JASON Harding is a bogan. He’s proud to admit it and is a bit puzzled why society, particularly the media, thinks being a bogan is such a bad thing.
Raised and educated in Rockingham and Kwinana, Jason (23) admits he lacks fashion sense but prefers to dress for comfort and practicality; in winter it’s a flannelette shirt over a blue worker’s singlet – or wife-beater as it is colloquially known – jeans or tracky daks and ugg boots; in summer, substitute shorts and thongs.
He can’t see much point wearing expensive clothes when he’s probably going to get dirty helping his friends and family rebuild an engine, ride motorbikes or build an extension.
It’s this difference in priorities, particularly when clothes help make the important first impression, that give bogans a bad name, says Jason.
He urged people to look beyond the trademark 4WD or Holden Commodore and remember that behind the stereotype were ordinary hard-working folk doing their best in an increasingly superficial, consumer-driven world.
“We (bogans) are friendly and social and don’t mind lending a helping hand. What’s wrong with that,” Jason said.
And he rejects generalisations, particularly by ill-informed interstate journalists, that bogans are responsible for the perceived high level of crime in Rockingham.
He said none of his friends were involved in crime and while some bogans, like most other sections of Australian society, enjoyed a drink and a fag, he was a non-smoker and only enjoyed a social beer or bourbon.
Jason, educated at Baldivis Primary School and Kwinana Senior High School, is a fly-in, fly-out mechanical fitter at a Telfer mine and won gold for WA and bronze for Australia in his field at the annual Worldskills competition during his KIC traineeship.
He owns investment properties in Palm Beach and Harvey, hopes to one day study engineering and is helping his mum and dad build a house. He loves all things mechanical, plans to collect antique machinery and wants a new motorbike.
Jason said there were many reasons why Rockingham had been dubbed “Boganville”.
He said Rockingham was one of Perth’s original settlements, built on farming and other labour-intensive industries with a young, working-class population, but said labels were rarely accurate and always limiting.
“The whole of Perth is a bit backward and that’s the way I like it. We look after each other more and it’s not too busy.”
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