I've lived in Newport twice - first time being in 2008. The 'apartment' (as it was advertised) was part of a complex of four, clad in cream weatherboard over red brick. The building had a slight lean to it, and the wood had warped and rotted from the salty air. I'm almost certain it was an old boarding house for maritime, rail or oil industry employees (OK that part is mere speculation) because you'd open the front door into a long hallway that had 3 rooms off it, each lockable from the inside and with a louvred window into the hall. We were on the first floor which gave us a great view of the power station, and you could always tell how cold it was by the amount of steam escaping the stack.
There were three units downstairs, and one next door above a shop that faced onto Melbourne Rd. Below our kitchen was a tiny studio - the man who lived there had a lot of computers but they were all archaic beige boxes and CRT monitors, and the moth-eaten and yellowed curtains on the lone window were transparent so at night I'd always see him watching TV at a really low volume. The middle apartment was perpetually empty, and the last one was the home of a really old man who drank way too much, too often. He'd lose his keys at the pub up the road and then ask me to help break into his place through the kitchen window, which I was never game to do. I always wondered what the floorplans of the downstairs units were like and once, on a really hot day, the drunk left his front door wide open and you could see a shower, the molded plastic and moldy curtain kind, situated right across from the front door. Very weird. The whole block has since been demolished and replaced with townhouses (edit: I googled my old address and found
this so I don't have to explain how ugly they are).
In 2010 we moved into the flat above the shop, which was in far better condition. It was nice but 2010 was a really awful year, and I would try to spend as much time outside of the house as possible, so I perfected a time-killing walk to Greenwich Bay, then north past the Warmies up to the old glass factory, then back home via Spotswood and Hall St. The events of 2010 made me dislike Newport immensely and I never visited again* until Boxing Day (my last day there coincided with the state election that was Brumby vs Baillieu) - I rescind my distaste and can now say Newport is alright
*edit: driving through on my way to Altona or Williamstown doesn't count but taking Millers Rd is way better than the hell that is Melbourne Rd, plus you get the opportunity to stop at Altona Gate Shopping Centre, which is great. Also I don't think of Newport Lakes as being in Newport for some reason, sorry
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| OK not Newport but I was getting coffee in Seddon and saw this giant group of seagulls which I think fly from the carpark of Sunshine Marketplace to somewhere near the beach (or river) every afternoon |
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| Very slow moving barrel filtering something at the power station |
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| What remains of the Newport Oil Wharf |
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| This was empty and fenced off for a while but is now a dog park. Someone on the local buy/swap/sell group posted about a dog getting stuck in a rabbit warren here the other night |
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| Crows in a tree |
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Looks like a railway crossing because it might've been - I think this is where the Holden Dock oil train used to run
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| Sewer outlet |
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OK on the other side of the road now - there was no footpath, just this remnant bit of kerb (curb?) which went for a few hundred meters
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| Box on the side of the road |
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| Random patch of bluestone? |
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| Concrete path to/from nowhere |
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| Was once a giraffe |
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| I took this photo on the drive home - I like unsealed roads in otherwise urbanised places, they are very humble, I hope they continue to exist for some time |
