This article in the SMH, about the Southern Sydney suburb of Hammondville, has me thinking about houses again, and the places we make for ourselves. The local Labor member Alison Megarrity sees change happening in a 75 year old settlement that had an interesting beginning in 1930s depression times:
Megarrity concedes time has caught up with Hammondville. “The old shacks are being ripped down. Graffiti is a problem. People lead busier lives, have to juggle competing priorities. But when all’s said and done this is still a nice part of the world to live.”
And here (from SMH’s slideshow) are two images, examples of the old and the new Hammondville.
I guess people find solace and a sense of abiding within a wide range of structures. And here’s a linocut I made a few months ago. It came from a period of walking and enjoying quiet suburban streets in Sydney’s Neutral Bay. It’s of a typical pre-war Sydney “Californian” bungalow.
Ron Dowd
Bungalow, 2008
linocut, 30 x 30 cm
