First, there was wool. Then, there was iron ore. And then, there was quirkiness – Australia’s sense of fun has been up there with our best exports since Crocodile Dundee declared: “That’s not a knife.”

The latest example to make waves isn’t a movie or a movie star – it’s the fabulously quirky QT Hotels & Resorts. The homegrown hospitality brand has just set foot in Asia for the first time.

QT Singapore is the chain’s eighth hotel, joining four in Australia and three in New Zealand.

It’s owned by Sydney-based EVT – which, as with our reputation for off-beat humour, began its own life in Australian cinema and film. Today, it is also the parent of Rydges Hotels & Resorts, as well as QT, which was established in 2011 with the opening of QT Gold Coast.

There are also QTs in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra as well as Wellington, Auckland and Queenstown in New Zealand.

QT Singapore is on the island nation’s bustling Robinson Road, inhabiting the ornate 1927-built Eastern Extension Telegraph building that had been Hotel Telegraph. EVT took it over last year and, in collaboration with the building’s owners, Sunray Singapore, began its transformation.

It’s just across the road from the historic Lau Pa Sat hawker market and less than 20 minutes’ walk to Marina Bay Sands.

At QT Singapore, the EVT design team’s partnership with interior designer Nic Graham continues. Referencing the building’s neo-classical facade and the Lion City’s colonial aesthetic, the interiors feature plenty of woven rattan, black framing and leaf-patterned wallpaper.