richarda6

Located within an exceptionally nice natural environment that makes you feel great to drive and walk around. Stand anywhere in Hawthorndene and look up at the surrounding landscape & flora and you will go Wow! Good but not great housing on large blocks and usually with very good natural gardens. Benefits from a strong local community and its proximity to Belair National Park.

On the other hand its a bit too Ango-Celtic Australian, somewhat boring and devoid of cultural diversity. It's a bit like a big town in rural SA in the 1980s. While areas like the inner east and western suburbs of Adelaide have benefited from waves of European and Asian migrants that have brought colour, vitality and particularly flavor to multicultural Australia - unfortunately they all seem to have dodged the Blackwood/Hawthorndene area. As a likely consequence the area is devoid of high quality food stores, in particular its poor eateries, supermarkets, butchers, bakers etc (Corromandel Valley Bakery excepted). Coming to the area from the inner eastern suburbs, the area disappoints tremendously in this regard.

Other than that, my only other complaint would be the lousy access roads. I don't think that the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure nor the Mitcham Council have invested much into road infrastructure in this area over the years. As a consequence its a slow and stressful drive to the city on truly awful narrow roads without overtaking opportunity. Bike lanes for safer cycling or quality footpaths - you'd have to be joking!

The area suffers from highly reactive clays with unbelievable shrinking-swelling cycles that will crack buildings, warp timbers and see the loss of an occasional small dog down a massive summer crack in an unwatered garden. As a result of this, the predominant 1950s-1970s housing stock is all on the verge of demolition. One only has to look at the warped profile of Gorge Road to see this force of nature - whoosh there goes another water main!

As a consequence the suburb has a mixed character of (i) bright newer houses built on floating slabs that handle the soil conditions better, which are mostly owned by younger aspirationals and (ii) patchy, cracked, older homes built on standard foundations, owned by retirees and pending demolition/development in the near future.

The area benefits greatly from a historical Italian population who contribute to an excellent modern safe Australian community and provide for excellent food stores in the general vicinity. On the other hand there are far too many arches, aluminium roller shutters and concrete gardens for one's visual comfort.

Given the tacky NE industrial quarter of Newton and the eyesore of the Target Shopping Centre, I'd keep driving to the adjacent foothills of Athelstone or Rostrevor for a more appealing natural environment.

Quiet, clean, safe, respectful, tolerant, wealthy eastern suburbs enclave with a mix of quality new and older housing. There are plenty of high quality improvements to older properties happening at any one time to keep them up to scratch. The worst social disruption that you are ever likely to face is noise from a birthday party or a pre/post Formal party for students of one of the prominent independent schools.

It's a target area for Chinese and Indian professional and business migration. Perhaps because it falls within the coveted Linden Park Primary and Glenunga High School catchment zones. It also hosts the excellent but pricey Seymour College.

The area benefits from Burnside Council's high investment in green infrastructure in its parks, roundabouts and roadside verges. Private gardens are very well kept and watered providing for an excellent year round green belt across the whole suburb. Spotting koalas in street and garden trees is fairly common and there is even the occasional echidna.

Very poor for public transport despite its close proximity to the city, likely reflecting the strong preference of its well-to-do residents to drive to the city each day for work, education and entertainment. Poor for entertainment and restaurants. It really is a case of drive to the City, Norwood, Stirling or Hyde Park for a decent drink and a feed.

Negatives? Very few. Crossing Portrush Road from side streets in peak hour is a hassle as there are no intersections with traffic lights, it's too hilly for casual cycling and the area suffers strong gully winds in summer.