Category: Miscellaneous

I’ve been getting into Google Earth a lot more recently, and I’m delighted to see the resolution of the Newcastle and Sydney area has increased dramatically since only a year ago. To take advantage of this, I present a tour of the six homes in which I lived during my tenure in Australia. I’ll accompany each with co-ordinates (so you can find them yourself) and a few memories that I have of each place.

Home 1: ‘ The Flats’ (Gateshead) (1973-1979?)

Co-ords (copy and paste this into the search panel): 32°58’36.50″S, 151°41’27.04″E

< Were we in Flat #4? Since I was five or six when we moved from this place I only have vague memories. Amongst them: - The evil kid next door shooting me with a slug gun - Our pet rabbit, who lived in a cage behind our flat - Some weird dude who lived just across the street [A on image] - An eccentric guy who lived in another flat who had Salvador Dali art on his walls - Being scared to go to sleep next to a window one night because I had just seen a TV advert for King Kong (the hand reaching through the window...) - Getting a 'Speed Racer' remote control car set for Christmas Home 2: 28 Murrakin Street (Whitebridge) (1979-1982?)

Co-ords: 32°58’4.84″S, 151°42’30.78″E

< Murrakin Even if my dates are wrong on exactly when we moved in (and out) of this place, my memories are plentiful and strong. Some include: - A tall (maple?) tree in our backyard corner [A on map], in which Bernard and I built a treehouse and I once fell out of. I also recall once climbing very high and nailing a ‘morning glory’ firework to the trunk and lighting the previously prepared very long fuse in the hope I could get down to ground level in time to see the sparks shoot out from the top of the tree. As I recall it never went off.
– These 3-4 houses on this piece of land [B] were not there back then. This was still woods (or ‘bush’ in the Australian vernacular) and we used to play in them extensively. There was also a muddy creek into which we used to carve waterslides (out of mud).
– It’s nice to see the bush out back is still there [C]. Many, many hours were spent exploring and walking through them (and fighting fires on their periphery). I wonder if they are still full of rusted burned out cars?
– The people that lived in this house [D] had a big red dog we called ‘Big Red’. The son was a delinquent as I recall, and once put a hand made explosive device (crafted, of course, from fireworks) into the power pole out in front of our place. I still remember mum being freaked out by the bang.

I have many memories of this house. I could go on and on 🙂

Home 3: 10 Turrug Street (Kahibah) (1983-1986?)

Co-ords: 32°58’32.20″S, 151°42’35.10″E

< Otaku Was Born This was a nice house in a nice location. And yet, despite my strong memories, it was a little tricky to place it in Google Earth. I settled on this one because I suspect [A] is the chicken coop and [B] is the garage (even if it looks a bit small). Still, the property looks a bit too heavily wooded... This was the home in which the future game-otaku that I have become was born. And my dad is to blame, because he's the guy that bought us the Colecovision all those years ago. Of course we had our C64 at Murrakin Street, but my mania started with the colecovision, and with the disposable income a paper route provided me (a large portion of which was spent on games and gaming magazines). Putting the gaming memories aside (including that one about the ~16 hour Pepper 2 marathon), I recall:
– The chickens. In the interests of decency I will refrain from naming them here, but suffice to say we made great use of the chicken coop not just for birds but for guinea pigs as well!
– Fireworks. This was the home in which we lived when Australia banned fireworks, and I have to confess that a little part of me died that day. Whether or not we knew the ban was coming, this was the home in which my number one all time firework memory was born (yes, surpassing even the time Bernard and I shot roman candles directly at each other using metal garbage can lids as shields). For it was in this house we spent days making a cardboard replica or a medieval town, using glue in which we had mixed black powder taken from carefully opened fireworks. We then lovingly laced the town with fuse wires and filled the building with more black powder and assorted small fireworks. We then eagerly summoned mum and dad to watch us light it in the backyard. BANG! That poor town was incinerated in an instant.
– If you’re viewing this in Google Earth (and you should be), then the road at [C] brings you to a large graveyard in which I used to spend hours looking at the graves. A lot of coal miners were buried there, who died (I presume) in the old Dudley mines. Many of the graves were over a hundred years old. A young teenage boy was humbled reading them.
– The yellow arrow points to Whitebridge shops, a favourite jaunt of mine. The newsagent in particular was beloved by this kid, who used to buy his copies of the various UK game magazines and Smash Hits there. Once in a while, if I was really lucky, I’d pick up a Warlock or Proteus magazine as well 🙂

The next house is only a hop and a skip away…

Home 4: 7 Illira Close (Kahibah) (1987-1989)

