Out West

Diane Powell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781863735032
• eBook ISBN: 9781000246742
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Immigration Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This is the story of Sydney's much maligned western suburbs: how the city spread across the plains to the Blue Mountains, and why the 'westie' stigma haunts the people of the region.Resourceful and innovative, the people of the western suburbs have created a culture of their own, defying the 'westie' stigma. Out West uncovers the intricate social and cultural networks that make western Sydney a dynamic and stimulating place to live. Out West looks at how the land of the Darug people of the Cumberland Plain was first settled by whites in colonial times. It then traces the development of the 'westie' stigma from the time of inner-city slum clearances to post-war immigration and the more recent waves of moral panic about the youth of the region. It focuses in particular upon the way in which the media have contributed to the maintenance of the 'westie' image.

1
The Westie image

Sydney's urban sprawl goes in three directions, the flow to the east stemmed by the Pacific Ocean. The compass points have become social indexes with differentiating auras of status and prestige. Mythologies have developed historically and culturally about each area with the central city of Sydney as their pivot. Here the myths are born/e, intersect, are maintained and continually reconstituted. The city is the linchpin, the 'centrepoint' from which distance is measured spatially and metaphorically, a yardstick with little substance but with a powerful magnetism that holds the lopsided wheel of the metropolis together.

In Sydney, over a period of time, the term 'western suburbs' has come to indicate a social category rather than a geographic region. A string of stories in all the mass media about social problems, life in particular locations, and specific events in the area have reinforced urban folklore surrounding the working class, public housing and the urban fringes of the city. 'Sydney's west', as it is abbreviated in many newspaper and broadcast stories, has become a generic label. It shares much the same image as other generic labels such as 'No Name' or 'No Frills'.

Public perceptions of the western suburbs and its people

In the 1981 edition of The Macquarie Dictionary the term 'westie' is defined as: n. Colloq. Someone from the western suburbs of Sydney'. I use the word in this sense, as an abbreviated way of saying 'people of the western suburbs' but also with an awareness that it has acquired a chain of other meanings. 'Westie' has been invested with an abundance of negative associations to signify a social type, something akin to 'yobbo' or 'hoon' ('loutish, aggressive or surly youth, foolish or silly person, esp. one who is a show-off'—MD). A shift in meaning has been acknowledged in the 1990 Macquarie Dictionary of New Words in which 'westie' is now an adjective as well as a noun: 'of or pertaining to a person who lives in the: western suburbs of Sydney usu. characterised as unsophisticated and macho'.

The 1990 register of the word has been used for some time and was in general currency by 1985 when students at a Balmain high school devised a play about a romance between a trendy and a westie. In a radio program about their venture they described westies as 'out-of-date', 'daggy-thugs', 'jerks' (2JJJ 2.10.85). While words like 'daggy-thug' and 'jerk' are unambiguous, 'westie' is used as both a proper and improper noun. The only similar use of location as an insult is the word 'dubbo', which The Macquarie Dictionary defines as being a noun meaning 'idiot, imbecile' or an adjective meaning 'stupid, imbecilic'. There are signs that another location is being invested with new meaning—I have heard the term 'that's a bit Sylvania Waters', after the television documentary of that name, to describe behaviour and surroundings perceived as vulgar and garish. Another word for 'dickhead', 'nerd' or 'drongo' is 'bogan', made famous in the Melbourne-based television program 'The Comedy Company', which was described to me as 'Melbourne for westie'.

This use of 'westie' in this sense is like the derogatory use of words such as 'spastic' or 'retard' to describe someone as stupid, idiotic or insane. Campaigns on behalf of the groups offended by this have raised public awareness and put an end to it. Even children, a fertile source of many of these terms, have been through consciousness-raising exercises concerning their use. (My daughter and her friends, at primary school in the early 1980s, used the word 'normals' as a disparaging term for people who acted silly.)

There seems to be little similar official concern about offending the Australian working class. Westies have been regularly insulted in public forums, by people in privileged positions such as radio announcers, Members of Parliament, prominent surgeons and even by a government department. Following are just a few examples.

The people of western Sydney are seen as stupid. In 1984 the Hon. M. Singleton, National Party Member for Coffs Harbour, referred in Parliament to the people of Blacktown as 'drones, drongos and idiots' (SMH, 'Column 8', 19-6.84).

A lapel badge bought at Paddington Markets, 1989.

They are seen as too poor, or lacking in taste, to own anything of value. The Herald's 'Column 8', referring to radio station 2KY, relocated from the city to Parramatta and recognised as having a large working-class and western suburbs audience, reported that a Hunters Hill reader left his radio tuned to 2KY to deter would-be thieves, . the burglar will think I've got nothing worth pinching' (SMH, 'Column 8', 28.5.86).

