Title: 
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Content: It carries with it a sense of obligation 
  to do the right thing by one's close friends. In 
    many respects, mates in Australia serve the role that family serves in other countries. Mates can be relied upon in times of need and will stand by you through the good 
    times and the bad. Perhaps the importance 
that Australia places on mateship can be attributed to its history as an immigrant 
nation. Convicts, orphans, prostitutes and lone individuals came to Australia 
without families. Consequently, their friends subsituted for their lack of a family 
network. Another explanation is that it 
came from the hardships of the first century. It has long been known in psychological 
circles that social bonding coincides with extreme difficulty. ( For this reason, 
defence force training inflicts hardship upon new recruits to foster such bonding.)