Co-ords: 32°58’24.59″S, 151°42’43.33″E

< Mystery Home We now enter a dark period of my life. For I am ashamed to admit I have very poor memories of this house. I can remember the outside and the area, and have many memories of my life while we lived here but I have very little memories of what the house was actually like (such as the floorplan). This puzzles me. I am reasonably sure of the dates though (you may have noticed question marks on the previous homes). All that said, since this was my 'high school' house I am overflowing with memories. But to limit to those mostly related to the property: - [A] was the garage (I believe), and it is here where Bernard and I turned out backs on childhood with the ceremonial melting down of most of our Star Wars action figures. We'll speak no more of this crime... - I recall it was alarmingly easy to get up onto the roof of this house (perhaps by climbing an adjacent tree?) and I used to very often. We used to make paper planes and throw them off the roof. Were fireworks still legal I can only imagine the crazy antics we would have gotten into. - [B] was Whitebridge High School. It was fun living next door to this place, if only for access to the sports grounds. We used to jump the back fence and be in the bush out back of the school. If you zoom out a bit in Google Earth you may note that the woods behind (to the north) of the school eventually border our second house (Murrakin Street). - [C] is where family friends, The Parsons, lived. It was cool living close to them especially since they had a pool :) - This house was where I got my first CD player, back in 1987. The first CD I bought was Music For The Masses by Depeche Mode (their first CD release). I believe the second was Black Celebration when it was reissued on CD some months afterwards, although Bernard may have picked up a Bowie CD by then. I also recall dad started buying classical CDs shortly after I bought the player as well.
– Since I was well and truly a game freak by now, I expect it wouldn’t have been a particularly unusual act at the time to stay up – as I did – for hours at a time to finish one game session. I can remember at least an 8 hour marathon of the C64 game Alleycat (Andrew Braybrook racing game) and a much longer session of C64 Gauntlet – during which I took breaks by just letting the health of my character (which was at an epic level) tick down as I rested.

We left this house when I was in my final year of high school, which I remember bothering me a lot at the time because I thought it may affect my (cough) studying. I studied back then?

The next home would be a nadir…

Home 5: ? (Charlestown) (1989-1990)

Co-ords: 32°58’3.08″S, 151°41’29.06″E

< Near Charlie Square No, I can't even remember the address. We were not here for very long, perhaps only a year (during which the Earthquake on 12/27/89 occured). I recall the house may have been damaged in the Earthquake, but I don't remember if that was a reason we left (obviously all these homes were rented). I have very poor memories of the layout of the home - only really remembering my bedroom. I do however remember: - This house was very close to Charlestown Square mall (zoom out in Google Earth; it's just NE) which meant close to public transport, movies, shops, fast food, etc. I really loved this part of living here.
– A good friend of mine (that’s you Macca!) worked in the arcade up in the Square and while he worked there – and while I lived here – I remember a neverending ‘all you can play’ gaming paradise. To this day I salute you Macca, for bringing this young man true gaming bliss. (Incidentally during those days I had mad skillz at Street Fighter 2…)
– I was unclear as to the exact location of this house because things seem to have changed (for instance, I don’t remember what looks to be an apartment complex at [C]). I triangulated via the field [A] and the bushland [B]. Our back fence faced the field, and we used to feed a horse that lived there.
– We lived here during at least my first semester of college (the first time I went to college). The older sister of a high school friend of mine used to give me a lift home from school since she lived not too far from this house, and I seem to recall this made my girlfriend (that’s you Sue!) jealous at times!

I think my mum used to hate this house, although I can’t even say I remember why. But no matter what my feelings of the place (which are not bad) the next house would go down as the favourite:

Home 6: ? (Garden Suburb) (1990-1993)

Co-ords: 32°56’44.01″S, 151°41’2.03″E

< Exodus Point As fondly as I remember this nice home you'd think I could at least remember the address don't you! I lived here from early on in my college years to the day I left Australia. Even now I can vividly remember that very day.... The happy memories include: - Momus, my first cat. Of course we'd had numerous other cats over the years (including the late great Louis), but Momus was a beast I went out and got all by myself (without, I recall, mentioning to my parents I was getting her). Sue and I drove and bought her from somewhere, and she lived with us in this house. One day she got lost and we put up 'lost cat' signs and someone found her and brought her back. Momus was a fine animal. It's remotely possible she may even still be alive today...I wonder? - The yellow arrow points in the direction of a convenience store just a few minutes walk from the house. Bernard and I spent, oh, forty-bazillion dollars on candy and soda from that place over the few years we lived there. They also had a few arcade games in the back which fed my addiction. - The internet. When I was in my last year of high school (1989) I recall going to the college where Bernard attended and using the internet to read newsgroups. But it wasn't until late 1990 that Muds (multi-user dungeons) started springing up, which was another turning point in my life. It was in this house we (Bernard) got our first computer, and along with Kingsley, would eventually program our own Mud which we placed using Bernard's PC as the server on some somehow-appropriated VT100 terminals that we lugged to our house from college. (Even now I am impressed by how hardcare that must have been back in those days) - A possum briefly moved into our fireplace. Maybe I'll save that story for another day! - It was some years earlier that I 'got into' The Sisters Of Mercy (and The Nephilim even), but I think it was in this house that my master plan to convert all my friends paid off. I recall cupboards full of mostly black clothes during this era. - It was in this house that I met KLS (then KLF), at first online, and then in person when she visited Australia in 1992. The rest, they say, is History! And that's that! So how many mistakes did I make? Which of the dates were wrong? Did I pick the wrong properties in any of these images? I urge my brother and parents (and friends, if they can remember) to correct me where wrong, or share memories of their own.