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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:31 am
Caz emails:
Don’t know if you’ve seen Leunig’s cartoon today. He’s dissing your old hood! Only he can’t spell “Werribee”. It only has one “r” in it now:
Typical of Leunig; he’s all about the plight of the common man, but don’t expect him to actually be familiar with where they live.
Leunig survived his angering of the Arab street. The Werib street’s fury, however, is a whole other deal.
- Misspelling aside, what’s the point of the cartoon?Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 01 31 at 11:41 AM • permalink
- When I was a kid, we had a good joke about Werribee.
We used to say “werribee stings, it hurts”.
Used to crack us up, us Sandy & Beauey kids
Posted by Jack from Montreal on 2007 01 31 at 12:46 PM • permalink
- For the West Australians, Werribee is something like Balga. For anyone else in Lyon, it’s like the 7th.Posted by Dylan Kissane on 2007 01 31 at 01:26 PM • permalink
- Hello. My name is Professor Paco, President of Professional Analysis of Cartoons Online.
While it’s true that any joke, whether verbal or visual, automatically depreciates in increments of amusement (technically, “Larynx-Activated Units of Gross Hilarity”) when it has to be explained, most people still like to know its meaning, if only to avoid appearing dull-witted or out of touch with current events.
Having subjected the above cartoon to laboratory analysis, our technicians have determined that there is a 95% probability that the cartoonist is attempting to convey the idea that residents of Werribee drink recycled piss. Interestingly, there appears to be a 100% chance that the cartoonist will be subjected to rude gestures, vulgar speculations concerning his ancestry, and physical violence, if he ventures into Werribee.
- It’s a common sledge from Melburnians who don’t live in Werribee, that residents there are a bit loopy from living inside a sewerage treatment plant, plus you know, there’s that awful smell. Which I never experienced after a number of years in Werribee, but popular myth is rarely disturbed by fact, so the idea remains.
Used to shoot at Werribee about 25 years ago, when it was a small country town with lots of farms. Now it’s a suburban disaster.
- #9 paco. Your powers of deduction are absolutely amazing. I, like RebeccaH, initially wondered what this was all about… but I’m from NSW and not Victoria.
Then I thought for a moment… Werribee … ah yes the Werribee Sewage Treatment Works near Melbourne! And here’s a map that you can even edit!
At the moment here in Australia there is a lot of discussion about managing water and the ‘big topic’ is whether water should be recycled. My guess is that Leunig is against that, as are many uninformed people. Funnily enough what is not acknowledged in this debate is that outside the major cities, along the river systems towns draw off water, treat the water and distribute it for all uses. Then the returned water, i.e., grey water and sewage is processed through local sewage treatment plants and returned to the river for use by the next major town downstream. Only in the major coastal cities is water collected (in dams), treated and distributed once from where it all ends up in the sea.
So what’s the point of Leunig’s cartoon? I don’t know so I guess I may consider myself sane.
- All water on Earth is recycled. Anyone thinking he drinks new water is an idiot, or a leftist.
But I repeat myself.
Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2007 01 31 at 05:19 PM • permalink
- People tend to put Werribee down, but the place has improved markedly since the African refugees moved in.Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 05:22 PM • permalink
- No, #16, these African refugees live in Werribee.
Actually, they are the second best part about Werribee. The best part is the Maltby Bypass.
- Werribee is a fine address, by any measure, but it does have its share of people doing it tough.
I once saw someone from Werribee kicking a can down the street. I asked them what they were doing and they said, “moving”.
We shouldn’t forget there is a rich neighbourhood in Werribee where people have houses. But if you ring the doorbell, the people inside say “ding!”.
I’m not saying that these people are poor or anything, but let’s just say some of them eat their morning cereal with a fork to save milk.
Then, at dinner time, they visit KFC to lick other people’s fingers.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 07:29 PM • permalink
- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21151217-23289,00.html
Could be very true indeedy..
- Mildly off-topic but here’s a nice piece by Reliable Andrew sticking it to Fairfax Fuckwit, Lyin’ Ted, (as picked up by ICJS Research.)
No doubt Over To You Landeryou has it on his blog. Ah yes. Here it is right here.
OK. That’s my “free plug for the good guys” mitzvah for today.
