I don't know how accurate this link still is:

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/lucky-country-or-a-nation-of-bogans/story-e6frfq80-12265220

I prefer to think it's a small minority.

Dear Toni Lavis,

I copied the following from wiki:

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "chav" as an informal British derogatory, meaning "a young lower-class person who displays brash and loutish behaviour and wears real or imitation designer clothes".

I don't think this is similar to the Australian bogan. Bogans can be young and old and the ones I've seen don't wear designer clothes (real or imitation).

As a sociologist I think bogan (or should we say boganism) is a sub-cultural category at the level of class but is not located with age-grade associations. What's your sociological or anthropological perspective on this?

My apologies folks, I stuffed up with the
link I gave in my previous post. I tried
several time - and I still can't do it.

I suggest that you try under the title:

"Lucky country or a nation of bogans."

Sorry.

Foxy, "Dear Hassie,

You seem to infer that Bogans are the Best
Australia has to offer?"

No Foxy, just a reference to the strange selections some faceless people make in choosing the Australian of the year.

I guess your bogan, & my feral are pretty similar. We had a family of ferals down the road until recently.

Removal house delivered, but no plumbing ever done, so no toilet or running water. The money came from compensation, when the drunken father wandered into the path of a car. Mum dad, & 3 kids in early 20s. None ever worked except for occasional cash in hand for a day or two.

Girl at 20 had 3 kids each with different fathers. She was moved to a commission house by welfare, worried for kids in the squaller. This partly explains my objection to public housing.

Ignored council demands to move out of house until made fit to inhabit. Ignored council demands to remove the 30 or so broken cars around the place. Fortunately new owners bulldozed the lot.

Are these bogan, or are hard working, hard playing working class people, who don't conform to others ideas of genteel society what are referred to as bogans? Just where do red necks come into the picture?

I really have no idea, having never got past the feral description.

Dear Hassie,

Gosh, you live and learn something every day on
the forum. I grew up in the Western suburbs of
Sydney and suburbia was full of working-class
people. However, our neighbours were not "ferals,"
or drunks or dole bludgers. They all worked hard,
and were great people. Their kids worked hard as well.
There were a few girls who did get married but they
ended up marrying the blokes

john singleton aka "singo"