The Red Rooster Line: A Line That Slices Sydney In Two
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2022
- Red Rooster is a fast food chain in Sydney that, inexplicably, only exists in the west of the city. If you take every Red Rooster and join up its easternmost stores, you get a line that almost perfectly divides Sydney into east and west. It correlates eerily well with the socioeconomic divide in Sydney; those above the line are generally better off socioeconomically in almost every regard to those below the line.
So, how does this correlation exist so perfectly? Isn't it a bit weird that the locations of specific fast food restaurants match up with the socioeconomic divide of Sydney? Why? And why is Sydney divided like this? Why does Western Sydney have so much socioeconomic disadvantage compared to Eastern Sydney?
In this video, I'll explore all that, explore the controversial 2021 Delta lockdown which enunciated this divide greater than ever before, and investigate ways that we could try to dismantle this divide once and for all. I'll even interview Professor Awais Piracha, a Professor of Geography, Tourism and Urban Planning at Western Sydney University, to get to the bottom of the line!
Links:
- Watch my full interview with Professor Awais Piracha here: • Red Rooster Line Extra...
- The Honi Soit Red Rooster Line Article, one of the first media outlets to write about the line: honisoit.com/2017/09/food-faul...
- The research article associating low socioeconomic status with increased fast food intake: www.jrbssonline.com/wp-content...
- Alan Tsibulya's Eastern VS Western Sydney Video: • Eastern Suburbs vs Wes...
- An article by SMH investigating the statistical differences between the East and West of Sydney: www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/h...
- An article by The Guardian on how the Delta lockdown has left a lasting impact on Western Sydney: www.theguardian.com/australia...
- The Guardian's article on Postcode Prejudice: www.theguardian.com/culture/2...
- Two articles on ways that Sydney can fix its socioeconomic divide: sbi.sydney.edu.au/our-big-cit... AND newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/soc...
Music:
Lost on the Freeway by HoliznaCC0 - freemusicarchive.org/
Modern Trends by Alexey Anisimov - tunetank.com/track/5915-moder...
Dat Groove by Audionautix | audionautix.com (Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com)
Poltergeist by BLVCKNOIZE - tunetank.com/track/5ft/polter...
NELYMA by Mardifan from Pixabay - pixabay.com/users/madirfan-50411
VHS Dreams by Shane Ivers - www.silvermansound.com 
Авто/Мото
The most dangerous things that I encountered in Sydney are the seagulls that try to steal a big mac from your hand at circular quay 24 hours a day
Omg this happened to me
I guess fish market is more dangerous
And the ibises there too
Excellent video. As someone who spent all of their adult life, up till 5 years ago, in SW Sydney, I wholeheartedly agree. Even though it has/had some negatives, I wouldn't have traded for anything. The cultural diversity alone made it worth living out west, IMO, and I say this as a white bloke :) I worked in the east, USyd, and just felt happiest, when I crossed that 'line', as much as I loved my job, and felt I was at home. Of course I've moved even further west to a small town just west of the Blue Mountains, so I really am a westie at heart :)
Blue Mountainer here, Westie thru & thru too🤘
You move to oberon ?
@@xroadwalker well guessed.
Yuck feral westy bogan
Born in Penrith then moved to the mid Blue Mountains! I wouldn’t trade it for anything! Much love mate!
I live in the non-Red Rooster part of Sydney and although there might be a somewhat-joking cultural divide, having used to go regularly visit SW Sydney where my grandparents lived, the video was definitely interesting. And as the video pointed out, it is definietly arbitrary, because growing up as a kid, often travelling between one side of the city to the other regularly, I didn't really come off with the impression they were different. There were of course, landmarks - railway crossings, the car dealerships, and yes... the Red Rooster amongst many other chain restaurants I knew we didn't have near where we lived (rest in peace Sizzler)... but it was still "Sydney" and under no circumstance would I ever think to categorise people based on their location. But I guess how all people grow up, you start learning that people treat you differently, whether it's based on what I look like, or based on where we live.
Nowadays, my grandparents have moved, which means I don't cross over into the line so much. And I think this reflects a common theme - people typically don't go anywhere, unless they _need_ to. As a high school student, I only need to travel to my school, to my home, to nearby supermarkets for food, etc. and typically the only time I'll leave my radius is if I need to go there.
I think this is where the problem lies... getting from the west to the CBD - the hub of employment - is harder. And I know people who travel towards the Sydney CBD every day for school/work from the Central Coast or from beyond the Blue Mountains. As another comment said, that is really hard, especially if the intercity train system happens to have... say, a convenient strike.
Aside from income/employment, I'm sure there's other indices affected by different factors but I'll leave that to the professional researchers. But proximity to things, is definitely something which affects people on a day-to-day basis. Even when you have friends who live around the same area, it definitely ingrains the local division which might already exist.
For a high school student like me, who has attended both a bog-standard public school, and later a catholic school, even when they were in relatively the same area, you could definietly tell the difference in both tangible assets and even people's attitudes. Geographically, this difference is probably even bigger. And you're definietly right about the misconceptions or stereotypes about the other side of the line - I've seen it myself at school a few times times, especially for people who came from public schools (like me) - except I hope people still have faith that not everyone is like that (m-me?)🙃 However, I have to admit I am at an advantage, with both close family who lived out west, plus the fact that many after primary school moved away to different parts of Sydney (or elsewhere) so I have some experience of personally knowing many more people who live on the other side of the line, than perhaps most people in my area.
