Close Menu
Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • I like my Lower House shaken, not stirred: LNP and Greens look to new leadership
    • 2025 USU Board Election Provisional Results Announced
    • 77 Years of Nakba: Thousands protest in Sydney against Israel’s Occupation
    • جذوري my roots
    • Patterns of a War-Torn Conscience: Towards a Healing Conceptualisation of Praxis
    • Enmore Psychogeography
    • The night has its own logic
    • Yield
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    • Writing Comp
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Saturday, May 17
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    • Comedy
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    Honi Soit
    Home»Perspective

    Somewhere only we know: Bankstown

    Community, stigma, and cohesion over division: Alexandra Kovacs reminisces on Bankstown.
    By Alexandra KovacsMarch 20, 2018 Perspective 4 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    To many Sydney locals, Bankstown is either a punchline or a nightmare. The very mention of the notorious south-western Sydney suburb raises brows and causes smiles to twist in disgust as though a rat-tailed lad in TNs and a faux Gucci bum-bag has appeared out of thin air.

    Bankstown conjures mental images of dark tunnels where glass shards and graffiti are the only signs of life. You might think of a place where Centrelink and the police station share the same line; where rough words are exchanged like currency. Maybe you imagine that instead of alarms, the people of Bankstown wake to wailing ambulances and the lingering smell of gunpowder. Or maybe you have simply dismissed it as that place where ‘Moey Dw’ lives. For some of these stereotypes, you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

    But when I think of Bankstown, I think of the warm, knowing smile of the post-office cashier at Bankstown Centro and my second kitchen, Bankstown Sports Club. When I see the 2200 postcode, faces, names, and places flash into my mind like developing polaroids.

    Everyone seems to have an opinion about the suburb that gave Sydney cheap HSPs and popularised the word ‘eshayz’. As someone who has actually lived in Bankstown, I could tell you about cops being shot three doors down and disgruntled boyfriends pacing the street with machetes. And how that’s just another night in Bankstown.

    At USyd, where less than 20 per cent of the student body is from Western Sydney, I’ve always felt uncertain about broaching the topic of where I lived with new friends. While we have all seen a mate or a juicy meme mock USyd as NSW’s most pretentious tertiary institution, the reality is that there has long been, and continues to be, a divide between ‘Sydney’ and ‘Western Sydney’. After all, young adults from Sydney have two favourite questions: “Where do you live?” and “What school did you go to?”

    So would you believe me if I said that West is best? A mecca where authentic yum cha and cheap kebabs meet on one corner—the humble and resilient character of Bankstown locals shines through in the small businesses which bring bustle to the suburb. Before you loved us Westies for El Jannah, Jasmin 1 was a hive of neon lights and sequined belly dancers, the steady yet erratic beat of the tubel drum, and the inviting smells of Lebanese food.

    Bankstown Sports Club also stands out in my memories of culture and family as a world-within-a-world that guaranteed a fast feast. Cobblestone floors and earthy terracotta arches form La Piazza, Bankstown Sports’ award-winning Italian dining precinct. Under Peroni umbrellas and gas lamp lights, a theatre of jumping flour and hand-spun woodfired pizzas play out from noon to night. With vines and makeshift laundry lines swaying from terrace balconies, surrounded by the best pizzas in the south-west, I feel closer to the back streets of Verona than the social deviance that plays out in news headlines about Bankstown.

    Following regular face-lifts over the last decade, Bankstown Sports Club thrives now more than ever. With its own craft beer microbrewery and marble cocktail bar, some may say that Bankstown has developed a taste for class. Bankstown Sports Club prevails as a mid-week hub of activity for locals, where live bands and ballroom dancing stretch into the evening and Thursday trivia packs out the main lounge.

    I always feel somewhat uneasy about returning to Bankstown, a bit like visiting an old friend who hasn’t changed in years when you have. Yet I always leave with a full belly, memories relived and, as the newspapers say, another machete wound.

    bankstown bankstown sports centre somewhere only we know

    Keep Reading

    My Name is Anonymous and I’m an Alcoholic

    Loss, to which I return often.

    Losing My Religion: Elegies from an Atheist who desperately wants to believe in God

    In Defence of Diaspora Poetry

    Does Grief Fracture or Fuel Faith?

    Put The Rose-Coloured Glasses Back On!

    Just In

    I like my Lower House shaken, not stirred: LNP and Greens look to new leadership

    May 17, 2025

    2025 USU Board Election Provisional Results Announced

    May 16, 2025

    77 Years of Nakba: Thousands protest in Sydney against Israel’s Occupation

    May 16, 2025

    جذوري my roots

    May 16, 2025
    Editor's Picks

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    We Will Be Remembered As More Than Administrative Errors

    May 7, 2025

    NSW universities in the red as plague of cuts hit students & staff

    April 30, 2025

    Your Compliance Will Not Save You

    April 16, 2025
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2025 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.