Photo essay - a taste of Eastlakes

As you may have gathered from the pattern of posting across my blogs, I am having a bit of a struggle at the moment with writing priorities and directions given other things. Tonight, another very short photo post.

In Photo essay - a taste of Glebe markets, I tried to provide you with a taste of the variety in Sydney. Incidentally, drawing my basic description form Wikipedia, I said without thinking that Glebe was 3k south west of the CBD. It can't be! Glebe is north or north west from the CBD depending on where you draw the line!

Eastlakes, population a bit under 7,000, is 8k south east of the CBS. This is a different world from the cafe metro lifestyle of Glebe, but just as varied. 

This shot is of the small cafe strip. This one place where the older Greek men gather to drink coffee. They also gather on the chairs outside Woolworth's inside the centre. There they sit, yarn and pass the time.

  This is the Di Blasi barber's shop. I used to have my hair done here until I decided the shave my head. Note the sign one owner since 1956. The Greeks and Italians came to the area as part of the first big migration wave after the Second World War. Just down the road is the Geek Orthodox Cathedral

Later came the next wave, those from Asia. This is the Chinese butcher's shop. The other one is Greek owned. A Thai temple is to be found just outside the shopping centre. Falung Gong devotees practice in the nearby park hoping to attract adherents. They are getting noticeably older, if not as old as the Greeks!

   Now comes a new wave of migrants. On Chinese New Year last year, I watched the Chinese dragon with full drum accompaniment prance past women in full hijab. Outside, the older Greek men drank their coffee and smoked their cigarettes. In Woolworth's, a dozen nationalities manned the check-outs. 

This is not posh or metro Sydney. The shopping centre is surrounded by housing estates now being broken up. The prices in Woolworth's are up to 20 per cent cheaper than those in posher places. But it is a microcosm of a city undergoing fundamental change.