The south west of Sydney is a funny area - somehow it has managed to escape regional stereotyping. In so doing people don't know what to think about it - if they, in fact, know it exists.
Unlike other areas of Sydney - the Eastern Suburbs of rich beach babes, backpackers and Jewish South Africans, the North Shore with "old money", the West as the melting pot of Sydney, the Inner-west with the bohemian inner-city types, or "the Shire" which has a host of connotations, not least of which is it's dubious association with the recent TV program - Oatley and surrounds is just, well, Oatley and surrounds. It's sorta the St George area (what's that?), or the area West of the airport, kinda, or as I like to think of it is it the area "just short of the Shire". The other side of the river.
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| The St George River with the Como bridge. Como far side. |
Stats of Sydney seldom focus on this as a region. Few declarations are made about the area. And certainly not many people outside of here even know where it is. Mention Hurstville and you might get a glimmer of knowledge, or "I've seen that in passing when traveling south", but other than that Oatley is just
Oatley. People who live here love to say "it's one of those suburbs you don't happen upon - you don't go there unless you intend to go there". They are referring to the strange square that one has to drive to get across King Georges Road (left, left and left) along Maher and Hillcrest roads or the other main entrance to the suburb which is a tiny "one-car-bridge" on Boundary Road. The rest of the suburb is bordered by the river. And that's the thing. The St George River is just everywhere here. You have to know where to look as the houses are built so that you can't really see the river from most of the suburb, but every few days we discover another hidden gem on the Georges River.
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| Oatley Park, view across the river beach to Como bridge |
Our house has river glimpses from a few of the windows and balconies. Less glimpses than we had when we moved in as the neighbours' trees have gone crazy in the rain and taken over the view. This means we have to go out and seek the view (thanks Lauren Norval for once telling me to buy without a view so one is motivated to go and seek it - damn right!). And if one seeks in Oatley, one finds. The Ripple Park. The Pleasure Grounds. The Steamroller Park. And, as we like to call it, Our Forest. There are numerous waterside parks and walkways, the best known being
Oatley Park which is 45 hectares of pristine Australian forest and bushland with the Steamroller Park dead centre and a little castle down near the swimming beach. Walkers and cyclists know the footpath across the the Como rail bridge to the Como Pleasure grounds and Marina. Hiring a boat heading upriver is a surprising and wonderful pleasure just 30 mins by train from the centre of Sydney. I look forward to showing all my friends and colleagues the wonders of this gorgeous non-area. The hidden jewel.
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