Lucy, I think we were lucky in Australia. We had our segregated peer groups in school, but they were basically the 'nerds', 'thugs', 'bookworms' and a group that were good at sport and school work.
I was lucky enough to be good at sport and school.
Once you leave school, you are either cool or a nerd. Not many in betweens. When you get as old as me, the looks and brains thing goes right out the door. Everything is based on how much cash you've got. Looks and brains helps a bit, but if you haven't got cash, then you've got very little chance of snapping up a quality chick.
This is from a blokes point of view of course. I can't really comment on what it's like for chicks in Australia, because I'm not a chick.