Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Travelling Pathetically - Pocket Suburb Edition

After yesterday's raging success where I walked several kilometres for the occasional glimpse of a derelict waterway I was eagerly seeking a way I could keep this record of achievement intact.  Not difficult you might say but you don't know my usual record of achievement (unless you've been reading my after action reports).  I applied my mighty brain to the subject.  Five minutes later I realised that was a waste of time and watched television.  As I giggled at the antics of the paid buffoons on the screen (I think I was watching the News) the thought suddenly popped into my head "What is the smallest suburb in Sydney?"

Immediately the plan was born.  I would find out this smallest suburb and travel to same and then report what I had seen on the pages of this blog.  I honestly expected it would be somewhere in the heart of the city.  Some little colonial relic with old buildings, cafes and a diverse array of interesting people.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the town of Campbelltown in Sydney's southwest has apparently been shedding minor suburbs like a leper does body parts.

Somewhat to my horror I realised that I had committed myself to travelling to Macarthur (a suburb of Campbelltown) and then striking out for the little known suburb of Englorie Park home of a little over four hundred people.  Englorie Park takes its name from a prominent former resident of the area, a greyhound breeder by the name of Park.  The Englorie aspect is actually a corruption of Euglorie and was named by someone from Condobolin a town some four hundred odd kilometres from Englorie Park.  No attempt has been made to explain this.

Campbelltown, the urban sun of which Englorie Park is the most modest satellite is the major town of southwest Sydney. It is noted as having a great sporting tradition.  As in most similar places "having a great sporting tradition" is code for high unemployment and cases of crimes against property.  Despite this there is apparently a strong community feel to the area (I guess its difficult to stay mad at the guy who stole your car when you play football together).

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised when I got off the train at Macarthur.  I won't say I actually expected to alight in the middle of a gang war but I didn't necessarily expect it to be pleasant.  And it was pleasant, the station is adjacent to what must be the least benighted and godforsaken shopping mall I've ever encountered, Macarthur Square.  The pleasantness of the shopping precinct surprised me.  Surprise turned to astonishment when a sign informed me that the owners were an Australian property development company most famous for creating buildings of stupefying ugliness.

Macarthur Square is the preeminent shopping centre (it really deserves the term precinct) in the region and a good part of Englorie Park's reputation as a "desirable" part of Campbelltown can be explained by the suburb's proximity to the shopping centre.  In fact the only complaint I have about the shopping centre is it took a fair amount of time to get through it onto the road that would lead me to Englorie Park.

It would be more accurate to say that the road led me in the general direction of Englorie Park. Getting there was a little more problematic, I had to go down a side road, through what appeared to be some natural bushland, across a creek, under a road, past a football field, up another road to get back onto the road I had been on originally and then I had to nip up a path behind a bus stop.  The road itself ran right past the suburb but didn't go in.

Here's the thing.  Englorie Park is one of those suburbs that presents a solid ring of houses to the outside world.  A single road (on the other side of the suburb) provides access, circles around the houses on the inside and meets up with itself.  If you're driving this is the only way of accessing the entire suburb.  On foot as I was there are a couple more options such as the path I mentioned.

Having circumnavigated half the suburb I finally stumbled gasping into its very heart and gazed around to see what the place had to offer.  Since the entire suburb is only eleven hectares in size the answer is not very much.  The Campbelltown city website extols the reserve, which seems to take up about half of the available space, in terms of almost gushing enthusiasm.  I have to admit that if you like grass well, there definitely is some.

In fairness there is nothing wrong with the reserve.  There is grass, the occasional tree and a nice view down to the aforementioned bushland and football field.  However I don't think it's going to make Forbes top 500 reserves any time soon.  In terms of amenities the suburb has precisely one; a childcare centre for the benefit of those parents for whom abandoning their children in a reserve is just a little too blatant.  The centre is actually based in Mr Park's old house which is heritage listed and probably quite nice but there were trees in the way and you don't want to be caught peering into a childcare centre if you aren't actually a parent so I passed it by with only a cursory glance.

With that unless I actually wanted to bang on people's doors and demand access (I didn't) there was nothing more that Englorie Park could show me.  I think it took me half an hour to walk through the suburb and ten minutes of that was spent trying to find a way back in when I inadvertantly wandered out into neighbouring Glen Alpine. 

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