Maidstone is the suburb between Braybrook and Footscray, just south of the Maribyrnong river. We walked through Maidstone and Braybrook on an unexpectedly hot spring day.
You don’t see many casual strollers around here. It’s a place of truck depots, wreckers’ yards, car yards, warehouses and vacant land, some of which is earmarked for the inevitable apartments. And cars, cars everywhere, either second-third-fourth hand, or in the form of scrap. Continue reading
We head west, the Whitten Oval at our backs, and walk along Sunshine Road into West Footscray. The name Sunshine Road suggests a rustic fairytale, but the reality is industrial – a railway track on one side, factories, old mills and warehouses on the other.
I like this kind of landscape, especially when you come across old painted signage like this, visible from Stradbrooke St, which reads ‘James Flood Pty Ltd’ in cursive script. Though defaced by tags, it’s a beautiful piece of work. I had never heard of James Flood. But in his day, his cars broke speed records, raced aeroplanes. Now that Australian car making is all but dead, it’s worth remembering him.
Melbourne Circle: stories from the suburbs 