Overall, a confronting but necessary video which does a good job of explaining the SES divide. I'm really excited about the transport and investment in the different areas of Sydney. City polycentralisation is something I think could really benefit Sydney.
I agree!! This video really was inspired by my high school experience too. People used to mock areas like Mt Druitt a lot, but I just feel it's undeserved. Public transport really is a massive problem too which they need to fix.
It takes forever to travel anywhere outside your own suburb in Sydney. You can live your whole life in Bonnyrigg or Liverpool and never once set foot in Chatswood or Crows Nest, and vice versa.
Yeah the rigg 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
Not wrong never even heard of Bonnyrigg and can never think of a reason I would ever go to Liverpool same with the Shire unless I’m going down south don’t do to St George or South Sydney either on the very rare occasion I got to the Blue Mountains but aside from that I never go past Westmead. I live in Ryde btw
Bonno ❤️🔥
Yes, compared to Melbourne it takes forever to travel from the CBD to the outskirts.....although Melbourne has gotten much wider since 2000. Sydney has a bit, but it has also gotten more densely packed as well. Early 80s bus/train would take 3 hours to get to the outskirts via Hume Highway (on a Friday arvo it will still take you that long) whereas from memory Melbourne was q - 1 1/2 hours. Toll roads etc have been built since then and I mentioned more growth & spread, but I suspect Greater Sydney is still bigger in area. Happy to be fact checked & proven wrong though.
Try living in Los Angeles! Sydney is a more accessible city. I know because I’ve lived in both for years.
The interesting thing - for anyone who is Gen X or older and grew up in Sydney is that we can remember when it was the inner suburbs which were poor and quite a few of the middle-outer suburbs which were considered better off.
Yeah my grandpa sold his house in Woolahra for a similar house in Blacktown doesn't look like such a great investment now. I now live halfway in between
It's like that all over the world. Look at New York!
When I was a kid there were drivebys in Marrickville, seems unbelievable now
That was the reverse donut effect. In the '80s financial markets were de-regulated which gave rise to the yuppies and dinks. Highly paid white-collar workers preferred run down terraces because they're closer to the city, bidding up prices and gentrifying the city fringe and inner west. Now the reverse is happening again - with work from home, people are moving to the regions and deserting Sydney altogether.
@@Anon-fv9ee The Byron Bay effect, daaaaaahling. :D
I'm from a 'token' working class family who lived on the Northern Beaches, and it was painfully obvious how much more affulent my classmates were. I went to uni at WSU, and made lasting friendships there. I now live on the North Shore to be close to my family, but I head out to Western Sydney frequently to socialise. Great place (I would replace all Gelato Messinas with El-Jannah in a heartbeat). The 'postcode prejudice' is a very real thing. I look like an Eastern Sydney white girl, but on the inside I'm pretty much a Westie.
Move there then....
I'm a poor person in an affluent suburb of Sydney and that definitely has its challenges. But it's nice to not have that terrible heat.
@@manofwar577 Yeah, she kind says her family lives in northern beaches. That's a very westie thing as well. Westies's don't mind being close to parents, as they see the advantages of free and ondemand babysitting and takeway meals ;)
@Joan Arc it's very difficult to make friends ANYWHERE in Sydney from my experience, if you didn't grow up here.
I'd never heard of the Red Rooster Line before. The divide of course has been around as long as anyone can remember, but I had no idea it was so closely tied to a fast food chain as this! I grew up on the Northern Beaches and lived there for most of my life. I moved near Parramatta just before Covid hit...
How about this though - back in the late 80s there used to be a Red Rooster takeaway in Narraweena, in a group of shops at the top of the steep grade on Warringah Road. A fair bit north east of the nominal RRL! But now? Ah, now I see they have a 'Flame N Chicken' there instead! So much classier... 😊
Many of the major banks have started to move out to Parramatta for their contact centres. It seems Parramatta is beginning to lose the image of being "Western Sydney" and is now being viewed as a second CBD.
Rip Andrew Charlton
A few tlmes
What we call Box Hill in Melb then lol!
@@Hhh-j8o funnily enough we have a Box Hill which is part of Sydney’s West. Though it may be a small CBD of it’s own in 20 years, it’s moving that way
Nah mate they fucked off to delhi
There used to be Red Roosters in the East when I was a kid. For the longest time I thought they just went out of business or something since I never saw them anymore. Then I learnt they're just all in the West now
There was one in Maroubra until about 10 years ago, which id say was about the time people stopped considering Maroubra bra boys land and started thinking of it as fancy eastern suburbs.
Lower North Shore resident here.
I live here because I like the coast, the greenery, and quite frankly, I can afford it.
But the joy, the absolute joy of heading west sends me there regularly.
As a foody, heading to Harris Park, Cabramatta, Ashfield (my closest Red Rooster), Auburn, Lakemba, etc. is an absolute must.
I suspect that when the new Metro West opens, you’ll see the Parramatta area becoming more significant to us in the East, and equally more people in the West heading Easterly.
This cross-pollination of peoples will only enhance our city and Parramatta will truly become the centre geographically AND culturally of the city.
Living there is much different then just going there on an occasion, you have the ability to leave when anything goes bad
You are an exception unfortunately . So many people fro the East will not set foot in the west. As the other reply to your comment would attest
I was born in Sydney but have lived in Perth for many decades. If I was to visit Sydney again I would make a beeline to the diverse Western Suburbs and eat my heart out.
