It’s a picture-perfect late summer morning and I’m seated poolside on the rooftop of The Eve Hotel, the latest addition to Sydney’s thriving hotel scene, in gritty-chic Redfern. Blissfully alone with my thoughts, I recline beneath an oversized orange umbrella on a plushly padded lounger, the rhythmic clip-clop of horses on their sorties from the NSW Mounted Police Stables wafting up from five floors below.

In fact, besides the occasional inquiry into my wellbeing from gently attentive staff, the only other sound is the wind-fluttered leaves of semi-mature trees planted just a few months ago to mark the periphery of the building.