Another Home Among the Gumtrees: Ruse

So I'm still hanging out in the Outer West, with one final Campbelltownian suburb before I take you all somewhere very different next week.

Ruse

So what's Ruse's story? It's a residential suburb, sitting immediately east of Campbelltown, which means that it's a leisurely 55km from the city. For me, though, it was just a short drive from Campbelltown.

I was actually here to visit a friend who lives in the suburb, so after the get together, there was just enough sunlight to do a brief exploration of this place.

Unlike some of the other Campbelltown surrounding suburbs I've been to, Ruse feels like it has a little bit more heart.

For one thing, just about every house in this suburb seems to be unique.

The hodgepodge of housing styles in Ruse actually makes it quite enjoyable to drive through. This looks like a suburb which has grown out organically, rather than just being plopped down in one go.

I do, however, have to call out the suburb on having some really naff parks.

This is Ruse Satsukino Park. The Council describes it as "a small reserve with open space play and picnic tables for a peaceful lunch" and recommends dog walking and picnics as acceptable activities to do here. That's code talk for "this a small patch of grass with a couple of picnic tables". How fun. (What is fun though, is that Satsukino is actually an obscure little suburban area off the west coast of Japan).

There's also Oberon Reserve, which is a bigger version of the same. One of the Council's key features for this place is "seats". How exciting.

But look, I can't be too harsh to the parks in Ruse, as even the "non-parkland" is quite pretty. Because Ruse borders the immense bushland of Holsworthy, the suburb has more than its fair share of gum trees.