Transition: Castle Hill

New post, new region. It's time to hit up the "other Shire", The Hills.

Castle Hill

This was my first "suburbsing" by car. I decided to enter Castle Hill from its easternmost side, in an area that I always thought was part of neighbouring Cherrybrook.

Me being me, I immediately walked into this playground where I was happy to meet some of the locals - a number of ducks.

Is it just me or are ducks the best animal? They're cute, they're waddly and they taste great.

The houses on this side of Castle Hill are the "big houses on big blocks" typical of this part of Sydney. Pleasingly, there are still a generous amount of trees out here.

Driving further into the suburb, I hit a retirement centre which seemed to be the most-trafficked area in this residential part of the suburb.

Continuing along, I suddenly found myself in a newer part of the suburb. I could tell this by the bigger houses and smaller number of trees.

Leaving this area, I came upon the local "Oakhill" shops which felt a little bit "country town".

I dropped by this lollies/party supplies store and, to the amusement of the owner, purchased a single candy for 10c. This place was actually pretty cool - they sold a pretty decent range of lollies.

I saw a very large park on the map so I thought I'd drive towards it to check it out. On the way, I suddenly ended up on a road that wouldn't feel out of place in country NSW (apart from the Sydney traffic).

Before long, I was back to the McMansions by Castle Hill Heritage Park. This park was a bit strange.

It's quite large, and yet there isn't really anywhere to put your car (and it's not like there's public transport here). It's like they've allocated this park solely for the small number of houses which are immediately around it. Everyone else can go somewhere else thank you.

Regardless, I managed to park my car and strolled down this immaculately paved path.

Wow, this place is gorgeous. It boasts natural woodland, a few picnic tables and (for some reason) a bunch of cars parked inside on the actual land. I guess those guys faced the same issue I did.

I was ready to drive on to the Castle Hill "town centre" but I decided to make a quick stop on the way, to a spot I've been to before.

This is The Convicts Vista and offers a great view miles and miles out west. It looks like immediately below there's going to be a housing development, so if you're in the neighbourhood, I'd go take a peek while you still can.

I finally drove into the town centre and parked to go for a stroll. The centre of Castle Hill will soon be the home of a shiny new metro station as well as, uncharacteristically for the area, some residential towers, as seen in the distance. 

The well known shopping mall in town is Castle Towers, but the suburb also has the older Castle Mall, immediately across the road. Castle Mall is half "dying shopping centre which feels like it's 1992", but is being somewhat reborn to cater to a more Asian demographic (and people like me who like to buy unusual snacks). It now houses a large Asian supermarket, a butcher, a fishmonger and a decent little Asian food court.

There's a walkway from Castle Mall onto the main (for people, not cars) road of the Castle Hill shopping district. The walkway faces the same identity crisis as the mall itself, with a stall that cuts keys and fixes shoes (why is that always the combination anyway), a sad looking cafe and a bustling casual dumpling shop.

Across from Castle Mall is the often busy Castle Hill Piazza - this place has casual dining (including this particular burger shop that was going off today).

From the Piazza, you can get into the Castle Towers shopping centre without having to go through a car park. 

I won't bother to say anything about what is a fairly bog standard shopping centre, apart from that it was the generous host for my food court lunch on this day.

Castle Hill: Classic Aussie suburbia meets 21st century Sydney. P.S. ducks.