Oomies and Bogans

This afternoon on ABC radio there was a segment about strange and humorous place names. A bloke called in saying the he would rather be Innaloo than Upper Swan. That doesn’t mean much to people outside of Western Australia. Australian states don’t really have different accents, although Queenslanders don’t speak that fast and tend to mention ‘The Man From Snowy River’ between beers. It is difficult for anyone to determine where one comes from by accent, however some states use different words for things and pronounce some words differently. ‘Bathers’ in W.A. are ‘Cossies’ in the east. In W.A. a port (portmanteau) is a suitcase and so on. For the word Castle, New South Welshmen say ‘Cassel’ whilst we here say “Carsel’ More on regional Aussie words here.

Our visiting friends didn’t really know what I meant when I called a bloke a ‘Bogan’. Where they live in Woy Woy NSW, they are called “Oomies’. Bogans and Oomies are one and the same. They both wear checked shirts, mullets and tattoos. Their three year old sons also have mullets. I’m not sure how the term Bogan came about, but Oomies are so-named because when a cop tells them to get out of their Valiant, they reply..”Oomie?’

Brother-in-Law Mike is to have his brain implant turned on this Thursday.