Campbelltown is not south western Sydney The crowd walks past the lake at the Campbelltown City Challenge Walk. Picture: Simon Bennett Photo: Simon Bennett Campbelltown is a part of south-western Sydney - but it no longer wants to be. As far as TV and radio news coverage is concerned, that is. Residents of Campbelltown, Camden and the Picton-based Wollondilly Shire are fed up with being thrown into the same geographic area as Lakemba, Punchbowl and Campsie in a distant, unconnected part of Sydney. So that's why the local Fairfax newspaper that I edit, the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, took up the campaign and called for a change. Seven News has been the first to respond. From this week, Chris Bath and other Channel 7 newsreaders will stop referring to suburbs and towns in the Campbelltown, Camden and Wollondilly as being "in Sydney's south-west" and instead say "in Sydney's Macarthur region." It's a small matter in the scheme of things. A First World problem. But it will fix a daily annoyance to anyone who understands there is a big geographic difference between Leumeah and Lakemba. Macarthur - a reference to pioneer sheep farmer John Macarthur - has, since the early 1970s, been the collective noun for the entire area between Glenfield and the Southern Highlands, evidenced by our regional shopping centre, Macarthur Square, and the names of hundreds of businesses, schools, community groups and events. I put forward the case in a column last week and it got an unexpectedly large reaction. I've rarely ever been stopped, or contacted, by so many enthusiastic backers. A raw nerve was touched. Many locals tell our newspaper that they get annoyed about hearing a TV or radio news bulletin about some big event in "south-western Sydney" - only to discover it's 40km away in Campsie or Punchbowl, or some other distant place. Most news programs use phrases such as "upper north shore," "lower north shore," "northern beaches," etc, for one part of Sydney, yet then sweepingly and awkwardly describe every suburb in the massive, unconnected area between Marrickville and Picton as "Sydney's south-west." If the city media doesn't put Chatswood in the same region as Woy Woy, why must it do the same sort of thing to us? Just to be clear: this is not an attack on Lakemba and Campsie. It's purely an acknowledgement that they are in a completely different part of Sydney - and should be described as such. Campbelltown Chamber of Commerce president Anne Parnham - who is also NSW Business Chamber South West Regional Advisory Council president - was one resident who supported the change. "I'm so sick of people saying, 'You had another shooting over your way', when they were in Bankstown," she said. We need to be referred to as the Macarthur area in the news. Campbelltown's state MP, Bryan Doyle, also supported the campaign and said he had often been frustrated by broad references to the south-west. Most news outlets strive for accuracy and it's definitely a more accurate way to describe the area - the good and the bad. It distinguishes us from the cloudy, murky term of 'the south-west' - I've even heard Marrickville included in that. Doyle said there was a great sense of community pride in the Macarthur region, and the term was underpinned by a rich colonial history. In coming weeks, the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser will lobby Channel 9, the ABC, and others to follow Channel Seven's lead. And then.... We have another far, far more difficult task at hand - convincing that same city media that our part of Sydney - with its Arts Centre, community festivals, waterfalls and bushland gorges, botanic garden, Sydney's healthiest koala colony and our rich community heart - is so much deeper than the bogan stereotype portrayed on TV. Just ask Premier Barry O'Farrell, a regular visitor to our homegrown 24 Hour Fight Against Cancer Macarthur - a walkathon that draws thousands of participants each October and raises millions of dollars for local cancer care. He once told the huge crowd he wished he could "bottle" the spirit found in Macarthur and export it to all the other areas of Sydney. Macarthur is a corner of Sydney well worth being treated as a stand-alone community. Jeff McGill is the editor of the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser