Family Ties: Dulwich Hill

Today we're back in the Inner West yet again with a highly anticipated post.

Dulwich Hill

Dulwich Hill sits between its more famous neighbours Marrickville and Ashfield.

Until fairly recently, I didn't really know much about the place. That is, until my brother (one of those trendy Inner-West types, and a casual blogger himself) moved there. As such, today I have the pleasure of being taken on a guided tour of the suburb.

Per my normal routine, Sydney Trains dropped me off at Dulwich Hill station. The station here is sunken slightly below street level and also sits immediately next to the light rail station. I'm always a fan of public transport connecting to public transport easily so we're off to a good start Dulwich Hill.

Heading out of the station, we naively started south into this grungy, character filled strip of shops,

Which turned out to be in Marrickville. Oops.

Continuing southeast and straddling the Dulwich-Marrick border,

we passed this fence.

Now, the fence doesn't look like much, but I'm told that it apparently was the scene of local pride, when it was painted "Yes!" for the same-sex marriage vote, vandalised and then repainted once more. Who says Australians are apathetic about politics?

I was also honoured to meet this dog, a part owner of the fence.

When you continue along this tree-lined road, you eventually hit the southeastern most tip of Dulwich Hill,

which is marked with a bridge over the Cooks River. Interestingly, if you follow this river to the end, it spills out by the Airport and into Kyeemagh, one of my favourite Sydney suburbs so far.

We had been skating on the suburb's border for too long, so it was time to start to properly head through the suburb's residential streets.

Dulwich Hill does the Inner West proud, with plenty of small, cute houses, along tree-lined roads,

look at this one, it's adorable.

Not all the houses have a small footprint though. These ones are a bit bigger, a little older and definitely full of character. Pardon the overly sun-washed photo.

This route looped us back around, under the rail bridge

and by this roundabout with a tuft of hair,

before crossing through this recreational area, featuring a skate park, tennis courts,

and apparently not the police.

Finally, we hit Dulwich Hill light rail station.

Fun fact, this suburb actually has four light rail stations (is that the most in one Sydney suburb? I'm too lazy to check), so naturally, we hopped on, passed two other Dulwich Hill stops, and got out at Waratah Mills, the station at the other end of the suburb.

Once at the other end, an alleyway led us,

to the station's namesake.

So it turns out that there use to be an old mill here for a company named Waratah Flour. Today, it's apartments, and while this isn't as visually impressive as the converted Colgate-Palmolive factory I visited back in Balmain, I still love seeing this kind of repurposing of old buildings.

We continued on through suburban Dulwich Hill.

Almost immediately, we crossed over Hawthorne Canal here. This canal flows all the way through to the Parramatta River. Here's a fun fact, Wikipedia tells me that in the early 1900s you used to be able to catch a ferry on this canal. Looking at this width of the canal though, the ferries clearly ran at a different section.

Neighbouring Hoskins Park lead us deeper into the local suburbia.

I can't act like suburban Dulwich Hill is the most exciting suburb in the world, but it is definitely charming to walk through. The walk continued to reveal plenty of homes of various styles,

Nearby, there is a slightly wavy street, simply called "The Boulevarde", which looks like it may have been fancy some time in the past (although Google couldn't shed any secrets in my quick search).

The Boulevard contains plenty of old houses with all the hallmarks of 1800s ponce,

with some other options mixed in for good measure.

After not too long, we hit another commercial area,

but not before passing this alpha bin chicken.

Downtown Dulwich is actually quite interesting.

On first glance, it looks a little tired and worn,

but once you get into it, you see a lot more.

Where else has a sausage factory,

an old school efnick bakery,

decorated alleys,

a wine bar,

and dog parking in front of the local butcher?

Downtown Dulwich actually has a real energy, 1000x more than any Westfield.

With the variety of businesses, we undoubtedly were ready for lunch. Today was a three-course-meal.

The first course came from this very cool Mexican deli, Tamaleria, which serves up tacos, cactus salad and a bunch of other stuff which I can't pronounce.

I can only assume that Tamaleria is Spanish for "tamale shop", so naturally, we enjoyed a tamale. I'd never had a tamale before, but what we got was this soft, steamed, banana-leaf-wrapped corn dough with filling through it. In my brain, a tamale was something crunchy, so I was way off there.

Unless we misunderstood the good lady serving us, this tamale apparently has chicken and chocolate in it. How about that. While this isn't something I can see myself craving in the future, I did enjoy it.

Sadly, we had to travel for our next course.

On the way, we passed this great Bert and Ernie house (my term for a duplex with two colour schemes and split through the middle),

a heritage substation,

and some Greek looking houses,

next to a very Greek looking church,

and Aretha Franklin.

Also en route is this apparent proud tribute to the Lebanese Flag,

and a few more ornate, vintage residences.

Made it.

Dulwich Hill has a fair smattering of Greek influence throughout the suburb. As such, souvlaki was a prime option for today.

I think the picture says it all.

And course three? Well on the way over to Niko's, we passed Strawberry Fields patisserie.

How could you not?

An oh-so-pretty cherry pie and chocolate mousse cake was just what we needed to tie up our Dulwich Hill extravaganza. While the desserts themselves were a little sweet for my tastes, you can't fault the presentation.

Full and with sore feet, I said au revoir to Dulwich Hill and headed for the train home.

Dulwich Hill: While I'm obligated to say this suburb is great, lest I be uninvited to Christmas, in truth this is actually a fantastic little place.

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