Suburb #70 Richardson

I have been getting back on the suburban adventure bandwagon recently - making the most of a series of beautiful Canberra sunny winter days - yay! Suburb number 70 was Richardson in the South.

Richardson is named after Henry Handel Richardson, who you may well know was in fact Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, an Australian female author. I like this quote from one of her novels: "But hers was one of those inconvenient natures which trust blindly or not at all: once worked on by a doubt or a suspicion, they are never able to shake themselves free of it again". So me.

The streets in Richardson are named after writers, mainly female ones.

The first thing that struck me about Richardson was that all the houses seemed to be based on exactly the same design...some had verandas others didn't but they were all one story and basically the same. For someone who grew up in Sydney where the norm is random and different, and most things seems accidentally beautiful, it was quite unexpected...oh and people have a lot of cars here.

As a result, I may have got a little bit exited when I saw three houses (yes only three) of a different design - particularly the one that had two stories (where it turns out someone I know actually lived...really not trying to stalk people I promise) and the one that was all pretty and had an awesome weather vane (which the locals tell me has a rather dark past unfortunately).

Once I got over my obsession with finding different types of houses...the next stop was the local shops....which appeared very welcoming...despite a drunk man almost falling into our car...

Really not sure about this slogan though....

Or that one shop requires so much aircon...

But hey I love the 80s pavers though...

Unfortunately, we were not able to get in to see Tuggeranong Homestead as it was closed - must go back and check out the markets that are on 2nd Sunday of the month.

But it was still lovely wandering around nearby in the sun and checking out some unusual garden features...

'

But even better was the discovery of the old Tuggeranong Pine Forrest nearby...OK so not strictly in Richardson, but we had a lovely walk here getting lost trying to look for the old Tuggeranong train station.

My elderly mother may never forgive me for making her walk up that hill though. Sorry mum :(

Determined to go back and find the railway tracks soon! Looks like approaching from Gilmore might be easier.