CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
A stay-at-home graphic designer/full-time mummy currently renovating a divine pre-war terrace house in Betoota’s West End says she’s glad that her 18 month-old will be able to grow up in an area with tragic social issues.
After being raised in the sterile suburbs of Betoota’s Hills District, Christy Benard (35) apparently ‘fell in love’ with the edgier parts of town during her uni sharehouse days.
“My husband, Tim (42, stockbroker) and I always wanted our kid to grow up in an area where there are heaps of cafes and methadone clinics” she says.
“The last thing I want to do is live a normal life in an uncool suburb, like where I grew up and my family still live”
While she often has to wear trendy Blundstone boots during her morning baked bread run to avoid needles discarded by vulnerable inner-city drug addicts, Christy says life in a crammed old workers cottage is really different and unique.
“It’s getting better. I think more people like me are getting the idea and turning this place into a cool inner-city hub. The property value is going right up…”
“…but it is still cute to see a few heroin addicts floating around. They really make the area, you know”
“There’s even a few Aboriginal people hanging around chatting in the street. I’m just so happy that our daughter, Echo, will be able to grow up in an area with Indigenous people around. That’s if they are still here in five years”
Christy says her only issue with the area is the young blow-in uni students, who feel the need to stay up and party into the early hours at local pubs or nearby sharehouses.
“It’s not very considerate for people with young families. Like myself”
“I think eventually the pubs in this area will turn into more cool New York-style bars”
“I hope so anyway. The young kids from the suburbs just aren’t really that aware of the actual community”
SEE ALSO: Century Old Pub Fined For Disrupting Sleep Patterns Of Yuppies Who Chose To Live Near It
