Mambo Number: Five Dock

Some time ago I starting using a mini-region of Sydney called "Canada Bay" to gather up the suburbs around Rhodes and Cabarita which claim to be the Inner West, but really aren't. Well this next suburb is technically in the city of Canada Bay, but I reckon is actually in the Inner West. (On a side note, some time I want to sit down and work out what I think the borders of all the regions of Sydney are - I think it might make an interesting, controversial article or video.) Anyway, here's a suburb.

Five Dock 

Five Dock is one of the many suburbs which can be accessed via Parramatta Road. For Mrs Completing Sydney and myself this kind-of-gloomy weekend morning, this meant a relatively painless bus ride from Central, through Sydney's least appealing road. 

Crossing Parramatta Road, we headed into the start of residential Five Dock. 

Five Dock's a suburb I'd heard of , but I'm not sure if I've ever spent any time here before. As such, I didn't know what to expect upon setting foot here.

Common to this part of Sydney, I found a bunch of these older brick houses (early to mid-twentieth century I want to say?),

some which have been upgraded over the years,

and on a pleasant but unnotable suburban backdrop.

In terms of some of the more interesting houses, I thought this one was pretty,

with nice knockers,

and this much newer double storey house stands out from its neighbours, purely due to looking so... average?

We continued deeper into the suburb,

seeing the archiest boy ever,

an awning for the ages,

and a pointy house.

A few palm trees were thrown in for good measure. 

After not too long, we reached the "Great North Road", the main road running through Five Dock,

where the suburb's commercial centre lies. 

Five Dock's CBD is alright, but not exactly earth shattering. It's got a fairly standard smattering of 

dolphin stores, 

assorted dining options (this one is simply the best),

an RSL,

and a generally unsurprising collection of services.

That being said, there are a few interesting spots in the CBD, such as this corner I found visually appealing, 

an old bank building,

a plaza named after Ned's brother,

and the most laissez faire pigeon I've ever met.

The reason we chose to come to Five Dock in the first place today is actually just up the road from here,

and it was to check out Buttercrumbs, a croissant place I'd previously read is rather good, for a carb-laden breakfast.

As well as selling the regular croissants you'd find in most other bakeries, the "unique" thing here are their cube shaped croissants...

which were sold out when we arrived.

Instead, we grabbed an almond croissant, nutella/strawberry/custard croissant,

and a cinnamon one too.

And some coffees. All in all, very delicious, with the almond one having that perfect mix of a crusty outside filled with that almond-goo stuff they put inside and the cinnamon one being a wonderful crunchy answer to a cinnamon donut. The nutella one was weakest, being fine but overshadowed by its colleagues. 

The cube ones look like this (link to someone's Google review). 

Full of butter-pastry, we continued on into more suburban Five Dock.

Where we mainly just found more houses,

including this one which I couldn't tell if it was an apartment or giant house, 

Soon, I reached Five Dock Park,

a fairly large park, with sports oval, an off-leash area,

and even a little bit of a city view. 

Carrying on,

there was a waterside park I wanted to check out,

so I continued on through the suburb. 

On the way, I passed more suspiciously large brick houses, 

a house with gargoyles,

a senior citizens' club with a sign that looks like it should say "no girlƨ allowed",

a less-common-for-Five-Dock new apartment complex, 

a house with excellent panelling,

one with one-hell of a garden feature,

and this dog,

in order to reach the waterside Halliday Park.

Due to the gloomy-skied day, the spot was a little bit underwhelming today, but it does have all the hallmarks of a fairly nice patch overlooking a bay of the Parramatta River, with open space for picnicking, and a kids play area. 

Points of interest are this thing,

some apparent wetlands, 

and pretty open views of the surrounds.

Maybe I'll come back on a blue-skied day.

But with that checked off, and our sugary breakfast transporting us to snooze town, we waddled over to the nearest bus stop,

and hopped on a bus back home.

Five Dock: Pretty good, but where are the docks?