You Aussies are very clever. How do you manage to make the water just go straight down?
I didn't understand how USA toilets flush in any direction so I just watched a You tube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StmbrLfGC-8
That helped me understand ... Aus is mainly desert and even non-desert areas here suffer frequent droughts so we are water conscious and our toilets are designed to use way less water so they flush straight down.
Here's a chap giving a quick demo of a full flush (uses the most water but still less than USA) on an older less-efficient toilet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJn4AU_QHJM
here's an example of our usual dual-flush toilets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKZE__mJCk
I think we'd have to run a bath to discover which direction water swirls ... but most people here use quick showers rather than baths which use way too much water.
During droughts (severe & frequent) we have to take an empty bucket into the shower with us to catch any run-off, if we wish to water any plants since we can't justify using rare precious drinking water on plants ... they get left-overs if they are lucky. Water is liquid gold.