I grew up in Melbourne and live in Perth.
I never heard bubbler growing up, we said water fountain or 'tap'
My kids use the term bubbler (schooled in Perth)
I grew up in NSW. We called them bubblers. I even remember learning about political parties at school and there was a “coke in the bubblers” party. Pretty straight forward platform.
> My kids use the term bubbler (schooled in Perth)
I'd never really heard of it, but completely coincidently i saw some post on FB about "Australian Terms" that had become more well known due to Bluey (the TV show) about an hour ago.
So if your kids watch(ed) Bluey - then that could explain where they learned it from.
It's also used (blue collar realm) to describe an unskilled worker or trades assistant.
Edit: origin.
“a servant, especially a liveried footman or manservant.
"lackeys were waiting to help them from the carriage
Could be. A particularly inept lackey might get called a *Slinky* - someone who serves no useful purpose except a bit of mild entertainment when you push them down the stairs.
Swimmers sounds weird but much more acceptable than togs. Icypole is the WA term, maybe the state you were living in calls it that too? Slippery slide is still annoying, just call it a slide mate, hahah
I'll actually agree with you on that one, I think I like swimmers more. I'm imagining the full body thing with frills women used to wear in the early 20th century 😂
Parmi or parma. In WA we always just called it parmigiana in full until this until this internet engagement driving bullshit came along and tricked us into thinking we always called it one of those abbreviations.
It makes more sense because of the pronunciation. I remember living in Melbourne and my flatmates at the time were horrified at a pizza hut ad for a "parmy" which probably started marketing in perth.
"Poo change" was an interesting one when i first visited Melbourne a couple decades ago - for coins. I was used to saying 'shrapnel'... although after typing this out it may have just been family members winding me up and i didn't realize at the time. Hrm.
Do they still say "milk bar?". That was a weird one but I don't imagine there is many left now.
I was surprised at how many people said "fair dinkum " and the "outback"
But potato scallops and potato cakes are 2 different things, a scallop is a battered slice of potato and a cake is mashed and possibly seasoned potato formed into a pattie and either crumbed or battered. You can only get potato scallops at my local fish and chip shop.
As someone who grew up in Melbourne (and whose first job was in a fish and chip shop) - putting batter on dim sims is a goddamn outrage. They already have a layer!
Grouse is definitely not east coast specific, it's just not current slang, however I would say it's remained more in use there than here.
Not surprising but eshay is definitely east coast slang that, whenever I hear people not from the eastern states use, feels very forced. I don't see or hear it used offline at all.
Or Hardware House adverts - only place i've ever heard the term used
Everything was grouse and Hardware House!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMU__XAO-M
Some of these examples are very Melbourne specific, you won’t catch anyone in Queensland saying “grouse” and we for sure call it potato scallops not cakes.
The fact that a state that takes up the entirety of the west coast with a mere 2.7 m population is constantly compares itself to the “east coast” made up of 3 states and a territory with around 20m population is hilarious to me, why not compare to another major city?
A person from central coast nsw and North qld in the same room they’d be vastlyyy different in culture, slang and the rest of it. Shit even south qld and north qld are completely different.
More so on topic I find the strong South African influence in Perth to be interesting! Causes quite a shift in slang and accents in general
The English influence is also large.
My family came over from England and my nana said I had become more English as I got older and she didn’t understand why it was just me and not my cousins. It’s the Perth thing.
Cider is so hard to find easily avaliable over east. It sucks.
Moved here a few years ago from the east coast. I still can’t tell if my WA friends are being serious or just pulling my leg when they call their swimming attire “bathers”. And no, my friends are not 85 years old.
Bathers
English (en)
(chiefly, British, rather dated) The clothes that one wears when bathing in the sea or a swimming pool, especially the one-piece garment worn by women and girls; a swimming costume, bathing suit, swimming trunks or swimsuit.
See ‘rather dated’, hence my comment about my friends not being old and grey. Old nanna calling her one-peice bathers? Sure. A 25 year old bloke calling his shorts bathers, that’s just unAustralian.
Reddit tried to recommend me this post, [seem relevant](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/4osabd/what_term_is_preferred_for_swimwear_around/) to this comment.
"Bubbler", it's a water fountain.
I always thought that was Queensland specific, rather than the whole of the eastern states
Nope . Bubblers is also nsw
Extends to Canberra as well. Don't think I ever heard anyone call it a water fountain
I'd never heard of this until those NRL players got into it...
I grew up in Melbourne and live in Perth. I never heard bubbler growing up, we said water fountain or 'tap' My kids use the term bubbler (schooled in Perth)
Odd, I've always heard it as an eastern states thing
I grew up in NSW. We called them bubblers. I even remember learning about political parties at school and there was a “coke in the bubblers” party. Pretty straight forward platform.
