This is a blog about the world from the perspective of Abbotsford, the world HQ of VB, a suburb with a former home for wanton women, a brewery, the world’s most urban vineyard, million dollar appartments, housing commission flats, eccentrics who have lived here 67 years, a cornucupia of outstanding takeaway, Melbourne’s original Little Saigon, a giant riverside park, the Collingwood Children’s Farm, and a heap of heroin dealers.
Abbotsford, bounded by the Eastern Freeway in the north, the Yarra in the east, Victoria Street in the south, and Hoddle St in the east, is redefined to include the whole of Smith St, Gertrude St and the Yarra Bend Park, and the universe of interest of the blog will be things in and rideabletoablefrom Abbotsford, as well as the whole of what used to be called Collingwood, including Clifton Hill.
I hope that truly diverse but universally quirky correspondents will collaborate as authors and contributors of photos and information, and that in time, the blog may create a network of communities, rip open the seedy underbelly of this superficially increasingly genteel place, prompt the biennial Abbotsford Ball with belly dancers and fiery torches, and even achieve modest change.