Since coming down to Melbourne from the northern Victorian town of Cobram in 1971, to attend La Trobe University, I have lived in Northcote, and worked in Preston and now Reservoir.
The north obviously suits me, and while I miss the mighty Murray, the Merri Creek will do. I greatly appreciate the rejuvenation of this waterway over the last two decades, with the pathways and revegetation. The Darebin and Merri Creeks are Northcote’s best assets, I reckon.
After living in Student flats or bungalows in backyards of West Heidelberg and Reservoir, I started renting in Northcote.
The first house was a lovely old red brick Edwardian in Ilma Grove. Four of us lived in the front half, and an old couple (Albie and Flora) lived in the back. We paid the grand sum of $4 a week each in rent.
Albie worked at the Northcote Brickworks in Separation Street – a huge hole like the Grand Canyon, from which all the bricks that built Melbourne were gouged. We used to go down and look through the fence at the trucks spiralling their way down to the bottom of the clay pit. Later that pit ,which probably took over a hundred years to dig, became a rubbish tip which only took about twenty years to fill with Melbourne’s rubbish. Now it’s been covered over and turned into ‘All Nations Park’, to reflect the diverse population here.
Northcote has changed, gentrified to a certain extent (You’d need to be sqillionaire to own that Ilma Grove house now), but it’s still a diverse community and a great place to live.
MOIRA HANRAHAN. July, 2009.
