Heritage Hospital: Concord West

I've previously talked about how this next bit of Sydney is in a very hard to define area, sitting just south of the Parramatta River, too east to be in Western Sydney and not really part of the Inner West. As such, I welcome you back to the region I just call Canada Bay. 

Concord West

Like many of my posts, this suburb kicks off with a train into the station. 

Due to some goings on in Britain that you may have heard about, the ride was free today. 

Free or paid, I headed out onto the street to see what this suburb has to offer. 

Somewhat interestingly, the first thing I saw was one of these on-demand short buses. I've never caught one of these before and don't actually know how they work. As someone who often goes to weird bits of suburbia, I ought to look these up. 

Anyway, outside of the station is a pleasant enough waiting area,

and the local shops.

Concord West's shopping strip is a fairly quiet affair, with a handful of eateries and services.

Of interest here are some mosaicked floors,

and around the corner, 

The NSW Embroiderer's Guild. That's a new one for me.

I'll come back to this side of the tracks later, 

but for now I'm going to take one of the coolest railway crossings I've come across. 

Check out this giant pipe you can walk through. 

On the other side of the pipe is some green but fairly unassuming suburbia. 

Houses here are of an older style, 

and while mostly well kept, seem to have dodged the need for too many renovations. 

At the end of this street, 

I took these gates onto a path which actually leads into a complete other suburb. That suburb will be covered in my next post, 

but for now we teleport a few hundred metres up the road, and back to the other side of the railway line. 

Returning to Concord West after that brief detour, I continued on through the suburb's residential streets. 

Things are similarly unpretentous here, 

although I did enjoy this place's green hue, 

and there are definitely a few more signs of "modernisation" on this side of the tracks. 

Crossing the major Concord Road led me deeper into the suburb.

Here, things aren't too different, 

with the pleasing mish mash of architectures continuing, 

and even some towers from the neighbouring Rhodes as a backdrop. 

This way led me to Lovedale Place, 

a park currently used for... parking, 

but also a slightly more interesting public space nearby. This is the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway.

It's a somewhat bushy walking track now serving as a memorial and information-centre on the Kokoda Track and it's role in the Second World War. 

Here there's a picnic area,

paths through a lush environment, 

information about Kokoda, 

and this rather impressive war memorial.

After finising up here, I followed the path along, 

towards what is apparently the Foreshore Trail,

and a car park for Concord Hospital,

as well as this little garden. 

Now, Concord Hospital is actually more interesting than you may imagine. It sits on the grounds of the 1800s Yaralla Estate, 

meaning that there are heritagey-bits dotted all around. 

Getting to the next heritagey-bit I was looking for meant going through the hospital grounds, 

including this enjoyably dilapidated building, 

through to the other side. 

Here, I briefly stopped to take some terrible pictures of what appear to be black cockatoos on the neighbouring wetlands, which I didn't even know were a thing,

before continuing on past a helipad,

with some plovers waiting for their Uber Helicopter. 

And onto another path, 

that helped reassure me that I hadn't been trespassing all this time. 

So at this stage, Concord West decides to get a bit rural, with the paved footpath subsiding in favour of gravel,

then grass,

then mud,

and with quite pretty farmhouse vibes going on. 

The heritagey bit I was looking for was not on this main path, so I headed off-road, 

past this Babylonian monument to the gods, 

and towards one probably-former-farm-house. 

This eventually, however, did lead to the heritagey bit I was looking for,

Yaralla House. 

Once the home to some colonial folks, its now used as a health facility. Although its grounds are free for the public to wander, apparently you're not allowed to go up to the house, which they tell you about with a sign with small writing so that you have to go up to the house to read it. 

Anyway, house aside, I continued through the grounds here in order to start to head back, 

past some gardens of various stages of growth,

through another pipe, this one made of foliage, 

past some more interesting heritage buildings, 

and down a gorgeous wooded street, 

with decent views of the hospital I'd just come from. 

These gates marked my exit from the grounds, 

but not the suburb just yet. 

Perhaps as a complement to the nearby historic grounds, the houses in this corner of the suburb turned out to be a bit fancier, 

with more pillars and fresher paint. 

I did get a kick out of the number plate on this guy's neon-green modified car though here. 

This street eventually ended, and at this stage I was ready for my next suburb.  

Taking advantage of the free transport, I thus bee-lined my way back to Concord West Station, passing along the way this house (apartment?) with a wonderfully blue door, 

a pointy church,

a street-library with the obligatory Fifty Shades of Grey,

and Spy CD-Rom, 

eventually reaching the Concord West shops once more, 

and the station. 

From here, I took the train a very lazy one stop to my next suburb.

Concord West: A surprisingly huge suburb for a place I've previously just used as a free Sydney Olympic Park car parking spot.