Synopsis

The Shins arrive at a car dealership dressed in orange jumpsuits and begin a playful, carefully coordinated heist. While one band member distracts the sales staff, the others remove the helium balloons tied to vehicles across the lot and load them into their van. After escaping with their colorful haul, they collect their accomplice and drive to an open field. There, the band releases the balloons into the sky, transforming a small act of mischief into a strangely celebratory moment of freedom.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in Vancouver, Washington, giving the caper a deliberately ordinary Pacific Northwest setting rather than a glamorous or stylized criminal backdrop.

• The production was made by Food Chain Films and Sub Pop Records. Greg Schmitt handled the cinematography.

• The video plays against the song's lyrics. Despite its title, "Australia" does not mention the country; the words instead suggest frustration, isolation, and the desire to escape a stagnant life.

• The orange balloons visually echo the band's orange jumpsuits, creating the video's clearest symbolic link between the theft and the final release.

• The clip marked a return to a relatively simple, live-action narrative after several more elaborate or surreal Shins videos, including "So Says I," "Pink Bullets," and "Phantom Limb."

• "Australia" was released as the second single from Wincing the Night Away in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2007.

• The song later appeared in the video game Project Gotham Racing 4 and became downloadable content for the Rock Band series.