I knew that German (among other languages) had a lot of regional dialects that aren't mutually intelligible, but it's really sad to hear how they were driven out, despite the usefulness in communication.

The accents on East West 101 are a bit toned down when one ethnic group is speaking to another (when the Pacific Islanders are talking amongst themselves their accents are much stronger, for example) and that's fairly true-to-life. Those are all real accents that appear in great numbers in urban Australia. Out where I live, there's far less variety, sadly.