@@imadeyoureadthis1500 I’ve lived in the west all my life. Did first 10 years of my professional life in the city and last 25 years also worked in Parra….so I understand the area. What are you talking about “when things go bad”?? I’ve seen so much more “bad” in the city with violence and crime.
I’ve got 10 years before I’m ready to retire, I could afford to live anywhere in Sydney but I don’t like the beach, hate public transport and congestion but love trees and open spaces. I live northwest and we are very happily living high quality lives thanks very much.
@@Jason-gj1pu Okay. You do you.
I’m still going to enjoy my local walk around Lavender Bay with the dogs, whilst heading out regularly to the many different cultural centres around this wonderfully diverse city.
Don’t think of people who have never traveled past Parramatta, I went to Uni in the eastern suburbs and I knew several people who had never been west of the city in their life. If you told people you live in the westerns suburbs many would assume you meant Newtown.
I remember when I worked in Aurburn a while back and a customer asked where the store was and told them it was near Parramatta. They said "is that near Ashfield?", they are clueless about Western Sydney's geography.
@@poonoo87 don't blame them, confusing spaghetti mess Sydney is anyways lol
Ha!
I've spent a significant period of time living on both sides of the line & currently live right on the line at Carlton & I can tell you that you've missed one important observation in the differences, the space between things & the time it takes to get there. Where I am now, and when I was in the Eastern suburbs, everything I'll ever need is within a 30 minute drive. For example, there are 6 Bunnings that i can drive to within 20 minutes from my home & 4 Aldi stores within 10 minutes. When I lived out west, it was a 30 minute drive just to get to the nearest train station.
I wouldn’t really put the line though St George or The Shire that’s where this is wrong
30 mins to a train station, where did you live, then?
@@paulsz6194 Bossley Park, back when half the suburb was empty fields & Cowpasture Road was just 2 lanes with a soft shoulder
I was on secondment in Sydney in 2006. I never forgot the looks I got when I told people I was from Perth. Those from the east, responded with body language and looks like I came from Mars, or an impoverished city in the developing world.. Those who lived in the western suburbs? were curious and full of questions... This is so true! Great presentation. I was asked if I wanted to stay on.... umm I said no.
I live in a large Country Town and I live in the CBD of it but I was told not to go to certain parts of Town because of undesirable characters. These undesirable characters are some of the most beautiful people I have met
Always a good watch Sharath, excellent as ever no matter the topic you're covering, thank you for the time and effort you put into these video's, in amongst everything a hectic life brings these days...true credit to work and yourself!!!!
Finally a video I can use to explain this phenomenon to mates. Awesome content! Keep it up 👍🏻
I've always thought that Sydney takes the regionalism of Spain (Catalonia versus Andalucia, etc) and squeezes it all into one metropolitan area.
Loved this video. Thanks for putting together something so informative and including relevant aspects like socio-economics, social implications and other stats. I've been interested in city planning for some time so it's exciting to see analysis done on my own city!
As someone who moved from the "Western Sydney of Canberra" (Queanbeyan), and moved to Sydney a few years ago, boy am I glad I live in the red rooster side. Love me a cheeky Rippa Roll.
Queanbeyan is not and will never be Canberra. Nice try though.
With great respect I believe there is another issue here you have not mentioned. The failure of planning, lack of foresight and ambition, as well complete misunderstanding of demographics lies within the development section of Red Rooster head office. The neglect, disregard and failure of Red Rooster to service us Eastern Suburbs residents is truly appalling and incredibly short sighted. As an overweight fast food loving resident of The Greater East I feel it is blatant discrimination that we must travel at least to Ashfield or Carlton to obtain the truly magnificent salty and greasy fabulous products of Red Rooster. This is an outrage. I am aware they operate at the airport but the station access fee, each way, makes that option more than a little impractical.
Chargrill Charlie's locations are a perfect inverse of Red Rooster, I'm sure there's one near you
@@is-yn6jf they don't do fried bananas though. (Does Red Rooster still do that?).
Indeed, it's blatant classicism against us Easties at its worst!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Sydney in a nutshell. Run
I lived in Chatswood for eight years (Campbelltown raised) and when I started seeing my now husband from Liverpool he commented ten years ago how much he missed and craved Red rooster. I didn't eat it growinf up and he talked to the Red rooster line.
I think RR could thrive in Chatswood. Large migrant community and as the caucasian in the room chicken seems to be one universally eaten food. Some cultures won't touch beef or lamb, goat etc but any non veg tends to reach for chicken.
Liverpool and Campbelltown represent. So which 1 of you thought the other came from a "rougher westie" part of Southwest Sydney? I live in between where you both lived but a lot closer to Livo just incase you thought I was putting shit on you in anyway?
@@gavreynolds2689 Campbelltown is superior all the way.... But against the East we stick together.
It was in Chatswood, i ate it as a kid
Reddit thread in the Sydney Reddit from four monthes ago titled:
Why are there no Red Rooster locations in Northern Sydney?
@@danielprice6762 Red rooster is the poorest fast food chain in Aus. It’s suprised it’s managed to survive this long...I drove past one during the daytime the on Woodville rd at Guildford, and I saw a food truck in its parking lot selling sugar cane juice !!
Sucks to be a chicken. Loved by all...
I was born in parramatta and grew up a stonrs throw further west. I had and amazing upbringing and childhood in a quiet street and would not change a thing. I had no idea this red rooster line was a thing. Fantastic video. Loved it.
