It may or may not come as a surprise that I sometimes venture into the realms of local history nerd-dom.

And so I was quite delighted when Joe/Frank received a geography assignment about urban decay/renewal requiring him to research something local. After a wee bit of workshopping, he chose the foreshore area near our flat.

We all know that I’m one of those mothers, so I was excited to help out with the research. Primarily I was excited because it is an excellent opportunity to once again show that one needs to delve a little deeper than the first page of google search results or wikipedia (this sort of thinking is apparently rife amongst the sprogs these days – one of J/F’s teachers and Bessie’s entire school has banned wikipedia entirely).

I knew this area was quite industrial at one point, but until I delved into the wonderful photographic archives of Sydney City and Leichhardt Councils, I had no idea how industrial it actually was!

from the 60s – our haus isn’t even quite built yet!

1976 (part of an awesome series of foreshore photos in the Leichhardt Council archives – given more time and infinite resources, I’d totally have found a boat and tried to reproduce these!)

The crane above in its current state.

1949 – all manner of things in the water

Rather less industrial now

But still can’t eat the fish, although this does not appear to deter the numerous fishermen regularly dotted about the bay.

I imagine that the property prices would have been staggeringly low in the 60s and 70s (in contrast to now, when they are precisely the opposite). Don has suggested that The Lady of the Crazy Notes from downstairs (who has lived here forever) cleverly bought in when the flats were first constructed and has been driven slowly mad over time by exposure to all the industrial waste in the area.

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