[brewcrew]

Ah ha! I stand corrected. How old was Mel when he moved? In other words, had he already developed his native accent (be it American or Aussie) when he was transplanted?

[presidio9]

Mel was the 6th of 11 kids, born in 1956. My guess is that he had older brothers that Hutton was trying to keep out of the war and the family moved sometime before he got to HS. Mel was still not old enough to be drafted in 1973. His Aussie accent in his early films like Gallipoli and Mad Max is very thick.