How far can a stonr throw a stone if astnr just to drn stoned to throw a stone?
Great vid. I arrived in 99 and lived in Marrickville before buying a house in Mt Druitt then moved to Surry Hills and lived there for 10yrs. Just bought property in St Marys...that new airport is going to radically change Western Sydney that line is going to buckle back on itself. Be proud of the West.
Great video! Major props for not only visiting multiple relevant locations, but bringing on an expert to discuss. You put in more effort than most big RUclipsrs. Screenshot this comment, you will have 1 million subscribers one day.
What a video! This really does summarise life in Western and Eastern City extravagantly!
Thank you so much for uploading I have been waiting for 2 weeks, being excited to see ur next upload!
Keep up the work!
Happy you enjoyed it!!
You absolutely nailed the whole intro sequence. Had me in stitches
The only red roosters in the east is at the airport, because that is where the bogans need to go to fly to Bali.
It's at the Sydney domestic airport, champ.
@@shellcovejon So they can eat on their way to the Gold Coast
😂, not for long #buildthewall
I grew up in Greystanes and can confirm I have been to Bali, Gold Coast, and Red Rooster. I don’t live in the Stanes anymore. I do recall Big Rooster chicken on Villawood Road near Granville in the early 80s and I think that may have been the first version of RR though I am not sure. We had the first maccas, the first KFC, etc. It has always been the case.
There’s also the random one sitting on the border of summer hill and Ashfield
As someone who moved from the south (The Shire), to the west, to the east, then the inner west, and now the lower north shore (where my shitty car parks next to Maseratis and Mercs)...the divides are very stark. At this point I feel like an imposter no matter where I go, but never so much as in my current suburb, where I rent and my neighbour's properties are valued at $3.5 million. I moved here during lockdown, and now I can't even get a toe in for another rental property with all the competition, so I feel stuck and scared to move. All the trees are nice, but you won't find fast food joints nearby. I now work in Concord, and have never been happier to see an El Jannah, again.
Bradfield looks so promising!
Unfortunately if people think Bradfield will feel like the Eastern suburbs they are delusional. It's in the middle of nowhere with horrendous long commute times to anywhere at the best of times, is freezing in winter and sweltering hot in summer. On weekends it will feel like a ghost town. Most of the accomodation will be inhabited by low paid shift workers from the 24 hour airport.
The actual eastern suburbs is one of the worst places in sydney
So boring and the people are so fake
Came to say this. This man knows ^
Great video! Divided further, the enclaves across Sydney are incredibly segmented across both socio-economics and cultural divides.
Sydney markets itself as a unified city, but it’s lots of groups living side by side.
I look forward to watching future videos of yours!
Thank you!!
Difficult to get a perspective on a city as a whole, and mostly people only experience small parts of the city-buribia and are comfortable there, and some alienation experience venturing into the unknown. Socially it would be good to identify ourselves with some natural features of the landscapes we inhabit, rather focus wholly on modern man-made identity.(like footy team , postcode ) e.g. as people we like in catchments , on soil derived from specific geology, originally with vegetation communities and indigenous history, our public places and wild places are important to connect with natural features of where we live, participate in community activities beyond the walking around a Westfield shopping center !!. It is healthy to identify with a smaller sub-region of a city , but need ways to tie the various sub-region together as well; interaction across the divides. Suburban sprawl and urban heat island effect combined with poor provision of public transport , public open space and services, means that perhaps we are not getting the best out of our newer neighborhoods IMHO 😕
Definitely. I live in the Inner West, and the divide exists even in the one council area. Getting from the 'poorer' side (Dulwich Hill, Tempe, Marrickville, Petersham etc) to the 'posh' side (Balmain, Rozelle, etc) is nigh impossible via public transport without making a detour through the CBD. Even the main roads don't really connect to each other properly. A 5-7km distance becomes a half hour drive or an hour by bus/train. Even the light rail doesn't connect the two sides.
Red Rooster is so underrated and has some healthier options than a lot of other fast food
Your audio and editing has improved a lot, love your analysis. Keep it up
Jokes on you, Inner West represent, we get a bit of both 😂
Funny enough, while I know about the Red Rooster Line, just a chicken perspective, I find Sydney divided into 3 camps, the Red Rooster Fans (mostly West and some Inner West), the El Jannah Fans (mostly West) and the Chargrill Charlie Fans (Northern and Eastern Suburbs). The Tripoint would be around Burwood, Ashfield and Drummoyne in the inner west, as all three branches are in this area :P
But on a serious side of things, I used to work for a Credit Card concierge company where the wealthy card holders would call up for requests. My clients based in the Eastern Suburbs had a strong mentality where they feel more superior in the East than the West, while my clients based in the West, while liking the finer things life, show both respect to the East and West and they were usually chill people to deal with.
Also, to note on our 2021 lockdown, correct me if I am wrong but the LGAs that were subjected to harsher lockdown conditions (me living in one of them) were all under Labor local governments, none from the Liberal side of things... (that's enough politics from me lol)
What about Oporto?
We see that here in the states as well. Usually the fried chicken fast food chains (KFC, Popeyes, Churches) will build out more in lower to moderate economic areas where the demographics show a higher African/Latino American population. It all goes along with an historical property movement that was occurred in the US called redlining that was allowed pre-civil rights movement. The effects of that are still evident, especially in the American South..
