Blast from the past

I know this SAYS the "Darval Rd Gate'. However, it is on Cook Road, Moore Park where it intersects with Darvall Street. But hey!

The Sydney Showground has not been on this site for, I'm guessing, a quarter of a century. I wonder how often this gate gets used?

Location, location, location

So goes the exhortation from land sharks and speculators and estate agents! Look at the map. They are right, of course. Wedged in by greenery, this estate appealed to doctors, to lawyers, to statesmen (huh?), to mercantilists. This is where the landed gentry who ran merino studs outside Wagga Wagga housed their family (or mistresses).

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Can you see the green swathe through this area? Can you see the 100 acres that is bounded by Robertson, Cook, Lang and Martin? The exclusivity of the area was a magnet. Lang Road and Cook Road have been eroded by the impact of traffic from the old Showground, from the Sydney Cricket Ground, and now from Fox Studios. Some of these houses have been let go, like a mistress gone to seed.


Remember, we are talking here about the professional class, the landed gentry, and merchants. We are not talking imported aristocracy, we are not talking inherited wealth. For the most part, these investors were self-made men. Self-made, with pretensons, of course.