- Further OT, another day, another terrorist plot.
No names so far, but this would appear to be yet another chance to test out the theory by expert criminal profiler, Mark Steyn, that:
These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it involves a fellow called Mohammed. A plane flies into the World Trade Centre? Mohammed Atta. A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet. A sniper starts killing petrol station customers around Washington, DC? John Allen Muhammed. A guy fatally stabs a Dutch movie director? Mohammed Bouyeri. A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed. A gang-rapist in Sydney? Mohammed Skaf.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 08:34 PM • permalink
- Wonder if Kevni Ruff has an opinionPosted by Rachel Corrie’s Flatmate on 2007 01 31 at 08:35 PM • permalink
- As I was saying, Werribee is as fine a locality as you might ever stumble upon, but I hear some of the locals have been known to marry because of the free rice.
Also, I hear environmental awareness is so high amongst the locals that youths have been known to use buses for drive by shootings.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 08:48 PM • permalink
- #27 – LGEMM
(large guffaw exiting my mouth)
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 31 at 08:53 PM • permalink
- Steve—What I like are the homeopathists, who claim that water offers health bonuses from minerals and herbs it has simply been in contact with, while overlooking the fact that if that is true they’re drinking and bathing in every dinosaur turd ever shat and every ebola virus ever hemorrhaged…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 01 31 at 09:18 PM • permalink
- Props to Leunig. At least this time he doesn’t have his characters sitting in bean bagsPosted by Ted Schuerzinger on 2007 01 31 at 10:01 PM • permalink
- I hear some of the locals have been known to marry because of the free rice.
What are you saying? The locals are allowed to keep the rice? What kind of a big sook, namby pampy, welfare nanny state is that?There are parts around here the locals hide the rice with the Centrelink cheques. In the workboots. To starve out the visitors from Byron Bay.
- When you’re Loonig
Selling scrawl
When ducks are in your heart
We will pluck them allEv-i-an snob
in times of drought
Your toons just aren’t profound
In a lake of recycled water
You should lay face down
In a lake of recycled water
I would see you drownWatch this clown insult
Plebs from Weribee
With blue collar jobs they are
Too common for himJust like his ducks
In Melbourne’s dams
We should piss and excrete
In his glass of Bisleri water
there is much less shit
In a glass of recycled water
Than this guy emitsPosted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 31 at 10:21 PM • permalink
- One of the many reasons people – as well as ducks – flock to Werribee, is the outstanding educational opportunities the region affords.
But what to choose? The school with the motto “One term at a time” or “Harm minimisation is everyone’s business”?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 10:29 PM • permalink
- #21 & 27 – ROFL. Ahh but then if you’d ever been to Balga here in WA you’d know it’s far worse.
Why just the other day I was there and saw a poor fellow hobbling down the road with one shoe on. I enquired if he’d lost a shoe and he replied “Nope, just found one!”
If burglars from out of the area come to Blaga, they end up leaving money on the kitchen table.
But worst of all is wash day. All that toilet paper hung out to dry…
- The third good thing about Werribee, apart from the Werribee Open Plains Zoo (which is an animal refuge for lions and tigers to escape Weribee’s feral bogans) and the Maltby Bypass, is the contribution its name has made to the English language.
- #35 Sounds like a tough neighbourhood Rex. But I understand Werribee is renowned for being the only place to have a town library with a sign that says “Shut the fuck up.”Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 10:47 PM • permalink
- According to the customs of cartoon outrage, the Werib Street will not rise up and violently demonstrate, burning Leunig effigies, until several months have passed and Tim Blair visits.
At that time he will brandish the cartoon at several backyard barbeques and make impassioned speeches about the gross insult to Werribee.
Only then will the “spontaneous” uprising occur.
The Age will then refuse to publish any more Leunig cartoons on the grounds that it is an unneccesary provocation.
That’s what it says in my copy of VRWC For Dummies.
- Werribee has always been a centre for innovation, what with its first ever combo drive-through Centrelink and bottle-o, the maternity wing of its methadone clinic, the only Bob Jane T Mart in the country that sells Mickey Thompson Pos-a-Tractions pre-soaked in old sump oil and a public transport system which is attuned to the needs of locals, operating just before opening and just after* closing time.
Truly a shining example of what community can be, if given the opportunity**.
