90 Cary St

Once upon a time there were market gardens and dairy farms in Marrickville. The area was sparsely populated and still largely rural until about 1900. There's a little decrepit weatherboard cottage in my street--it's been hidden behind dense shrubbery ever since I moved to Marrickville in 2000 and as far as I know nobody has lived in it in that time. Recently the vegetation has been cleared and now there's a sign up saying that two townhouses are going to be built. I think the house must date from about the 1870s, perhaps earlier--it was most likely a modest farmhouse. I thought I'd get some shots before it's torn down. For the full set see my flickr site.

The Davis (or possibly Carrington) Dairy at the corner of Carrington Road and Ruby Street, 1899, only 2 blocks away.

View from the street.

Old stone steps near the front of the property.

The front porch.

Hank, John & Wally did a good job of setting the Hills Hoist into a concrete round in 1959.

Their inscription lasted longer than the clothes line!

A number plate, 30s? 40s?

A close up of the front fence. You can see most of the same fence on the far right in the photo below--it was taken during a fire in the park at the foot of Cary Street in 1954.

The gum in the background is often filled with cockatoos.

Through the arched window...

Marrickville Kids

This photo was taken in 1978, at the Addison Rd Community Centre. Marrickville's Magic Yellow Bus, which is still operational, is in the background. I thought I'd take some photos of some of the lovely children I see each week at the Addison Rd Markets, which are held at the Community Centre (I asked permissions and all parents know these photos are going up online).

This is Dutch. I didn't ask if Dutch was a boy or a girl. One thing that is certain - Dutch has a knitter/crocheter who loves him/her dearly.

This is Rory, who was enjoying her babyccino.


Here are some old dolls that the guy who has all the tools and electrical things was selling.


And this is Jake, who looks like a China doll but is a real boy.

The Warren Shopping Centre

For those readers who don't live in Sydney, it's been raining for two weeks here. Storms, wind, horizontal sheets of water... and we're just not geared for it. Rain? Sydney? So we forget umbrellas, everyone under 30 still wears thongs (flip-flops) - which actually, when I come to think of it, are quite practical for getting through puddles. We shiver and complain and feel sorry for ourselves. But the gardens look great and the dams have filled up a bit which is excellent.

So. This is a photo taken in 1936, from the intersection of Illawarra and Warren Roads looking down the hill towards Earlwood. I think it was actually taken from a tram, as it's higher than I could manage. Those were the days! Trams in Sydney, how wonderful. See that the shop on the left still sells alcoholic beverages? Sad that the big balconies have gone.

Motorists Corner

This building is on the corner of Marrickville and Petersham Roads. As you can see, it was originally an impressive and charming petrol station. Now it's an unimpressive and quite revolting Chinese restaurant, but more about that later. Marrickville was quite the petrol-head's dream in the 1920s. General Motors Holden actually had a car factory in Carrington Rd (I'll blog that soon) although it only operated from 1926 to 1931, closing because of the Depression. I like these bowsers, which look so personable with their fancy headgear and curvy, elegant hose-arms. So it's a sad thing that this is now the site of one of the few bad eating experiences I've ever had in Marrickville. It was back in 2001, so things may have improved (however, I will never know as I will never go there again). Let's just say bits of glass in dumplings, that my friend had to spend ages spitting out... not to mention there were open boxes of lettuce sitting on the floor in the toilets!

Ta-da! Here's the first installment of the much-awaited latest nerdy Marrickvillia project. Richard and I have got a whole lot of old photos of places in Marrickville and we're taking new pics of the same spots.

These "workmen's homes" were built in The Warren, probably in the early 1920s. The Warren is the bit of South Marrickville from Warren Road down to the Cooks River. In the 1800s it was the location of Thomas Holt's massive Neo Gothic mansion ("The Warren"), complete with a park stocked with deer. Many of the modest homes in the area have bits of the original mansion's sandstone in their foundations.