Ten tips to reduce water usage, including this one…
Could someone please tell me this delightful ditty isn’t really in common use down under? 
Phil, just me
Come on, we’re not that bad!
I didn’t think so; I think someone in the BBC probably has an axe to grind…
Although it reminds me of the good ol’ toilet joke…
An Oxford graduate, a Cambridge graduate and an Australian walk into a public loo. The Oxford graduate attends to nature then rinses his hands, saying “In Oxford, we are taught to be hygienic at all times”. The Cambridge graduate does the same, then carefully washes his hands with loads of soap, saying “In Cambridge we are taught the very best manners”. The Australian attends the call then walks off, saying “In Australia we’re taught not to p*ss on our hands”…
I think it requires a very strong vision of the Crocodile Dundee stereotype for it to work… so I’m off to hang my head in shame now… 
Phil, just me
Re: From the BBC Website…
The first time I heard that was many years ago on a BBC programme with David Bellamy (beardy weirdy ecologist type). When I said it recently to my wife (she’s Australian) she asked what the hell I was on about. So maybe it’s just a BBC thing that they’re trying to blame on the Australians?
Have fun!
Graeme
In Hippie-centric Northern California, that axiom was widely used. People might even utter the first part of it as a query of policey when a guest at anothers home and using the facilities…
-Christopher
“If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” has been posted in my friend’s beach cabin (Indianolla, WA across the sound from Seattle) since at least 1979. He has a very limited septic system…
Yep, the phrase seems to have definitely taken in western North America. I have a couple of friends here in southwestern British Columbia that introduced me to the mantra. However, we can’t figure out where they originally heard it. Perhaps they learned it from their respective sets of British parents (they recite all kinds of rhymes and stuff taught to them by their 'rents that no one else has heard before). Or maybe, like Northern California, it is just a product of living here in Canada’s lotus land…
The “If it’s yellow…” bit has been in my vocabulary since the 70s at least. In fact, I’d swear I’ve seen it in needlepoint in somebody’s bathroom at some point; likely a stoner friend of yore.
The above joke is told by Cornell students disparagingly of those at Harvard and by Rutgers students disparagingly of those at Cornell.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
Re: From the BBC Website…
I can’t speak for down under, but this quote was used during a season of low water supply in New York City in the 1980s. I believe mayor Ed Koch used the phrase. That doesn’t mean it originated there, but it at least goes back to late-80s New York.