Feeling Weir: Liverpool

It's time to hit up another council capital. Here's the Southwest Sydney hub of

Liverpool

Think back to where you were last Sunday. If the answer for you happened to be reading my previous post of Moorebank, you'll know that to get to Liverpool I chose to walk into this slightly sus grassy patch.

Why would I choose this of all the ways to cross into the suburb? Well, soon these Stonehenge-esque figures appeared from within the bushes to start to answer that question.

This is Liverpool Weir, over the Georges River.

While some folks fish from here, I prefer to just look at the thing. These former bridge supports only add to the effect.

I left the area, towards the rest of Liverpool, by walking up this not-as-steep-as-it-looks hill,

under a bridge belonging to the creatively named Newbridge Road,

and into a park, featuring this steam-powered doodad.

This park also boasts a picnic area,

an okay riverside,

and, most importantly, these ducks on a mission.

From here, the best next steps to get into Liverpool proper involve walking up a fairly substantial flight of stairs,

onto the acrophobic Newbridge Road.

At least you can get some #instaworthy snaps of the weir from up here.

And even a decent shot for the public-transport nerds out there.

Once you get off the bridge, it's only then that the council welcomes you to Liverpool.

This takes you into Liverpool CBD and commercial area.

The area contains what you may expect for a Western Sydney centre, with a small smattering of tall buildings,

an old building or two,

and a streetside shopping area.

But most importantly for me who had just walked here all the bloody way from Holsworthy, it contains Al Barakeh, a charcoal chicken shop whose Arabic name translates into "the blessing". I'll be the judge of that.

A charcoal chicken roll (with garlic sauce + chili sauce + pickles) was the go for me,

with the obligatory, supremely crunchy, chicken-salted chips (and a can of drink).

Quite the blessing indeed.

The great thing about Western Sydney is that nobody will notice if you walk around smelling like garlic sauce, so I ventured on after my rejuvenating meal, now at liberty to properly explore Liverpool CBD.

First (well, second, after the chicken) impressions? Not too impressed. The suburb was surprisingly quiet, considering it was mid-afternoon on a weekend,

not to mention the fair few vacant shops.

But at least they have Amazon here. This is that Amazon that the Americans can't get enough of, right?

Continuing on though,

things did improve,

with a walking street that the council's clearly put a bit of effort into.

It still wasn't exactly going off, but I can't argue that it's an unattractive thing.

And at the end of the street is a super modern Westfield and building belonging to Western Sydney Uni.

Anything else in downtown Liverpool? A surprising amount actually.

There's a funky looking library,

another instalment of the Indian megamart Udaya (which I first stumbled upon back in the amazing suburb of Wentworthville),

Some official buildings,

a few preserved older buildings,

this lady,

and even Bigge Park, a pretty legit city park.

The park backs out onto the beautiful old buildings of Liverpool TAFE (which sounds like sarcasm, but take a look for yourself).

And finally, when you're done with all that, it's easy to get to the rest of Sydney from here, whether through the suburb's substantial bus station,

or by walking a few more steps to get to the trains.

Liverpool: Much less crappy than I expected.