Sandcastles

Long ago people enjoyed swimming in the Cooks River at Marrickville and Tempe. They would take day trips by train from the overcrowded and polluted inner city - from places like Darlinghurst and Paddington - to enjoy the fresh river water and the clean Marrickville air. Picnics, swimming, boating...

Marrickville even had its own lifesavers: this is the Steel Park River Patrol Lifesaving club sometime in the 1930s. Quite a bunch of spunks. I wonder what colours their stripey swimming costumes were?

Actually, although the Cooks River is unfit for swimming now, and may still be the most polluted waterway in Australia, we do have a beach of sorts. A little bit of sand only about 15 metres wide in a curve of land between mangrove patches. A few years ago it was always littered with Coke bottles, discarded homemade bongs, bits of toilet paper and the occasional car tyre, but lately it's been much cleaner... and last week, on a day I left work early and took a long walk after hearing an old friend was dead, here's what I saw:

Shop of the week: The Bower

Pre-loved, unloved, discarded, broken or just plain unfashionable stuff finds its way to The Bower. It's a reuse and repair cooperative - that means they collect, fix up and re-sell things. They concentrate on household, building and office goods. It's brilliant going there. I've bought most of the blinds for my house there over the years, and various bits and pieces including a beautiful white cotton bedspread. Yesterday there were a few amazing pieces including this vintage Cyclops pram in pristine condition


and this 35mm film editing table, next to a hospital bed (just visible on the left).


They sell bikes, computers, kitchen sinks, baths & basins (often green or pink from the 1950s), car parts, wet suits, building materials and filing cabinets. If you live near Marrickville, dropping in occasionally is really worth it. You might also keep The Bower in mind for when you want to get rid of stuff - they take donations and will even collect from your house. They also deliver, and hire things out, for film shoots for example.

On a Sunday, you could combine a trip to The Bower with a rummage around Reverse Garbage, a visit to the peaceful Addison Rd Gallery, and a lunch of Chinese dumplings or Turkish gozreme from the Addison Rd Markets. They're all in the same complex (an ex military base!) and there's heaps of parking under the big old gum trees.

My favourite spot at The Bower? The wall of pink drawers, holding deadlocks, springs, cupboard hatches & locks, drill bits, handles, washers, bearings, etc.

Fedeterranean Furniture

I spotted this dear little cabinet languishing on the nature strip last week and brought it home immediately. I'm slightly ashamed to say I abandoned it again this evening. Like a very bad adoptive mother I put it back on the street, unable to actually countenance it in the house. It is a classic piece of Fedeterranean furniture: note the faux marble, the faux walnut veneer, the faux gold handle.



I'm not all bad. Here's another true story: today on King St Newtown I paid $5.00 for a big tub of strawberries. I was asked a few minutes later by a beggar for some money, and as I had none left I gave her the strawberries. She was pleased & I saw her sharing them with some of her colleagues a bit later at the bus stop outside the Bank Hotel.

Street Treasures

The footpaths of Marrickville just give and give. I have collected so many things - my garden chairs, a huge rectangular 1940s mirror, a couple of waste paper baskets, this cast iron candelabra, a complete computer (it worked momentarily), a dog bed, not to mention all the firewood... the suburb is a cornucopia of riches for the picking; all you have to do is look. I don't go in for dumpster diving myself - I like serendipity - but no doubt it's a worthy pastime. Reverse Garbage in Marrickville has been dedicated to recycling unwanted goods for 31 years!