This is a suburb which can best be described with a single word: "change".
Schofields
If you're from somewhere like Newtown, Schofields may as well be a suburb of Broken Hill. In reality, Schofields is a suburb in Northwest Sydney, plonked approximately halfway between Blacktown and Windsor.Today was very much a car day, so I drove into the suburb through the appropriately named Schofields Road.
This part of Sydney clearly has no shortage of land, with plenty of wide, open and and untouched space. Upon turning onto a secondary road, I met a few old houses who have clearly been earmarked.
Earmarked for what? A brand new suburb!
You see, up until now I haven't mentioned that the rest of Schofields is full of brand new housing.
Before I get stuck into that, I want to stop off at a cool and unexpected little waypoint in the suburb.
Driving past (and conveniently ignoring for now) new Schofields, I drove to what can really only be described as a rural backroad.
Turn the corner, and you get here.
This is the beautiful Lankarama Vihara, a Buddhist Temple primarily enjoyed by the Sri Lankan Buddhist community.
With the Buddhist flags, rural feeling environment, and a grand stupa, it's easy to forget you're in Sydney or even Australia.
That is, until you see a Ford Falcon parked outside.
With the gem of Schofields out of the way, I'm now at liberty to discuss the elephant in the room.
Not far from the temple, a lot of Schofields actually looks like this.
A little bit of construction is hardly unusual in Sydney, but Schofields takes this to a whole nother level.
This really is a bizarre place. If you turn your head one way, you see acres of untouched land,
but then turn your head the other way, and you see dozens upon dozens of near-identical houses.
Some more garish than others.
I decided to next make my way to the "town centre" marked by the train station.
On the way, I drove past this maxed out line of credit.
The bizarreness continues when you get to the station.
On one side of the rail line, people keep horses.
On the other, there's more "instant suburb, just add water".
The station itself is a fairly standard affair.
And a little up the road you've got some very Sydney neighbourhood shops, namely real estate agents
cafes,
and a Domino's Pizza.
Until not that long ago, Schofields wasn't that far from being a country town. As we all know, every country town needs a Chinese restaurant named <town name> Chinese Restaurant. Schofields is no different and has managed to hold onto its legacy.
I hopped back in the car and was ready to drive to my next suburb.
On the way I saw the holy grail of naff development and had to stop.
Oh my god.
The little enclave surrounding these shockers is trying really hard to be a real estate catalogue.
For instance, we don't use the word townhouse any more, it's townhome.
At least they had this pretty solid park, with a ping pong table, public barbeques,
play equipment,
these funky bike racks,
and the pièce de résistance,
I'm gonna have to get the old primary school gang back together one evening and play some Schofields handball.
Oh, nevermind.
Clearly, a planned neighbourhood of cloned houses isn't my cup of tea,
so I got back into the car and continued to the next suburb.
Schofields: Where to live if you have 800 friends and you all have identical tastes.
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Schofield is an interesting place, it was originally land give to third fleet convict John Schofield to plant vineyards on as the powers that be desperately wanted decent wine. He was a con artist though and never actually new how to make wine, but either way he ended up with the land! Fascinates me that for most of my life it was just empty paddocks and within 5-6 years it’s become McMansionville with literally nothing else interesting but one old temple to go for it.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, thanks for sharing!
DeleteHi there! I actually grew up in schofields back in the day when schofields road was all farm houses and we used to play cricket with the neighbours across the street in the middle of the road that's how quiet it used to be there. We lived on 10 hectares back then we had the horses as well. My childhood was great there until we moved to riverstone, then when I moved out at 18 I moved to casula and now happily married and still in casula 😁
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a very different place now. There are still a few suburbs in the neighbourhood that look like what you're describing, but I suspect their days may be numbered too.
DeleteYou might not be aware that until 2011, the railway station at Schofields was a basic single platform located across the road from where the Chinese takeaway, until it was relocated to it's current location closer to the (then only planned!) new developments, much to the vocal distaste of the locals residing in the "old" Schofields village.
ReplyDeleteI saw that as being the turning point in the suburb's transformation from a small village to a land of endless sprawling estates.
Real Estate Schofields is the best way to invest and it will provide you best returns in less time period.
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ReplyDeleteSo your company is responsible for these monstrosities...
Delete"If you're from somewhere like Newtown, Schofields may as well be a suburb of Broken Hill." So true, man, em inner west people can't accept western suburbs anymore
ReplyDelete