Why I love my suburb: Barry Du Bois on Moorebank
Why I love my suburb is a new series written by Sydneysiders about their patch. The Living Room’s Barry Du Bois recalls what it was like growing up in a fibro house in a flood zone in the south western suburbs.
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Why I love my suburb is a new series written by Sydneysiders about their patch. The Living Room’s Barry Du Bois recalls what it was like growing up in fibro house in a flood zone in the south western suburbs.
MY mum and dad moved into our little home in 1959 it was a two bedroom fibro house on Newbridge Rd down near the boat ramp in the flood zone. I was born in 1960.
The reason Mum and Dad moved to that area was like many in those days, Moorebank was an area on the move and there was plenty of open space, lots of other young families and a couple of nice little schools (My brother, sister and I went to Chipping Norton Public and loved it).
My dad was a very hard worker and as well as a regular job he always had a backyard business as well and the busy road made for good exposure for the little enterprises he had going.
I went to Liverpool Boys High School starting in 1972. I remember that school received some of the first Vietnamese refugees in Australia. It was an incredible time — way different to now.
I loved waterskiing and my friends and I spent many great afternoons after work and weekends down on the river and around the boat ramp.
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A bunch of mates would play touch football at Nuwarra Public and from there I’d barbecue at a mate’s house or head to the Moorebank Hotel for some schooners.
I only have memories of the area as I don’t live there now but I wouldn’t change a thing (except for the government giving us a lot less money than our house was worth meaning we had to move a lot further out past Campbelltown).
I live in a beautiful home on Bondi Beach with my family now and have for many years, but whenever I am near Moorebank I have a bit of a ritual. I pull my car up onto the vacant land where our home was; I look at all that land and remember mini bike riding from morning to night and the incredible feeling of freedom that gave us.
Later in life we waterskied on the Georges River, we had no intention of ever leaving that area but after the big floods in the mid 80s the government forced us to sell our home to them and moved us on.
This was a small fibro house on Newbridge Rd with vacant blocks of land on either side of it. It was not much to look at but we loved it. It’s not the walls and roof that make a home, it’s the people inside and the community around it. That old home and the land around it are a part of my DNA. I never leave that vacant block of land without a tear of happiness and a lump in my throat. I tell people it was a great place to grow up.
● Barry du Bois is attending his Liverpool Boys High School 40-year-school reunion at Liverpool Catholic Club this weekend. His book Life Force, a story of family, friendship, food and cancer, by Du Bois and Miguel Maestre is out now.
