Well being a fucking Aussie, I swear a shit load, in fact I'm pretty sure that I swear at least 10 times before I eat my fucking breakfast.
But it's also not uncommon for people here to use terms like *****, arsehole, shithead, mother fucker or even **** as a sign of endearment.
A lot of outsiders find this difficult to understand, but it really just comes down to tone, sentence structure and sometimes the use of slang.
i.e.
saying to a friend, something like "aw, fuck off ya ****" = good
were as saying "fuck off, ya fucking arsehole" = bad
yeah, I know were a fucking strange bunch down here.