On 379sqm of land with the water directly opposite, this original 1950s home is ready for someone else to reimagine its next chapter. While every BresicWhitney home tells a story, this time we’re throwing to the owners to tell theirs.

14 Brisbane Avenue, Rodd Point – by Beth Jessup.

“The old man who lived on The Bay Run”

Some of you reading this may have seen him over the years, a solid fixture, sitting on his “verandah” as he called it, in front of his Accountant’s sign, in his wide-brimmed, Bunnings straw hat and tracky dacks. He’d observe closely, the passing parade of cultures, shapes and sizes…running, cycling, families walking, kids on scooters, babies in prams and the dogs.  Those passing wouldn’t have known it but they played such a big part in my father’s last years. And the Bay hadn’t always been that populated. 

 

 

 

When moving here in 1962, Rodd Point could be a little high on the nose at times with the stench of seaweed and chemicals from factory runoffs that lined the Parramatta River foreshore.  A dredging of Iron Cove happened sometime in the late 60’s which put pay to that. The marine life multiplied again, the health of the ecosystem returned and property prices started to move. 

We used to swim at Miller Street Baths, all the locals did. Soccer, not a major sport back then, was played in the park adjacent, probably due to the Italian influence. We bussed to Domremy College each day. And the cracker nights, held on Empire Day, were the best. At the end of every street on the bay, the kids and adults over days, would collect and build the biggest bonfires.

He and mum added the extension toward the end of the 60’s; a big sunroom and kitchen. And oh, the wallpaper…flock, metallic, paisley everywhere! My Dad wasn’t the handyman, Mum was. Up and down ladders she’d go. An accountancy client built the bamboo lounge suite and the tapestried Jacobean was a wedding present. 

 

 

 

For forty years Dad entertained his clients in the front office, sitting at his huge, turn of the century, french polished desk. Dressed either in his Smartex, tartan woollen dressing gown with patched elbows or an expensive, tailored, usually dark navy, woollen suit, white silk shirt, red silk tie, whatever mood took him! Both Mum and Dad had a sense of style! His 1969, vintage, racing green, Volvo Sedan, still downstairs, marked him in our neighbourhood. He bought it in 1971 and loved it! Stately, as he was tall and stately..an old gentleman.

He insisted on staying in this house. He’d say, “why would I want to leave a view like that!” That view, that sweep up Iron Cove any time, is beautiful! Facing northeast, as a young one, he used to wake me for the sunrise! And they were glorious! Often then, it’s like a millpond, not a ripple, the early morning rowers’ oars glancing the water, the clouds rimmed silver! And then the pink glow of the sunset from the West in the evening. The stillness and peace of the lights on the water at night and on New Year’s Eve, you can sit out and watch the fireworks moving down the river! It’s a prize and I’ll miss it.

All the family will.

BresicWhitney thanks the family for sharing.

The property can be viewed here.