Perth here, we tend to use 'up north' / 'down south', and 'over' for east. 'Out' just means 'away from home' and could be to the corner shops or the next city.

One thing that always amuses my Eastern States friends is our tendency to refer to the entire other half of the country as "over east". Sydney? Melbourne? I dunno, it was somewhere over east anyway.

Edit: I had 'over' for both east and west, but there's nothing but ocean to the west of here so we don't have much occasion to talk about things being to the west of us... apart from Rottnest Island, which is still 'over' because you get there by boat or plane.