Upper Middle Class: St Ives Chase

It's time for another regional shift. This time, I've grabbed my compass and headed north to a tucked away pocket going by the name

St Ives Chase

Most Sydneysiders have heard of St Ives. Well St Ives Chase is its little brother, taking a small bite out of its older sibling's northwest borders. This area is normally car country, but I managed to catch a once-an-hour bus here from the city to reach the suburb.

The suburb's only commercial area (this small house of shops) seemed as a good place as any to hop out of the bus.

If you manage to shop 'til you drop here, there's also "The Mall Reserve" next door where you can put your feet up.

Once I'd landed and found my bearings, I headed off, northbound, to see what this anonymous suburb might have to offer an outsider like me.

I can't beat around the bush - this is a wealthy area.

Nestled in the trees, this is the kind of suburb where you see European vehicles, large houses and manicured lawns. You might even see a private fountain or two.

It's also a rather nice place to go for a stroll - if you can get here. Check out this jungle-esque public footpath.

But all that is fairly standard. What really stood out to me here though, is how bloody quiet this suburb is.

You see, St Ives Chase sits at the edge of Kuring-gai National Park. It has a single road to enter and exit the suburb from the south, which means that there is no cross traffic driving through.

This meant that as I strolled along, all I could hear were birds, my own thoughts, and a franking credit or two.

Yes, you will hear the occasional roar of a diesel engine as a local Range Rover drives by you, but, especially as I got deeper into the suburb's north, even the local traffic was few and far between.

Continuing north, I soon came across the very aptly named Transmission Park, a long and empty patch of grass where you can walk your dog and look at power lines. Some would find this park ugly but I rather like it.

If you go all the way north, you will soon hit Kuring-gai Chase National Park. The accessible bit to visitors from here is the Warrimoo Track. I didn't go for this bushwalk today but here's a post from David Noble's blog covering the trail in detail, if you're curious.

Interestingly, the residential bit of the suburb rides up all the way against the national park, with some perfectly straight streets dividing the two. Clearly, at some stage in the past, someone with an official title picked up a ruler and said "this bit will be national park, and this bit we will chop down".

Have no fear though, although I wasn't doing the Warrimoo walk today, I was still planning on a bushwalk out of the suburb.

As such, I backtracked south, arriving at a large block of land with a strangely run down house and workshop,

which I'm sure the neighbours have previously reported to the council.

From the house, I turned off of the single road which I had, to this point, spent my entire St Ives Chase visit at, and headed eastbound and slightly downhill.

This led me to a clearing in the suburbs outskirts and to the bushwalk that I would be doing today.

The wide open space led me to a dry path into the bush.

If you are interested in taking this one on, I'd advise wearing some supportive shoes or boots, as walking on the rocky path can otherwise be quite tiring to the soles of your feet.

Regardless, this bushwalk is otherwise easy and relaxing, making for a lovely way to say goodbye to this unassuming suburb.

The weak trickle of Kuring-gai Creek marks the border of St Ives Chase and the next suburb.

St Ives Chase: A solid door to some fine suburban bushwalking.