After coming up in the world,my suburb would love to build a moat around ourselves. Instead,we keep people out with a welcomed level crossing and plethora of speed bumps.
If you watched the recent Q&A filmed in my suburb,you’d think our area was little more than crime gangs,cultural ghettos and “white flight”.
I call my suburb retro chic,but others say it is shabby and tired. Change here is rapid,but one thing is certain - if you let go of your trolley in the Coles supermarket in Dorset Square it’ll go rogue.
I understand why Spanian stopped by during his tour of the world’s “most dangerous and notorious neighbourhoods”. The video he shot revealed who we really are.
When I told a snobbish friend I had found a small but affordable house,I was firmly instructed to tell everyone it was actually in Ormond.
I’ve found a nurturing environment for my children. But like many locals in newer suburbs,I’m concerned about transport problems and access to services such as healthcare.
Our streets have seen countless broken wrists and scraped knees,with many locals familiar with the thrill of fanging downhill on what are arguably suburban Melbourne’s steepest streets.
It’s nice to live in a suburb that is just somewhere people are happy to live. We’ve got one cafe,one convenience store and two churches – and the only residential tower is a retirement village.
My parents’ first date in the 1950s was at a party in my now home suburb. The area was popular at the time with creative types such as writers,artists,actors,fashion designers.
The contrasts of my suburb are never more evident than at spring carnival time,when hordes of the well-heeled gatecrash the neighbourhood.
There’s no ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ around here – people quietly go about living their lives in a landscape of benign suburban sameness.