Living in Riddell means fresh air and open space

Fresh air and open space, that's the life

I had my eye on the clouds pushing up from the south.  Fine drops blown ahead of the cloud came first, but I calculated that I had time to finish getting my seed potatoes in. I was at the back door when the proper rain arrived, falling slant wise across the valley.  How good to come inside to the warm, but how good as well to be out in the cold, with the wind in your hair and the rain biting, as the weather comes through.

Living in inner Melbourne was different.  It was hard to read where the weather was coming from. I didn’t pay attention as the temperature dropped and the wind picked up as a cold front came in. The big city blunted that sensibility.  I lived inside. 

Living in a place where you appreciate the weather, good and bad, and the way it changes before you, might seem like a minor aspect of a good life, but it’s not.  I’ve been thinking about Amess Road and the small lots proposed there - 350 m2.  I remember that I once lived on a 330m2 lot in Subiaco, near Perth city, actually in a row of 330m2 lots, and in a suburb of small lots.  The houses were modest single storey worker’s cottages, with trees in the backyards, a nature strip out the front and footpaths each side of the street.  A pocket park across the road gave us more space - the the Council had bought that when they started planning for denser living.  The era of big houses and lots of units was just beginning, but the suburb still had enough space to feel the natural world. 

These days a suburb of 350m2 lots is filled with built-to-the-boundary houses. The natural world is literally built out of the landscape.  Check this recent post on Save Riddells Creek if you need reminding. 

That’s not how most of us live in Riddell. We average 2000m2 lots. When we go outside, we are most definitely outside in the natural world.  We feel the weather. We hear the mad cackling of cockatoos at dusk as they settle to roost.  The magpies warble on in the middle of the morning.  As the light rain spattered my back, and I covered the seed potatoes with straw, I wasn’t grumbling or complaining.  How good to be able to be properly outside!  I was glad to live in a place where the weather matters. 

Am I alone in this? I think not. When residents in Riddell were asked, back in 2016: What do you like about living here?  Fresh air and open space was top of the list. A place without too many people, uncongested, without pollution or noise. A connection to the natural world and wildlife. The peacefulness.

So this as a note to future residents, as those 350m2 lots at Amess Road fill up, a note from those of us who had the good fortune to arrive here earlier: step outside.  Walk out of your tidy suburb toward the hills, or the plains, or the nearest creek. Whatever the weather.

On a day you hadn’t planned it, the feeling of being glad to be alive will come buffeting through like a southerly gust of rain, or burst open inside you with the gay chortle of the magpie. You’ll think to yourself: how good is this, living in the country! And you'll be glad you stepped outside for a walk.

Ross Colliver, Riddells Creek Landcare