What is an Eastie?What is a Northie?What is a Southie? There seems that in the past ,there was only one direction to go! The Outer Western Suburbs will soon become the new Upper North Shore!

Did the Westie ever exist?

I think the majority of true 'westies' have not existed since the 70s or 80s. They have moved further and further from their traditional lands, to the point where many have left Sydney totally. There are still smaller gatherings of them from time to time at the watering holes, and migrating about the land. There are however now enormous pockets of 'bogans' throughout many of the lands formerly occupied by westies. This was once a Melbourne word, but now seems to be in vogue in Sydney. The westie dynasty has passed, and we are now in the bogan era. The westies are an endangered species. They have almost vanished, much like the overly ocker, slow-drawl nassel voice, only kept alive by Julia Gillard and John Williamson. The CSIRO have been working on ways to extract DNA from disgarded flanno shirts, in the hope of one day cloning and restocking the land with westies. But like most scientific research, that day is still far off. Some government grants may help bring results in the long-term. For now we mourn the passing of the westie - a once great Australian icon.

Being a Westie is a state of being, a core thing, and so all those other things don’t matter. I am happy to be one.

I don't believe us westies are any different to others out there. Why we are labelled by those, I know its because they have very little education about what we are all about. Whether you live here or there or anywhere makes no different to who we are as people. Why must people describe us in this way is truely perthetic. If only people can see further than whats on the service. That is what really matters. So I think, the name could be dieing as it is no longer is popular to say no more. Perhaps those who choose to name us could try to visit us sometime and check out what this place is all about rather than living in their own boundaries of life. Pretty boring I say.

My most formative years were spent in Western Sydney, and I'm proud to have inherited the instinct to call a spade and spade, the ability to take a joke at your own expense, and the perspective to be laid back in the face of the ever present rat race. I hope these characteristics will continue to exist, instilled in future generations of Westies, regardless of socioeconomic changes in the grand West. But Col, what is the difference between a westie and a bogan?

In the political sense the west remains Labor Heartland. However I feel that westies are starting to change there attitudes towards politics. The western suburbs still have high unemployment levels and still attracts migrants as their first stop in Sydney, making it their new home. No matter what happens, whether our society becomes more affluent, sophisticated or politically savvy I for one am proud to have been born a Westie and hope others feel the same way too. We may not have beaches but we do have cultural diversity and that to me is a pot of gold.