Worst House/Garden
Long before the birth of The Worst of Perth, I wondered about this house and garden inVictoria Park. First, the colour. Yes bad, but the very large garden is also fascinating. The owner has for years maintained it as almost bare yellow sand. It must take an incredible amount of work to keep it bare, but why? And if he loves bare sand, why the few favoured straggly plants in the wasteland? I wonder what desertification tools he has in the shed back there. L and S took this for me. The exterior shot is a little off level, as the owner came out. It was taken from the car as they sped off. Thanks guys. Kudos. Interesting house. Not sure if it belongs in worst of category, but there’s something strange about it.
The Worst of Perth 
Maybe he’s a Tiffany’s die hard and wanted his house to resemble a big, robin egg blue, Tiffany box. On a prisitine Tiffany counter. Or maybe he once propsed to the love of his life with a Tiffany solitaire, and she accepted initially- thinking that she probably loved him and that the diamond was very shiny after all, only to leave him 3 months before their wedding for a man she met a few days earlier at a bar. They had a whirlwind romance, she finally discovered what real love felt like and decided to leave him in the middle of the night- a letter, left on the nightstand, the empty Tiffany box beside it. Hearbroken, he retreated from the world, in an attempt to paint it over and make everything fresh and new. But his feverent attempts to conceal his anguish are lost- revealed to those who know him by the colour (and box like shape) of his house. An obvious symbol his pain. And the garden? As bare as his heart.
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Nah Rage he likes green except for grass. Grass bad man. Or you could ask him after you overcome your fear of buckets of cats. Also there is something Zen like to this and more power to Zen.
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I guessed it was an old bloke in a blue singlet. Almost right, but blue shirt not singlet. It does have a certain Zen about it Bill. Maybe a raked pattern would do it.
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Pretty sweet. Is one of those plants knocked over? Maybe he’s just a minimalist.
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He now wears knee high socks and shorts, and sits on his porch in summer reading the antiques and collectables columns in the Quokka hoping for large quantities of paint in similar colours and regularly checks for free sand.
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I went to Kent St Senior High School.
If I remember rightly, that house is just behind the school. Quite near the volleyball courts and manual arts block in my day.
He probably had all sorts of stuff chucked over the fence into his back yard. You can’t imagine.
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You are dead right Lisa. So you are saying it was you guys that turned him into an obsessive sandy Gardener? Perhaps he wanted a clear field of fire for students coming over the fence.
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Bingo.
Kent St’s catchment area includes Brownleigh Towers, Mofflyn & Hillcrest, the Mint St precinct of Vic Park, Karawara, and St James and environs.
It made for a mind-expanding public education experience, the skills and knowledge obtained from which serve me well to this day; but I wouldnt want to live over the fence. Not even in the 21st century boom.
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Lisa ,that’s the Kent St High hostel you can see in his backyard in the second photo.
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lol Lisa — another Kent St girl here too — Seeing this house made me all kinds of nostalgic…
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LOL I drove past this today on my way to work and the guy was outside touching up the paint on the corner of the house. I also noticed furthur into his backyard he has more plants than this picture
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He does have a few more plants, but the accent is very much on wasteland rather than oasis.
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Another ex-Kent Street girl! What a strange coincidence, I purposely walked down to Berwick St yesterday to take a photo of this house because I’m leaving Vic Park for a while and will miss it in all its hideous, hideous glory.
And now here it is on the internet.
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I think it’s now clear that you Kent Streeters caused him to go this way. Are you moving to a different part of Perth? Get some pictures for TWOP.
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I live around the corner from this house, and love it for some reason. I don’t know why – there’s really nothing attractive about it. I think I just want to know what the inside looks like.
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Haha, I’ve done work inside this house. I felt bad when the front wheels of my ute disturbed the perfectly flat sand. Nice owners though,
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Thanks Dukes. Yeah, I think we’ve pinned any blame onto Kent Street students.
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Oh and erinstark,
The interior is old and dark, is Indian themed (as his wife is Indian), little bit messy, has thick old dark carpet that smells like musty old curry and has those bead door shroud things you get from thingz gifts.
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I started off thinking the garden was crazy. Now I think crazy like a fox.
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Update:
I did another job today at this house,
I inquired about how he kept the sand so level for so long, He said the fence helped because (big) kids kept digging it up.
He also mentioned that 2 movies have been filmed in his backyard, One by channel 7 another by someone else (a short film I think) using his backyard as a ‘beach’.
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You have had a priveledged peek into a much valued worst Dukes. I salute this garden and will be sad if it goes.
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Are we entirely sure this house is from this planet?
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