Perth has a similar divide; but albeit a little different-
-The North-South (of the river) divide
Rich in the north, Poor in the south
-The "Golden Triangle"
A small portion of the city geographically shaped like a triangle that houses all of the city's elites
-The acutal L shape divide
The western suburbs, The coastal North and the River suburbs towards the south are all considered well developed and home to the most well off people in the city
also, Red Rooster's origins are in Perth, Kelmscott more specifically which is one of the lowest socio-economic areas of our city; despite the store being set up by an incredibly wealthy family at that time that are from our city's western area.
I figured the north south divide was the other way around when you take Applecross and Balga into account
The poorer areas in Perth are the south Eastern suburbs
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
Excellent video!! I studied urban planning for 4 years at uni and wish this video would have been used in our education material!!
Make it easy to interchange between the T9 and T2 lines, running between platforms with 1min changes or 30min waits are RIDICULOUS at Strathfield INTERCHANGE STATION
As some one that has spent the majority of their life in Parramatta LGA and specifically in the area around the RRL, it’s crazy how life on the RRL has changed over the last 10 years, let alone since the Olympics!
The joke I heard about that divide about 20 years ago was that the only reason an eastern suburbanite would travel west would be to go to Lilianfels.
I grew up and worked in Blacktown my hole life till 3 years ago when I started working on the trains and noticed that Sydney is super divided up it’s extremely dis heartening
Super interesting video man, keep up the good work I love it
I think its worth mentioning that the extreme low density out west makes it impractical to service everyone well with public transport, forcing people to drive. I lived in 1 location where it was a 10km round trip to the nearest shop, thats nearly two dollars in petrol, just to go to the shop.
Once again, what a great video. Looking forward to the next one. 👍x10
I recall looking daily at the case numbers map during delta lockdown and it's amazing how closely case numbers followed the line - high cases anywhere south of the harbour/ Parramatta River and west of Old Northern Road. I believe it's due to higher average household size and multi-generational families under the same roof. As for Red Rooster, like most fast food they do well on busy highways in areas not well serviced by public transport, such as the outer west.
also because we were forced to be tested to go to work while the east wasnt... i remember very clearly locked down tight while taking zoom calls with my colleagues in the east playing golf and going for a swim at the beach.
Thanks for this video. As you mentioned, this was clearly evident during the delta lock down we had last year 😬, and I always wondered why there is no Harris Farms in the West 😁, There was one in Baulkam Hills and it got closed
There was one on merrylands, not sure if it's still there
Nsw handled covid so badly compared to any other state in Australia.
Another great video. Being born bred and still residing in the south west, and seeing all corners of sydney everyday for work one big reason I would never go east unless I'm being paid is it would take 3 hours to drive there. Takes more than half an hour to drive from cabra to parra. If you drove to anywhere east of King georges/homebush bay dve/lane cove rd and back from over here would eat up half the day. Takes forever to get anywhere
Interesting. My family are all from Penrith, we all live nearish to Brisbane now. They always talk about how dodgy the area they used to live was, made it sound like it was the middle of nowhere, but when I had looked it up it looked like they lived super close to the CBD.
I travel regularly throughout all of Sydney for work, I am always delighted by the honesty and practical mindedness of the many people I meet in Western Sydney but dismayed by the disconnect in the East. Maybe if they want a new exhaust system for their BMW they should have to come pick it up from St Mary's. Real people, wonderful people and real jobs that do real shit and get stuff done. So many different interpretations of the classic mullet and every one of them owned and worn proudly and I am not taking the piss, Western Sydney is the hands, feet, heart and soul, the rest would perish without it.
I find some Eastern suburbs overrated and would rather live in western suburbs like Glenwood, Parklea, Stanhope Gardens, Kellyville Ridge, The Ponds, Schofields, etc. I am in Sydney Olympic Park, what I consider a hidden gem of a suburb in whole of Sydney, and this is considered Western Sydney. Then just South is Auburn, is a stereotypical Western Sydney suburb. In short: Western Sydney is not a monolith that can be painted with the same colour.
I can't speak about Schofields with any authority but I do find it interesting that most of the suburbs you mention as wishlist suburbs are pretty new build / greenfield suburbs in The Hills Shire; Parklea even being the location of Homeworld (a home builder's showcase of homes you can buy to have built on your lot) back in the 00s. It definitely feels like the Hills are in a different socioeconomic league than stereotypical Western Sydney (like, say, Blacktown or Fairfield), being full of professionals and their families.
As someone who now resides in south-west Sydney, and have spent time living at Bondi (Tamarama) previously, I can say with confidence that there are just as many "bogans" living there as the west; only they are from a different socio-economical sector. Just because they live in a supposedly more affluent area, does not preclude those folks from acting just as crass and uncouth as those from the west. Having said that the west and south-west are experiencing gentrification at an astounding rate. There are so many wonderful places to visiting and hang out at out here that I find the prospect of visiting the CBD on my day offs to be a daunting preposition.
Which leads me to my next point: I am so sick and tired of seeing top 10 food lists online that hardly ever include restaurants beyond the inner west. It's almost like these people feel Sydney does not extend beyond Newtown. When they only include one or two places for Vietnamese or Korean restaurants from out west, and the rest of the list are made of of places from the inner west, CBD, and the Eastern Suburbs? That really grinds my gear.
You have overlooked climatic conditions that affect where people want to live in order to be comfortable. Until relatively recently in Sydney's history, air conditioning/central heating in the typical family home was either non-existent or extremely expensive, and Sydney can be a very hot place in the summer and a cold place in winter depending on where you live.
