Footscray is a place layered with lore. It’s a multifarious wonderland where the Anglo heteronormative presence is a side dish to what’s really going on.
In this homely pocket of Melbourne,oodle ownership is essential and everyone has a view on the conflict dividing the community.
Then I hit my 30s and began thinking about buying a home and entombing my own child in the comfortable silence of suburbia. Suddenly,Mount Waverley didn’t seem so bad.
With no schools,pubs or noise,little disturbs the expected peace of this inner-city suburb’s streets – at least until the Barmy Army is in town or Collingwood plays at the MCG.
In Lower Templestowe,it’s not uncommon to find yourself in a house where a bedroom springs out from a living room that can be accessed only by a spiral staircase.
The suburb lacks the glamour of Armadale,South Yarra and Toorak. And as its name suggests,Malvern East was established not as a destination,but as an afterthought to another place.
From psycho meatheads on a diet of homemade speed,to chain-smoking wizards who worshipped black holes,working at Werribee’s late-night servo was halogen-lit Russian roulette.
The Age asked Melburnians to write about their suburb,whether the cliches about it are true and how life there has changed in recent years.
If we hadn’t moved to Brunswick,I never would have started running food trucks because it literally couldn’t happen in any other suburb.
Weekdays are low tide:locals-only. But on the weekends,it seems like the whole of the west flows in;a high tide of humans,dogs,cars and kite surfers.
Last week when I was visiting a dentist in my neighbouring suburb of Seddon I said I lived in “Maidstone”. The receptionist replied,“How do you spell that?”