Why Old Suburbs are Nicer Than Housing Estates

The standard complaints with the growth of the outer suburbs are well known. Insufficient infrastructure, long commute times without appropriate public transport options built alongside the developments, destruction of the city's green wedges, profligate developers squeezing too many houses which are too big on blocks which are too small; roasting hot concrete in summer and bleak treeless wasteland in winter.

Here is another perspective: what is absent, instead of what is present.
You will never find any of the following things in a new suburb - not for decades.

1) Pear trees

They take 50 years to grow like this, and they are gorgeous, and their trunks are gnarled and dark, and they don't transplant very well. If you want a pear tree, you need to find a house with an established pear tree. Don't buy a new house and land package.

2) Cicadas

These little guys mark the beginning of summer. They are so exciting for kids to find, the shells typically appear before Christmas and make awesome tree decorations, and on hot days they sing so loud that you can't hear yourself think. They live underground for years (different species use a different prime number of years between their metamorphosis, so they each get a decent food supply without getting in each others' faces). This year, we had a bunch of tiny red-and-green ones, 3-5cm long, emerging from under the wood pile. We excavated there in 1994. I was excited because they are the first from the dug-up area. The childcare centre had the big green fellas leaving their shells up and down the fence. The kids were stoked. The centre was constructed in about 1988. But all those good folk out in new suburbs will not see or hear cicadas for decades.

3) Native orchids

 Tiny little treasures like this one hide in the grassland down at the creek. The real estate agent tried to sell off the 80Ha block for development. I am glad nobody bought it and they took it off the market. I like the orchids.

4) Wild mushrooms
WE LOVE mushrooming season. In Autumn, we walk out the front door with a basket and come back with a basket like this.

We don't pick these ones. They can make you throw up until you die of dehydration.

5) Birds nesting in hollow trees
Manky hideous tumbledown gumtree, right?

Nope. Luxurious penthouse apartment for a tawny frogmouth. Or a five-generation chateau for a family of lorikeets or rosellas. Birdlife in new suburbs sucks because they don't have the habitat. Leave your hollow trees up for as long as you can tolerate - and enjoy the sight & song of all those wild birds.

6) Samoan treeloppers

 Because when the adjacent suburbs have been recently built on clear-felled land, and your garden is full of hollow trees, cutting them down seems like a good plan. And then these good folk come through in winter/spring looking for work door-to-door, and they are very good indeed. In Winter you don't think much about the native birds or the shade that the tree imparts. Just the drippy messy leaves and gumnuts. And it seems like a good plan. So they cut your trees, and your neighbours', and three doors down, and so on,
They don't even bother showing up to suburbs less than 20 years old. The trees just aren't worth their time.

7) Shopping centre carparks with shade

See that tree on the right? There are four good carpark spots in the shade of that tree. And twenty trees just like it out the back of the fruit shop near the scout hall. I parked there the other day in 35 degrees and went to the post office and my car was gorgeous and cool. There ain't nothin' like that in the new suburbs. I love that tree.