

This ‘theory’ is bullshit and the guy promoting it has no qualifications to support it. He’s not a linguist of any sort, he’s a lecturer in public speaking, and his career is about shaming people who don’t speak in the way that he thinks is correct (ie. some Australian version of RP). Don’t promote this.

As a linguist who studies and teaches about accents, I can assure you that Frenkel’s claim is utter BS.