My Name is: Earlwood

I've always thought of the Inner West as ending at the Cooks River. That means, despite what real estate agents might tell you, this next suburb is part of Sydney's South. Welcome to

Earlwood

If you've been reading along, you'll know that Earlwood is immediately north of my previous suburb of Turrella. Crossing a small bridge over Wolli Creek landed me in the misleadingly named Turrella Reserve, with tremendously lush and green grass.

Incidentally, this non-nuclear family of waterfowl live on the Turrella-Earlwood border and would like you to know that you're in the wrong neighbourhood bucko.

My original plan was to walk through residential Earlwood and towards the suburb's main commercial centre. Instead though, from Turrella Reserve a more enticing option opened up in the form of a bushwalk through Wolli Creek Regional Park.

The walking track turned out to be a very easy 2km stroll through some rather serene bushland.

What I really enjoyed about this walk is the continual shift between "I'm in the middle of the bush" and "oh look, suburbia".

I even got a kick out of seeing a train poking through the bushes from the nearby line.

They were even kind enough to limit the stairs to a single flight.

If sitting is more your thing, there are even a few little picnic areas to have a rest towards the end of the trail, at Girrahween Park.

From here, you're just about out, with a winding paved trail taking you back to the relative civilisation of suburban Sydney.

If you'd like to do the walk yourself, there's more info here on the NSW National Parks website.

Emerging, this small patch of residential Earlwood does have some fairly standard twentieth century brick homes,

but it also has some slightly more remarkable options.

Pave every surface.

I always get a kick out of these houses with windows in the roof, I don't know why.

From here, I was just behind the main road (the amusingly named Homer St), and the suburb's commercial centre.

Where do you think these folks are from?

Strolling up Homer St led to the commercial area,

best marked by My Big Fat Greek Funeral Home.

To be honest, I was a little bit underwhelmed by downtown Earlwood; it seemed to be missing that spark that many other local shopping areas seem to have.

At least The King chose to make an appearance.

Bizarrely, that Elvis statue is part of an Elvis themed pizza restaurant - "Jailhouse Rock".

I don't know why this place exists (was Elvis known for enjoying pizza?) but regardless, the interior is best experienced through photosphere.

I guess downtown Earlwood does have a little bit of zing after all.

In addition, the anarchists have managed to find their way here. Special mention goes to the apartment for rent ad put up next to the "Rent is Theft" poster. Someone also lost their bird. A lot is going on here.

Next to the ad-hoc community noticeboard, there's also quite a lovely piece of mosaic art dedicated to multicultural Earlwood.

Having seen what I came to see, I crossed the road just up the road from the mosaics, and caught a bus into my next suburb.

Earlwood: Sometimes you're in the bush, sometimes you're in Greece, and sometimes you're in Memphis.