It is feared that westies may lower the tone of the rituals of high culture. When Opera in the Park was taken to Parramatta in 1987 the opera critics not only reviewed the performance of those on stage but the audience as well. They seemed surprised that 'audience behaviour . . . was exemplary' and 'was no less attentive or enthusiastic' than other (normal?) audiences of opera (Powell 1989, p. 234).

And that they have innate criminal tendencies. A radio traffic report in 1987 mentioned 'there's a car lost a wheel at Liverpool . . .', the radio announcer quipped, 'probably got knocked off, being out there' (2SM 7.00am, 5.2.87). Later in 1987 the State Rail Authority displayed posters at all railway stations in Sydney to deter fare evaders and publicise new on-the-spot fines being introduced. The poster, headed 'The only ticket you should avoid', was of a penalty notice large enough for commuters to read while rushing through the turnstiles. The mock 'ticket' was made out to an imaginary fare-evader with a Blacktown address.

Westies are seen as a threat to 'inner city trendies'. After inner city venues were denied to noisy 'RAT' dance parties in 1990, the organisers were forced to the 'wilds' of Homebush, a borderline inner circle/western suburb. Organisers issued 500 special passes to a 'segregated lounge for inner city trendies' who were reported to be 'worried about mixing with a "rough crowd" from the western suburbs' (SMH, 5.9.90).

The language and tone of comments about people of the western suburbs is comparable to the kind used by the English media to stigmatise Australians: 'a colony that has raised oafishness to an art form' (SMH 27.3.92); 'the Australian accent does not lend itself as a pointer to intellect' (Weekend Australian; 11.4.92); and English responses to the Prime Minister's behaviour during the Queen's Australian visit in 1992 which included the racist remark, '. . . Paul Keating's manners would make an Aborigine look the very model of urbanity and consideration' (SMH 28.2.92). The Australian media's stigmatisation of the western suburbs involves a similar kind of discriminatory discourse, the difference being that westies are made to feel alien within their own national boundaries.

The people of western Sydney have not taken this lying down, and have frequently expressed outrage at insults and negative media coverage of the area. There have been campaigns by community groups and the local press going back at least as far as 1978, such as the 'lay off Mount Druitt' campaign and the 'proud of the west' campaign (SMH 5.10.78; Western Districts Guardian, 9-4.86). And westies past and present, regularly write to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. Baiba Berzins who grew up in the west wrote in March 1992 objecting to disparaging comments made by actor Bryan Brown:

For r those of us who lived in Panania in the 1950s there were many good things about life. The air was clean, the roads were safe, the Georges River was swimmable and bushland was readily accessible, and the community was multicultural long before that word became known in Australia.

If Panania in the 1950s was 'down-at-heel' it was because neither state nor local governments cared to spend money on basic facilities like roads, lighting and sewerage. If it was 'a rough area' it was because there were no facilities, government or commercial, for the many young people in the area. If it was 'the tail end of town' it was because the available rail and bus services were appalling.

Nothing much seems to have changed in 40 years. The western suburbs still get a raw deal and the locals are blamed for the consequences. (SMH 28.3.92)

Newspapers sometimes print letters from people in the western suburbs protesting about media coverage and the stigma associated with the area. Occasionally there are stories about westie's reactions to the stigma: 'Mount Druitt is getting tired of being looked at . . . The local community is bothered by the growing number of newspapers, television stations, government departments, university researchers and others choosing Mount Druitt as a subject for investigation' (SMH 2.4.86). In the 1990s a few positive stories have appeared, perhaps indicating a change in attitude towards the west. But the image forged in the last decade or so prevails and will not easily be erased.

Sydney's other half

The people who live in western Sydney are usually the object of public discourse, rarely the speaking subject of media reports, always the observed and investigated, the explained. Reports about the west appeared sporadically in newspapers during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, usually in relation to new housing developments or the behaviour of young people. During the 1980s articles appeared with much greater frequency and they continue to appear in the 1990s, with some shifts in emphasis. The increase in media attention over the past decade can be traced back to an event in 1981 when a minor altercation between a couple of girls from rival schools was interpreted by Sydney's media as the 'Bidwill Riots' and reported in the hysterical style usually reserved for large-scale urban or race riots, such as those in Brixton, England earlier the same year (see Mowbray, 1985, and chapter 7).

Media texts about the western suburbs can be divided into three broad categories. First are the direct news stories about people or incidents in the western suburbs. There is not a great deal to be said about these often short, factual reports, except to note that incidents which occur in the western suburbs seem to acquire newsworthiness because they have happened there rather than elsewhere. For example, Channel 10 'News' on 12 November 1992 included a report about a fight between two men at a house in Mount Pritchard. The report stated that one man was taken to hospital 'after being bashed in Sydney's west last night'. In my view this is not a particularly remarkable or newsworthy event.

