fatalflame

The lake across the road from the main drag of Antique Cres is it's main drawcard. Around the corner towards the shopping centre is a street full of poorly maintained duplexes and rental houses. A car with a broken bumper bar that sticks out into the path of passing traffic has been there for weeks now, and the house on the corner made a big mistake putting massive glass globes on top of their fence posts, they made great target practice for the yobs and delinquents that frequent the tree lined pathway next to their house.
Pidgeons and white ibis are feral all over the street. Ibises have a great time picking out any relics of food from the maccas trash thrown out the window of cars that are habitually parked along the side of the road at night. The park down the end of the street used to be a hotbed for hotheads and just jerks in general but thankfully the council has done something to stop the idiots from hanging around in there at night and locks the gates at dusk.
The park is nice, but come on-it's just the old brick pit filled up with water. It is rife with pollution and water weeds, shopping trolleys are often dumped in there and beer bottles are always floating around near the 'shore'. Kids with skateboards (usually from the nearby Doonside High) have made the wharf area their own, complete with waxed step edges and graffiti galore.
But it does have the community centre which runs a range of activities, from fitness to childcare to parties on saturday nights which let the whole neighbourhood enjoy their pumping 80s tunes late into the night, along with them.
The whole suburb is an example of what happens when a developer gets their hands on a large vacant plot of land and decides they want to make as much money as humanely possible from it by squeezing it for every inch it's worth. The houses are either small and cramped and very tight next to each other, or humungous behemoths that usually come without eaves so they can get those precious extra few inches up to the fenceline.
Luckily the street traffic is almost non-existant, apart from the parked cars it's very quiet. The tennis courts have no parking however so the cars clog the road up during the times when it's in use.
You can live your whole life there and not have said a word to the neighbours. There is a high turnover rate and due to lack of front yards to maintain and the long hours professional types keep due to having to commute long distances to the CBD, you rarely ever see the people you live around. The house behind us had a massive pile of junk in it which led to a red-bellied black snake infestation that killed one of our cats-and we still didn't get a glimpse of the people that live there.
Also the fact that alot of families that live there come from overseas and don't speak much english hampers any social encounters.
Within the first few months of moving in, we were broken into...so it's not a safe area. Because of the exposure to the park opposite the houses are very visible to people just walking past. Have also had my car broken into whilst it's been sitting in the driveway one night.
If it weren't for the lake oppposite to provide some sort of visual stimulation there would be no point living in Woodcroft at all. It is a very boring and generic suburb with no character or individuality. The only interesting things that happen are things like kids stealing the letters from the Woodcroft sign so it says W OD RO T and the like. There is a maccas and a pizza hut about 300m from Antique Cres, but no fresh fruit market. There is a coles (which is one of the worst I have ever been into), a baker and a butcher. Also there is a camera processing shop, a florist, a hairdresser and a newsagent. There are two philipino/asian stores/cafes there which represent the large proportion of Philipinos living in Woodcroft. I don't even know who goes into the cafe but it's always been there...
Rounding off the list there is a doctor surgery, a chemist, a tobacconist, beauty salon, cheapo kids clothes shop and a video ezy. Outside there is liquorland (with paltry opening hours).
The bus goes right down Woodcroft drive, but they are infrequent.
Do yourself a favour, don't live here if you want to live in a nice community with friendly people and any sort of charm or character in the street. Live here if you are contemplating suicide, have no optimism for the future or just have no life at all so you would spend your entire life inside your house not looking out. I guess that works because there is Foxtel and consequently broadband internet hooked up here...TV reception is shit so it's probably in your best interests to get cable just to be able to watch regular TV clearly.