*Allowing 20 minutes or so for furtive, drunken knee-tremblers in the bushes behind the car-park.
**Like when a state government plonks a big whiffy shitworks in the middle of town, and moves a great horde of bogans into the surrounding caravan parks.
- #35 – Balga real estate now has a median price of $415k. There’s nary a better place to be poor. It has become somewhat gentrified, although they forgot to tell the residents.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 31 at 11:08 PM • permalink
- O/T Levity
Little Johnnie’s neighbour had a baby.
Unfortunately, the baby was born without ears. When mother and new baby came home from the hospital, Johnnie’s family was invited over to see the baby.
Before they left their house, Little Johnnie’s dad had a talk with him and explained that the baby had no ears.
His dad also told him that if he so much as mentioned anything about the baby’s missing ears or even said the word ears he would get the smacking of his life when they came back home.
Little Johnnie told his dad he understood completely.
When Johnnie looked in the crib he said, “What a beautiful baby.”
The mother said, “Why, thank you, Little Johnnie.”
Johnnie said, “He has beautiful little feet and beautiful little hands, a cute little nose and really beautiful eyes. Can he see?”
“Yes”, the mother replied, “we are so thankful; the Doctor said he will have 20/20 vision.”
“That’s great”, said Little Johnnie,
“Coz he’d be f*cked if he needed glasses.”
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 31 at 11:15 PM • permalink
- My apologies if I have made Werribee sound a little rough around the edges, but it is truly a land of opportunity.
Just ask the Mayor.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 11:16 PM • permalink
- The motto of our local high school is “Give Me Ignorance Or Give Me Death”
The motto of the local surf club: “Who Do
You Think You Are Looking At, Fuckface?”The motto of the local visitors’ association: “ Well You Can Fuck Off For A Start”.
The motto of the local police station: “Really? That Bad, Huh? Well You Better Ring Sydney.”
- #44
I understand the Werribee Chamber of Commerce will soon be announcing winners of the Mind Your Own Fucking Business Awards.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 11:24 PM • permalink
- Bah, numbers.Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 11:25 PM • permalink
- Werribee Optometrist: What are you fuckin lookin at?Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 31 at 11:26 PM • permalink
- I hear that Werribee Hospital has installed a pool room at the maternity ward in an attempt to get more fathers to attend the births of their children.Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 31 at 11:50 PM • permalink
- Father’s Day is a mite confusing for everyone. Easiest just to put a couple kegs on at the footy club.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 02 01 at 02:18 AM • permalink
- Werribee locals recently had a plebiscite on a new national flag, but couldn’t coose between this one and this one; Age scribbler Traceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee “Rabbit” Hutchinson fears the flag issue may be divisive, but most locals prefer to handle the debate in a mature fashion.
- A talentless turd
And that’s just Fairfax Fuckwit, “Lyin’ Ted” O’Loughlin.
Leunig? A pompous, grubby minded, supercilious, social class snob who has never done an honest day’s work in his life and who retches at the very thought of hard working people from ordinary tough neighbourhoods doing their best by themselves and their families and is overcome by waves of nausea at the imagined stink of stale sweat at the very image. The antisemitism goes without saying of course. It’s a Melbourne thing.
Also a talentless turd.
- Centrelink sent an auditor down to <insert struggle street suburb of choice> to verify the credentials of a supporting mother who was claiming the sole parent allowance, and support for 10 children – all apparently named Wayne. The auditor was surprised to see that the story checked out, and asked Mum whether having 10 children named alike was confusing. No, she assured him, it actually made it easier – you only had to call once to get them all to come to dinner, or to bed.
“But what about when you only want one of them?” he asked.
“You just use their surname” she replied
Slink slink slink ……….
- This is no laughing matter. After years of State Government neglect, the once pristine Werribee Sullage Ponds have been declared unfit for swimming, fishing and family recreation.
Well, that’s not good enough.
Governments create this kind of pollution. Governments should clean it up.
Join the people of Victoria this Saturday* for a protest march through the main street of Werribee and then on to the front bar of a pub around the corner. Support our fight to make the Werribee sewerage wetlands safe for the environment, safe for our children to play in and safe for future generations of Australians.
* Bring a giant inflatable duck, get one free!
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