Special attention is regularly given to pinpointing the location of a suburb if it is in the west but not if it is elsewhere: a 7.00 a.m. news report on radio station 2JJJ informed its audience that there were two sieges in Sydney overnight, ' a woman held hostage in Dee Why . . . and in the outer western suburb of Rooty Hill . . . ' (2JJJ 18.4.86, my emphasis). In "three hurt in park fight' we are not told that Leichhardt is in Sydney's inner west (SMH 5.11.83). In 'BAZOOKA USED IN ATTACKS', we are not told that Artarmon is in Sydney's northern suburbs (SMH 6.11.83). But in 'FIVE YEAR SENTENCE FOR INCEST' we are told, 'The judge described the family sleeping arrangements at Dbarruk, near Mount Dmitt in Sydney's outer western suburbs, as primitive' (Daily Telegraph 9.6.84, my emphasis).

The pinpointing of suburbs happens more on radio and television that in print. On Channel 9 on 12 November 1992 there were two stories from Sydney suburbs. The first was about 'a marijuana haul at Silverdale in Sydney's outer west'. The second was about a case in which two male librarians claimed they were sexually discriminated against by female colleagues, and they were simply described as men 'from Kogarah'.

Sometimes the definition of the western suburbs is very broad, for example another 7.00 a.m. news broadcast on 2JJJ located a tent-peg stabbing in Bexley as being in 'south-western Sydney' (2JJJ 12.2.87). In 'YOUTH GANG BRAWLS . . . ETHNIC COMMUNITIES FACE DANGER IN WEST' (SMH 18.7.86) and 'WAR IN THE WESTERN SUBURBS', (Sun-Herald 20.7.86) Marrickville, Tempe and Punchbowl are located in 'Sydney's western suburbs' or in the 'south-west'. While technically correct according to the compass, in Sydney's urban discourse the 'south-west' usually refers to the Bankstown—Fairfield-Liverpool-Campbelltown areas.

The second category of news coverage of the western suburbs is the reporting of research surveys which have usually been funded and conducted by government departments or academic or welfare institutions. These interact with news stories which have sometimes prompted the research. In turn the surveys are reported as news items and generate a third category of coverage, that of feature stories and commentary. Features and 'social exploring' stories contextualise the straightforward news and research reports, providing background and analysis to events and issues.

The third category is the subject of the next chapter, the remaining pages of this chapter looks at the second category—the news coverage of research surveys and statistical information in relation to the western suburbs.

Research paradise

In the years following the events at Bidwill in 1981, it seems that every welfare agency, government department, and academic discipline focused attention on the area conducting research into everything from transport needs to the eating habits of people in western Sydney. Survey findings were usually reported in major newspapers and I have clippings Of most of them. They cover a wide range of issues: children's classroom behaviour, teenage pregnancy, dental check-ups, pregnancy, teenage health and sexual activity, truancy, crime rates, domestic violence rates, car thefts, unemployment, child abuse and mortality rates.

The list goes on, the same issues recycled as surveys are updated, each new set of figures about child abuse notifications, crime statistics, or health surveys, produces a new crop of stories about the disadvantaged western suburbs and the 'unfortunate' people who live there. Various oppositions are at play in the articles: lack-excess, poverty-wealth, us-them, brutality-finesse, ugliness-beauty, neglect-concern, outer-inner, bad-good, crude-refined. The outcome is that the western suburbs and its people become the 'problem', rather than social structures, policies, or power relations.

There is of course political value: in releasing and publicising surveys and statistics which show that basic needs are not being met, to point out that there are gaps in government policies, urban planning, family support, transport, health and other services. I do not want to suggest that the lack of services and facilities in the western suburbs should be disguised or ignored. Research is used to assess existing and past policies, and to assess new ones as a basis for future planning. However, there are social costs to the community, studied and unforeseen effects which, if they do not outweigh the benefits, certainly create another set of difficulties for it to cope with.

Most government departments and research institutions have media liaison, public relations, or press officers whose job it is to gain media attention for the work of their organisation. A large proportion of what becomes 'news' is the result of public relations work in the public and private sector: 'Almost all new...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Contents
• List of tables
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 The westie image
• 2 Social demarcations
• 3 The west to World War II
• 4 Reconstructing the city
• 5 Moving out and moving in
• 6 Menacing youth
• 7 Mobs, gangs and pushes
• 8 Into the imaginary
• 9 Inside/outside—western Sydney today
• Afterword: Speaking (for) others
• Bibliography
• Index