'Refreshing' Truth About How New South Wales Travellers See The Rest Of Australia

"No chips on shoulder here."

'Refreshing' Truth About How New South Wales Travellers See The Rest Of Australia

Image: The Guardian

Like every country, Australia has more cultural clichés stuck to it than a sweaty Akubra has flies sitting on it in summer.

We’ve busted a few this year. Last month a ‘humble’ image smashed the stereotype Sydney has no culture. In May we busted the idea Europe’s drinking culture is inherently more sophisticated than Australia’s.

Last week we discovered Australian celebrities are not as behind the times when it comes to fashion as you’d think, but rather (in some cases) subtle style leaders.

This week a humorous quote, spoken somewhat in jest, from host of Traveller’s Flight of Fancy podcast Ben Groundwater, sums up – in DMARGE’s opinion – New South Wellians’ attitude to the rest of Australia quite well.

 

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“If there is any difference in people from NSW it’s that there are no chips on shoulder here… we don’t look to other parts of Australia with anything of a grudge. I grew up in Queensland and everyone thinks of NSW…. [like], ‘Oh, they think they’re so good,’ and Melbourne has this rivalry with Sydney which I’m not sure is reciprocated.”

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“People in the West think people in the East don’t really think about them, people in Tasmania think the same thing and NSW sort of… I don’t think there’s any sort of rivarly that we really cling to like that.”

Living our best lives, so to speak…

That’s some refreshing food for thought amid a backdrop of Bondi – Byron – Bali triangle shaming (some of it admittedly deserved), and Eastern Suburbs initiatives like this one making the entirety of Australasia (in DMARGE’s scientific judgement) shake its head with disbelief.

The comment came amid much discussion over the “things that will surprise you about New South Wales.”

If you’re interested in checking out Groundwater and guests explaining why NSW is one of the world’s premier tourist destinations (despite Australians not typically thinking of it as a holiday spot, usually preferring to jet off overseas), check out the podcast here.

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