Mrs JC is something of a linguist, and a fluent German speaker. She points out there is some similarities between Australian and Dutch accents, which in turn is not a million miles from the German accent. Perhaps that’s what you are hearing?
It’s not something I’ve noticed myself, but the last time I said ‘Rhein, gutten abend, ….’ I was a bit depressed with the cheery reply ‘…., Gutten morgen!’ as I realised it was way past midnight and we were only just at South-East Germany with the whole of Germany, Holland, and most of the UK to go.