Only in Sydney’s north shore: social media suburb competition founder on success of page

The founder of a north shore’s biggest suburb competition says he has been stunned by the success of the social media page as its number of followers tops 44,000.

The founder of a north shore’s biggest suburb competition says he has been stunned by the success of the social media page as its number of followers tops 44,000.

Eight suburbs are currently in the running to take out the title of the north shore’s best suburb of 2022 as part of a competition garnering thousands of votes on the ‘Only in Sydney’s North Shore’ Facebook page.

The annual contest works by 32 suburbs entering the race in ‘round one’ of the competition with voters then able to have their say on their favourite suburbs in individual showdowns.

A photo of the current tally board.

One by one, the list is narrowed down to quarter and semi finals rounds before the crowd favourite suburb is crowned in the grand final showdown.

As well as attracting thousands of votes from locals, the page has attracted some high profile attention over the years with this year’s competition drawing votes from local politicians including Paul Fletcher, Felicity Wilson, Tim James and Matt Kean.

The founder of the page – Wahroonga resident Liam Alexander, who started the page back in 2017 – said he has been overwhelmed by its success.

“I started it as a bit of fun nearly five years ago during my third year at uni and it grew ridiculous quickly and randomly blew up. I was not expecting it at all,” he said.

“Some people get very involved in the competition but the bottom line is it’s a bit of fun and satire and not meant to be taken too seriously.

“There were other similar pages for other regions of Sydney and a lot of uni confession groups so I thought it would be a bit of fun to have one for the north shore as well.”

The page also embraces the many stereotypes associated with the north shore through memes touching on themes including the region’s association with private schooling and high end property.

Recent posts include a photographic guide for a ‘Mosman Mum starter pack’ that includes the bare necessities of a four-wheel-drive, white wine, tennis lessons and a poodle.

“I think the rest of Sydney tends to see us as the rich, snobby private school, right wing side of Sydney that’s always uncomfortable outside of the north shore or on the ski fields,” Liam said.

“It plays on those stereotypes and stigmas – both how the north shore perceives the rest of Australia and how the rest of Australia perceives us.

“There’s a lot of stigmas associated with the north shore and I grew up seeing those stereotypes. Making satire I think is a good way to embrace it and make light of it.

A photo of a meme published by the page.

The page makes light of regional stereotypes.

“The north-south divide between the upper north shore and lower north shore is also part of the satire – whether it’s joking that the upper north shore is basically the Central Coast or the lower north shore is full of old money in Mosman and Neutral Bay.”

Liam said the competition has thrown up a few surprises in the five years it’s been held including the success of ‘dark horse’ suburbs during individual rounds of voting.

“Some suburbs fall really short of expectation and others do a lot better – for example I’m always surprised how well Wahroonga and Crows Nest go in the competition and how poorly Mosman does,” he said.

A photo of one of the memes published by the page.

“I also like putting in some of the peripheral suburbs like Hunters Hill and Hornsby into the mix which some people think are part of the north shore, while others don’t. It’s all part of the joke.”

This year’s competition is currently down to the semi final round with eight suburbs – Neutral Bay, Crows Nest, Willoughby, Kirribilli, Wahroonga, Gordon, Killara and Turramurra – in the mix to claim bragging rights for the region’s favourite suburb.

Crows Nest is tipped as the favourite after cruising to a podium finish last year.

While Liam said his work commitments meant he wasn’t able to spend as much time on the page as he would like, he plans to keep the competition going into the future.

“It’s ridiculous how many people know about it and it’s pretty weird to see some of the higher profile names taking part in the votes,” he said.

“This year especially there’s big names getting extremely involved.

“At the end of the day it’s purely satire and not meant to be taken completely seriously or trash talk suburbs, it’s all a bit of fun.

“I think I’ll keep it going indefinitely until it dies off.”