The climate by the coast and along the rivers & estuaries of the Harbour is generally more temperate and has fewer extremes due to the effects of latent water temperature and sea breezes, and this is the reason why traditionally it was more desirable to live along the coast and Sydney Harbour; the maximum & minimum temperature differences between Sydney CBD and Penrith can be as much as 10-15C on any given day in either summer or winter. Of course, in recent years modern air conditioning and insulated homes have become the norm across the entire city, however old habits die hard as they say when it comes to people's perceptions.
The cost of living in the west was already cheaper due to these factors anyway, so low income earners and new migrants on the lower socioeconomic scale continue to move to the west for its more affordable housing and access to their pre-existing ethnic communities where they feel comfortable to settle. And by the way, pretty much every single major city in the world has a similar line in the map that divides it into higher & lower socioeconomic lines; it may be a river or canal, a railway line or freeway, or even the boundary line of a chain of fast-food chicken restaurants.
Ah good ol' Red Rooter (one of ours in Western Australia had the 's' knocked out, it was famous). There weren't any other big fast food franchises in WA except for Pizza Hut, so it was a bit of a treat when we went to the Big Smoke
Great observation! If you do the same thing with Oporto resturaunts, there is an Oporto line which closely matches the Red Roster line, but to the east.
They are owned by the same company, so it's easy to see why there is a close match
Born and bred, as well as worked in the lower north shore, life would have me that I married my husband who lives south west. Had not much knowledge of the West nor been out here til I got to know him. And Im liking it! Community is great, friendly and keen to explore more as I've been coddled up near the Chats- CBD most my life.
Mate, you are doing awsome stuff. Please do a little background of yourself and why you are making content. Love your work.
Worked at the Cross City Tunnel when it was opening. Was skeptical of the user projections being touted by the marketing department, main reason being I didn’t think that many people from the eastern suburbs would go to the star city everyday. Couldn’t think of any other reason why they would possibly need to use it.
Cross city tunnel is good to get from Victoria road to Anzac Parade. You can cut in on the Eastern distributor which is free southbound. What they really need to build is a cross Parramatta tunnel linking Windsor road at Northmead to Woodville road at Granville. But it will never happen.
I live in the northern beaches and contradictory to what people may think public transport and a few other issues are not up to the standards that they should be. We have very little public transport and we are very easy to lockdown with a total of 3 roads connecting the beaches to greater Sydney. most of the benefits talked about in the video are in eastern Sydney mainly in the eastern suburbs and lower Northshore. I can say honestly, I don't go out west, if I do its not hard in a car but if I try to get out west on public transport my trip times can increase dramatically. The west is not easy to get to and that stops me leaving the east much. I just have no need to go out west or to get red rooster. But great video
There's a reason why the northern beaches are very hard to get to from the west ( and vice versa).
@@zhm96 yeah very true
Stumbled on you through the algorithm, great video. Love your style!🎉 new sub from me
There was a very similar phenomenon in London in the '90s and 00's when dozens of independent fast-food "Fried Chicken" shops, loosely modelled on the Colonel Sanders KFC chain, opened up in the less affluent areas of the city. These were concentrated in a broad arc covering south, south-east, east and north-east London roughly from Brixton in the south-west, through Camberwell, Peckham and Lewisham and then heading north over the river to Poplar, Stratford, East Ham, Hackney, Whitechapel and onwards to Tottenham.
I used to refer to it as "The Fried Chicken Belt".
What I found most amusing was that most of them gave themselves names that sounded like they had some connection to KFC ... Tennessee Fried Chicken, Mississippi Fried Chicken, Ohio Fried Chicken etc. etc. etc., and my favourite "Kennsy Fried Chicken," which I recall was on The Mile End Road, and they invariably decorated their premises in the same colours as the KFC chain, lots of red and white stripes lots of chicken logos. 😁
😂😂😂Tennessee Fried Chicken, now that brings back memories. Had a chuckle at your comment because about 25 years ago when I had a 2yr work visa in England, there was a TFC almost directly downstairs from the flat me and 7 other backpackers were renting at Goldhawk rd, Shepperd's Bush. The food was average but when you wanted some quick, cheap food to eat because you were to drunk to cook or go further than 100m it was a Godsend.
@@gavreynolds2689 I do remember there were also a handful of similar places on the west-side of London in the less well-off areas, Shepherds Bush, Kilburn etc. (a kind of smaller "Fried Chicken Belt" if you like).
Shepherds Bush has been steadily going upmarket over the past 15-20 years and I've just had a look on Google Street View and there is a place called "Chicken Kitchen" on Goldhawk Road on the corner of Devenport Road ... maybe that is the ghost of the "Tennessee Fried Chicken" that you used to go to ... nowadays it's all black and white and "tasteful" with none of the tacky red and white "KFC-Themed" decor that used to be mandatory for such places.
There are still a few "Tennessee Fried Chicken" shops in London ... one in Kilburn, one in Wood Green and one in East Ham, all of which are areas that Estate Agents might describe as "Up and Coming", rather than "sought after", "exclusive" or "prime". There is also a "Dixy Chicken" close to where I live but then I do live "out-east"... 😀
@Schooey There are still some of the KFC clones around but nowhere near as many as there were 20-30 years back. There are plenty of genuine KFC places around of course.
The KFC clones tend to be concentrated well away from "well-off" areas, the genuine KFCs are a bit more widely spread and most "town centres" or "retail parks" will have one.