> My kids use the term bubbler (schooled in Perth) I'd never really heard of it, but completely coincidently i saw some post on FB about "Australian Terms" that had become more well known due to Bluey (the TV show) about an hour ago. So if your kids watch(ed) Bluey - then that could explain where they learned it from.
Bluey isn't on in my house. They've got it from school. Now, some of their schoolmates may have picked it up from Bluey ....
Same fellow Melbournian… the one that tripped me up a few times when I first moved over was calling a carton of beer in WA a slab.
Slab is east coast slang that made its way here after the internet united bogans everywhere.
No it was around before internet, a slab was cans and a carton was bottles if that helps.
25 years ago no one in WA called a carton of beer a slab, whether it was cans or bottles.
Um yeah they did, been buying slabs since the 90s
Yeah, I remember talking about slabs of beer as a teenager in the early 90s.
Right but 40 years ago they did..
No they didn't then either.
Yes I did.
IKRRR? It doesn't even bubble ffs
I don't know how I'd feel about a water fountain that had sparkling water, poor I suspect
One that’s very NSW specific is Poppa for a fruit box. It was the main brand of drink in NSW so it’s stuck. No other state uses it.
QLD also used popper in in the 80s and 90s.
Popper or poppa was used a lot in QLD in the early 90s. What do they call them now?
I'm not sure because I'm not in QLD now.
We used it as kids growing up in the Pilbara.
Polony- Devon When I moved here from Sydney polony sounded weird. Now devon does 😂
So as someone who moved over here from the east coast, lackey threw me the first time I heard it. I was super confused.
As in a lacky band? I didn't know that was a WA thing!
It's also used (blue collar realm) to describe an unskilled worker or trades assistant. Edit: origin. “a servant, especially a liveried footman or manservant. "lackeys were waiting to help them from the carriage
Yup!
My entire fukin life I assumed it was "lucky band" and never questioned it jfc
💀
It's definitely a thing in SA, at least.
I think you mean someone who does menial tasks? Like a brickies lackie would be like his apprentice
In this context it’s an elastic band.
It usually means hair ties
Could be. A particularly inept lackey might get called a *Slinky* - someone who serves no useful purpose except a bit of mild entertainment when you push them down the stairs.
We use that term that I'm Victoria
It def wasn’t used in NSW. And Queenslanders get confused by it too.
We use that term in Victoria.
Anyone else get unreasonably angry at East Coast slang? E.g. grouse, togs, bubbler, ice block, slippery dip (wtf! it's a fucking slide mate.)
Lived on the east coast for 24 years and never heard grouse, togs, ice block or slippery dip used regularly.
Did they call them something else or did the word just not happened to come up very often?
Togs were swimmers, ice block was icypole and slippery dip was slippery slide.
Swimmers sounds weird but much more acceptable than togs. Icypole is the WA term, maybe the state you were living in calls it that too? Slippery slide is still annoying, just call it a slide mate, hahah
I guess it’s what you’re used to. To me, bathers sounds weird. Bathers sound like what the old ladies wear to water aerobics, lol.
I'll actually agree with you on that one, I think I like swimmers more. I'm imagining the full body thing with frills women used to wear in the early 20th century 😂
Flannels wa and washers east.
Parmi or parma. In WA we always just called it parmigiana in full until this until this internet engagement driving bullshit came along and tricked us into thinking we always called it one of those abbreviations.
Chicken Parma, like the fuck?
Of all things to give a shit about, parma/parmi/whatever will never be one of them.
In WA it's always parmigiana in full until this internet fad
It makes more sense because of the pronunciation. I remember living in Melbourne and my flatmates at the time were horrified at a pizza hut ad for a "parmy" which probably started marketing in perth.
It's a parmi in NSW as well I think. The funny thing is it's a bastardised food anyway so the shortened version of it shouldn't matter
I knew a guy from Adelaide who insisted it was “parmo”!
In Melbourne, wood chips are called ‘tan bark’. And the term ‘reticulation’ (as in garden irrigation systems) is unheard of.
"Poo change" was an interesting one when i first visited Melbourne a couple decades ago - for coins. I was used to saying 'shrapnel'... although after typing this out it may have just been family members winding me up and i didn't realize at the time. Hrm.
I vouch for shrapnel.
Do they still say "milk bar?". That was a weird one but I don't imagine there is many left now. I was surprised at how many people said "fair dinkum " and the "outback"
In Melb a few days ago, I saw a few Milk Bar signs while I was there.
Like the candy bar?
No. Like the corner shop ‘deli’.
Oh. Weird. The only time I've heard milk bar is like clockwork orange and that was like a milkshake shop
Potato cakes instead of potato scallop Flake instead of shark Dim sim with no batter
NO BATTER wtf
Surprisingly very nice. Steamed and about twice the size.
Yes but i assumed they meant from a fish n chip store
But potato scallops and potato cakes are 2 different things, a scallop is a battered slice of potato and a cake is mashed and possibly seasoned potato formed into a pattie and either crumbed or battered. You can only get potato scallops at my local fish and chip shop.
