Some homes intrigue because of their difference. Others because they look like they've never changed; they simply look "right", both for their era and for their situation. Such is 18 Birkley Rd, tucked close to the end of its cul-de-sac, and so close to the water that the children who grew up here remember Ngataringa Bay as their own personal backyard.
Sue and Phil Ashton were two of those children. Emigrating from England in 1958 with their parents, Bunty and Rae, and their Nana, Sue was 10 and remembers it as "paradise". "It's a place where we would have endless fun, both on our own just pottering around or with Mum and Dad."
The house at that time had only three bedrooms and, with three children and three adults, was a fairly tight fit, but the situation made up for everything. Over the years one of the larger bedrooms had a corner hived off it to make an extra child's bedroom, but all except one of the smaller of the two bedrooms have built-in cupboards, and the ample storage elsewhere in the house meant it never felt cluttered then and doesn't look it today.
Phil was a bit younger than Sue but remembers those early days clearly. "We were all packed in as tightly as we had been back home in the UK but, because we spent so much time outside, we never even noticed it. It was built as a spec house and when Mum and Dad bought it, it wasn't quite finished. We'd arrived as a family of Baby Boomer immigrant children but our younger siblings were all born here."