I have no idea why, but this conjures up a need for a Red Dodge Charger, with the Red Rooster logo on the roof. Now what to call it... Great video. Thanks for sharing.
housing affordability would definitely have a part to play! Parramatta is fast becoming it's own CBD. I'm saving for my own home and wouldn't even consider purchasing in the east or north shore. The west is fast expanding, has an awesome train network and slightly lower cost of living (fuel is often several cents cheaper).
Absolutely, this. It's definitely by far and away the single biggest factor driving the divide. The power of NIMBYism ensures that precious little affordable housing or commission homes get built in the east. Until the property market gets fixed, then you can mess about all you like with transport and "new CBDs", and you might have *some* effect, but the only fundamental change will come with better housing policy.
Lets be honest, many new housing developments in West and South West Sydney " 45 > 55 km from Sydney CBD " have an average of 350sq metres of land and of which most of that is taken up by the house. The median price for a single story home and land package " 3 to 4 bedrooms " is around $650k > $750k, which is over inflated considering the factors. Not really bang for buck?
@@Kustom2170 Zero bang for buck. We've been looking at buying in the west and it's just one big "Yikes". Provided we can get job transfers we've decided to relocate to the hunter region instead. It's a total frikkin nightmare. We're just not OK with dropping 600k+ on a place that doesn't even have a yard.... even if it does have Red Rooster nearby.
You can afford in Parramatta? Do you mean a shoebox apartment
@@lmlmd2714 yea it's ridiculous and ive always wanted to move up north the the Hunter region but i cant get work there and its too far from family. Maybe in retirement we will move 😂
Loved this analogy. I’ve always thought red rooster in this manner.
There used to be a Red Rooster in Crows Nest (lower North Shore, sort of) back in the early 1990's. Wonder how many other "outliers" have disappeared since then?
I grew up in central NSW and have worked in several cities west of the mountains, Wagga, Bathurst, Goulburn, Canbera. Work associates in the Sydney area had real problems crossing the mountains. For instance, for ten years we had a monthly work meeting of 30 to 40 people from all over and we met at Lidcombe, which is probably just on the Red Rooster line. People would travel the distance from Lithgow, Bathurst, Wellington, Junee, many places out west. When the Olympics were on in 2000 we suggested we move the meeting to Lithgow because all the traffic in Lidcombe would make access and parking difficult. The Sydney people complained about the extra distance and would rather call off the meetings over the Olympic rush. Their response, 'Well I just won't come to the meeting that month' carried the vote. It's almost as if being more than some magical distance from the Pacific Ocean endangers the lives of many Sydney residents.
Ahhh so this is why Red rooster exists. Not for food but for division. You're the only person I've ever seen eat at a Red rooster
You don't get out much do you?
red rooseter is hands down the best fast food when drunk or hungover. Kfc is a close 2nd but red rooster is cheaper.
East Sydney resident spotted 😂
Great job mate. Just found your channel and subscribed.
Well said!!! I grew up in the East. Went to school at Vaucluse. A government school that was closed. Lived in the inner West. Went to uni in the west. Then I lived in the west and worked at Parramatta, Blacktown, and Mt Druitt. Now I live in the the South of Sydney. What a city. You are right, people judge by postcode.
Great video. As the red rooster line follows roads, a study of historical Sydney maps would be interesting to try and find when these streets began to form, the A3 at the south, James Rouse Drive, A2 the Old Windsor Road. A couple of the Sydney's Eastern major roads link to Indigenous tracks are these roads similar, are they modern trade routes or did they seperate colonial farming?
It's interesting to see where the line meets the coast. I lived in Cronulla for a few years, initially in an overpriced sharehouse. After that in a decently priced rental flat but I moved out of Sydney right before the riots. Cronulla was a weird mix of east and west until that point. I doubt any reasonably priced units exist there any more.
I lived in the hills district for 10 years then moved to Fairfield and didn’t realise how different it is. South west is like the forgotten part of the city
Love your content dude
Hi Sharath
I agree with the whole issue about people not venturing out of their own suburb or travelling that far around Sydney. I'm from the Southern Highlands and went to university at Western Sydney in Penrith, and I found that people from the east had misconceptions and had no idea about other places or suburbs out west.
Great video! Very interesting to learn about a dividing line in Sydney. I live just on the edge of the dividing line on the east. I guess I get the best of both worlds.
Lmao I love how the line doesn’t even bother going down to the shire
Well done on the video mate! I can draw many parallels to Melbourne, which has the same kind of socioeconomic east/west skew too.
Nowhere near to the same degree as Sydney though
@@joshanderson9391 one time a southsider at uni was telling me about how they had to go really far out west and how scared they were the whole time... footscray... they went to footscray.
Never heard of it.
When we moved to Sydney we were told about the latte line. Which follows the same track.
Chargrill Charlie’s all the way…..
No mention of the Northern beaches lockdown of late 2020/early 2021….. it was literally hell trying to find a soy frappe chai latte during those dark days.
Let’s talk about the other east west divide. The great sandstone wall. I moved from the central west to Sydney and work in a massive company. The number of my co-workers who have never traveled further west than Penrith is staggering. There’s a saying in the central west “NSW stands for Newcastle Sydney Wollongong” because according to news , state government and public opinion no one lives West of the Great Dividing Range.