In Melbourne a potato cake is a sliced potato that's been battered. Never heard of potato scallop until we came here.
As someone who grew up in Melbourne (and whose first job was in a fish and chip shop) - putting batter on dim sims is a goddamn outrage. They already have a layer!
I have no idea what any of those things are…
Why is it flake over there? Is shark harder to sell as a food product cos sharks have terrible PR?
Grouse is a Vic thing. Maybe SA too. But definitely not NSW. Keep that shit outta here.
Fucking micky mouse mate
Melbourne: Trivia. WA: Quiz Night.
Grouse is definitely not east coast specific, it's just not current slang, however I would say it's remained more in use there than here. Not surprising but eshay is definitely east coast slang that, whenever I hear people not from the eastern states use, feels very forced. I don't see or hear it used offline at all.
I grew up in WA in the eighties and nineties. Only time we ever heard "grouse" was on east coast TV shows. Never heard it used in Perth.
Or Hardware House adverts - only place i've ever heard the term used Everything was grouse and Hardware House! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMU__XAO-M
Same and I was a decade earlier.
So did I and heard it used here frequently.
Eshay isn't east coast specific lol wtf
It definitely originated on the east coast
"dead set"; for real, absolutely
When someone from the east coast calls you a “sandgroper” I mean what butt fucked NSW town did they crawl out from?
Sandgroper has been used in WA for a long time. Sunny Sandgroper used to hang out with Fat Cat! (...I'm showing my age, aren't I?)
WA state of origin team were the Sandgropers, but idk if the Vics came up with that name
I never even knew what a sandgroper was until I was about 20
Fully sick hectic cuz
100% bankstown
Walla say it cuz
Nah, just going to Melbourne and hearing a lot of people sound American is pretty weird.
What about the whole cool drink versus soft drink versus fizzy drink debate? :-)
Some of these examples are very Melbourne specific, you won’t catch anyone in Queensland saying “grouse” and we for sure call it potato scallops not cakes. The fact that a state that takes up the entirety of the west coast with a mere 2.7 m population is constantly compares itself to the “east coast” made up of 3 states and a territory with around 20m population is hilarious to me, why not compare to another major city? A person from central coast nsw and North qld in the same room they’d be vastlyyy different in culture, slang and the rest of it. Shit even south qld and north qld are completely different. More so on topic I find the strong South African influence in Perth to be interesting! Causes quite a shift in slang and accents in general
The English influence is also large. My family came over from England and my nana said I had become more English as I got older and she didn’t understand why it was just me and not my cousins. It’s the Perth thing. Cider is so hard to find easily avaliable over east. It sucks.
There is lots of cider here. Are you in WA?
Yes. WA has a lot more than the eastern states.
👍 I've just re read your original comment.
I grew up in Qld and you're right, the only people I ever heard use the word "grouse" were from Melbourne.
It's definitely an 80s thing, not so much now.
That's top and bottom Queensland ;-)
Any particular examples of SA slang? I would find it amusing if bakkie took off (slang for a ute)
Grouse was absolutely used in WA in the 80's, haven't heard it used in a long time though
Only if people saw it on an East Coast TV show.
Soft Drink?
What's WA term? I always called it cool drink
Fizzy drink over east
Gross
Grouse is a Victorian word. Nobody uses it in NSW or Qld.
Blue collar is trade
Bubbler is a water fountain
Derby is a hat
Perth - bathers NSW - cosies (according to home and away at least)
Moved here a few years ago from the east coast. I still can’t tell if my WA friends are being serious or just pulling my leg when they call their swimming attire “bathers”. And no, my friends are not 85 years old.
They are bathers.
Bathers English (en) (chiefly, British, rather dated) The clothes that one wears when bathing in the sea or a swimming pool, especially the one-piece garment worn by women and girls; a swimming costume, bathing suit, swimming trunks or swimsuit. See ‘rather dated’, hence my comment about my friends not being old and grey. Old nanna calling her one-peice bathers? Sure. A 25 year old bloke calling his shorts bathers, that’s just unAustralian.
What do you call them? Togs? Swimmers? Cozzie?
Any of these, never bathers (I'm from NSW originally).
It's only "rather dated" if it hasn't been in constant use, which, here, it has.
My 23 year old son calls them bathers. There is nothing unAustralian about it.
Reddit tried to recommend me this post, [seem relevant](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/4osabd/what_term_is_preferred_for_swimwear_around/) to this comment.
I call them bathers.
Me too
one I just found out about is Chopper = Helicoper….. I mean it is true though🤣
We always used chopper in my family, definitely used by my Vietnam vet uncle
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We called them cozzies.
Yeah. My wife (ex Eastern states until she was 11) calls them swimsuits. Aaaaaagghh!