Maybe. I attribute it to the 6 o'clock swill. For almost half of the 20th century pubs shut at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, so everyone would binge drink for about an hour before closing time. This created a binge drinking culture in Australia. In Ireland you'll sit at the pub all day and drink about 20 pints, in Australia you'll got the pub for about 4 hours and manage about the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_o%27clock_swill