Im from the five dock in the inner west, i have the best of both worlds. I pay massive rent and im broke all the time, but i can walk down the street and be on the water in 2 minutes lol. I go out west heaps and love it out there, great food, culture and heaps more space to drive and park your car, not to mention the abundance of Red roosters. Lol
All the time I was thinking the answer to dismantling the divide was to build more Red Roosters in the east, and you came to the same conclusion!😂
What we need is a fast food chain for the east... I dunno, call it something like "BONDI BURGER"..... oh, wait...
They need to make it kosher first before that can happen
This will help me in my Geography HSC exam.
Loved the classic tassie dig haha
this is the best year 10 geography project I've ever seen
Hey, be fair, when I (and the authors of the Honi Soit article; we were in uni at the same time and I knew one of the authors through uni societies) was in year 10 like, more than a decade ago, GIS was not covered in compulsory geography and it was a first year uni topic instead. Instead we learned how to read topographic maps and synoptic charts instead
Great to see Professor Piracha still at it! I had him back in the 2000s at UWS :)
Going to a private school on the upper north shore we used to think anything west of the north shore line was “west” like Ryde or Normanhurst
Anywhere North of Chatswood is the Western Suburbs!
@@shellcovejon LMAO are you serious
I used to live in the Eastern Suburb, but I move to the west, I never came back to the East. New Shopping Centres are sprawling, Affordable investment properties, Cheap diverse food, More infrastructures are being built, New Suburbs development, more public transport being built, Less pollution, More open spaces, No annoying traffic, and No packed public transport like sardines.
Just found you, great channel!
Such a well made video
This video is sponsored by red Rooster!!! What a great way to give the WA based corporation free advertising! Even though you are right about the Sydney divide. But it is not just Sydney, and this is where your channel, also other Sydney and the Opal Zone based channels lack talking about, is the Regional areas of NSW. The regional areas have some great planning, unfortunately, some areas have not. It isn't just the residential and commercial zones, it is the lack of Public Transport linking towns within the bigger areas. Trains South West of Goulburn only run either early in the morning (3am here in Wagga) or just after lunch. The afternoon one in Wagga is OK for me, as I can go to Albury for an afternoon/evening and go back home at 11pm. But the thing is, Regional travel in the South, is timetabled for the convenience of SYDNEY people! How do we fix this? I will be waiting for your ideas! PS, I love the channel, and the ideas of public transport and roads of Sydney!
I enjoy watching your videos. Can you make one about Sydney streets? Why they are so curved and how roads and suburbs are named. Thanks.
I love your western Sydney perspective to city planning. As a fellow western Sydney planner i 100% agree with the stigma of being from the west.
This is even evident now with the referendum with the east of the line mostly voting yes and the west of the line mostly voting no
You may not realise but the company owning red rooster has another branded chain, Oporto…that brand predominates east of the chicken line. So they’re using different brands for different markets. It’s not arbitrary- it’s based on a detailed understanding of the demographics and what brand will resonate
Oporto is definitely a product born out of the East. The first location opened at Bondi Beach in 1986, with the chain’s Portuguese roots being tied to the founder being from Portugal himself. The fact it started in Bondi Beach is also clearly where the Bondi Burger got its name from. I can clearly remember more Oporto locations in the East compared to the West, but then again I’ve always grown up close to that Eastern area.
I love this channel. I don't see Sydney changing significantly in this aspect of its culture, however. In every city in the world the wealthy will always be found in one of two places:
- Beachside Suburbs near surf beaches
- In mansions in rolling hills on larger properties
It's just the way she goes. Rich people want to look tan and fit and live the coastal lifestyle. I'd love to see video about Brisbane's North/South divide.
Thanks for the narration, Mike Tyson
I thought this was going to be a trivia vid, but it very much a thoughtful look at the socio economic divide in Sydney. Well worth a watch. Oh, and Red Rooster has the best chicken... never overcooked and always juicy. Try it.
I enjoyed your video. The red rooster line was once called the Burwood line, for the same socio economic reason. I have lived in Blacktown for 60 years and have never been raped or murdered. ' Although my car was broken into one night while I was parked in the city. I grew up in St Peters when it was a working class area
Part of Western Sydney's transport problem may be caused by the possibility that many of the planing staff live in the eastern suburbs and do the planning from computer stats that may be months or years old.
Another view by "Easties" is that it is quicker and easier for Westies to travel to the east than it is for them to travel west. One comment I got from a '"Northie" was the we(Westies) got all the motorways. (now tolled)
He was most put out when I mentioned that the main reason for the M2 was to get fire engines from Blacktown to the city Fast, because the eastern suburb roads were too narrow for the big units and ladder trucks needed for the high rise building
Quite frankly I'm very happy about the division. The beer is cheaper and we can still by fresh produce from local farms at Llandillo I think us Westies are better off without the snobs
Very happy to hear you haven’t been murdered, not even once.
thanks
@@littlecatfeet9064
@@georgesmith4509 😂
Thank you so much for bringing awareness to the East and West divide, especially when it came to the covid restrictions back in the early days. The Western residents were suppressed, lied to and ridiculed by everyone, even police. Very very unfair treatment.
I thought I was the only one who noticed all this.
“save the Gelato for the snobs, save the steak for the fobs”
Very well made videos.
Lived here 15yrs now in so many parts of it. Having grown up in the NT and travelled all over the world there is nowhere in Sydney I would consider unsafe. I've walked solo to the unlit carpark at Mt Druitt in the early morning after a night out and it felt just as safe as Chatswood or the CBD.