I placed an order for a couple of neutral density filters from Digital Camera Warehouse which, regular readers may be aware, is in Canterbury, not too distant from my old stomping grounds before I moved down the coast. It's still a store that I frequent. I would probably have considered having these filters delivered but the shipping costs are a little bit ridiculous so I saddled up the Lancer and headed north for the one hour drive back to my old homelands.
Canterbury Road has seen better days. Or, perhaps it hasn't and it's always looked a little bit low rent. There have always been industrial related businesses along there and even one or two clothing and furniture factories, though many of these are now empty shopfronts or empty buildings.
One such place is a waterproofing business in Lakemba that I have driven past many times. Its mascot, this guy with his raincoat, helmet, bucket and brush standing under his umbrella has always been a pretty effective way of drawing attention to the business and many times I've thought to photograph him. He's been there for years (believe it or not it's now years since I moved) and the thought was always in the back of my mind that he would be taken down (either by vandalism, wear and tear (it can't be easy standing out there 365 days per year) or by the business closing down or moving) before I'd have a chance to.
On this trip up to DCW I decided that this was the time. I pulled off into a side road (there is no parking on Canterbury Road itself), found a place to park and walked back, then took a few shots from this side of the road.
It's probably not a minute too soon, either. The area had been changing even before I left but the pace seems to have picked up. A group of detached cottages, formerly occupied one may assume by blue-collar workers has been sold and will be redeveloped into multi-storey apartments. The hardware store opposite my old street closed down a year or so back from memory and the site is being redeveloped as, you guessed it, a multi-storey apartment block (although it looks like they may be retaining the facade of the old hardware store). Across the road from there, at the head of my old street, a secondhand car lot has been wiped away and is in the process of being replaced by (guess what?)... that's right, a multi-storey apartment block. Further down the road an old service station has been obliterated and is being replaced by... yes, a multi-storey apartment block. Even places that were less down market (although it would be unfair to call the hardware store downmarket; I thought I was in heaven when I first moved there) are being supplanted. There was a rather nice office furniture place further down in Canterbury. "Hey, hang on, where has Bowerman's gone?", I wondered as I drove past. Oh, another multi-storey apartment block is going up. (I later found that they had moved to a neighbouring suburb called Revesby.[1])
Accordingly I decided that now is the time. Whatever I don't photograph now will almost certainly be gone or changed beyond recognition in the next five years. I regret now not having photographed more of my local area while it was still my local area. But that time has passed. If there is anything that I still want to grab a shot of when I go up to DCW, I certainly will. But the reality is that this has become my past as well and there is no getting it back. It'll never be 1999 again. And so, with apologies to Gotye and his well-known song, "Now they're just some places that I used to go".
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[1] And later still, why:
"A Sydney retail site best known as Bowermans Furniture, on Canterbury Road in Hurlstone Park, has sold for $20.6 million to a residential developer.
The site at 308-310 Canterbury Road in Sydney’s inner west has DA approval for 134 units and a retail component on the ground floor." (AFR, 7 Oct 14)
