Though the main street of Wagga Wagga remains just as long—if not seemingly longer—than when I lived here in the 1990s, much has changed.
Back in those days, Wagga was heavily dominated by the defence forces—army, air force, and navy. On Saturday nights, groups of male service personnel would wander the streets, bar-hopping between The Victoria Hotel and The Union, while the farm boys tended to dominate Romano’s. My favourite bar, which also had a distinct gay vibe, was called Number 96 (yes, seriously). It closed many years ago.
Meanwhile, the university and young professional crowd—like me and my friends—would drift between Cocos and Choices, the latter of which also had a strong gay vibe. Cocos was famously where the band The Tourists (who went on to become the Eurythmics) once played. In fact, Wagga was where they wrote their hit song, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). Back then, the Eurythmics story was an incredibly well-known piece of local folklore, though I wonder how many people around town today still know or even care about it. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-21/40-years-eurythmics-sweet-dreams/101867890
Wandering around over the last couple of days, I’ve become acutely aware of just how much the place has transformed.
During my time here, we formed the Riverina Gay and Lesbian Social and Support Group, hosting plenty of parties and events. We even held a gay and lesbian dance party at the Uranquinty Hall. This morning, my friend Sue and I drove out to Uranquinty. I was anxious to revisit the hall, only to discover it had been demolished; a new one had replaced it back in 2010. Yes, 2010—sixteen years ago.
I’m not sure when another important landmark of mine disappeared, but it must have been more recent, given it’s only been about five years since I last visited Wagga. In 1992, I was living in an apartment and planted a tiny bay tree in the front yard. Over the years, I’ve watched that tree grow. Whenever I returned to town, I would always pop by to take a look and gather a few leaves.
But sometime in the last few years, the tree was chopped down, replaced by a far less impressive floral bush.
Don’t they realise the fortune they were sitting on? Bay leaves are bloody expensive. I fed an old photograph of the tree into an AI program, and it told me the tree could have likely yielded harvested leaves with a retail value of $2,000 to $3,000.
I have no idea why it was removed, but I suspect the current owners didn’t fully realise the goldmine they had. I’m guessing it just ended up as green waste at the local dump.
On a final note, I see there’s now a cafe on Baylis Street called “Bay Leaf”—named perhaps in memory of the tree I planted all those years ago.
I didn’t know about Wagga and The Eurythmics. Interesting.
Hi Andrew, Iit was such a long time ago that it’s probably fallen from collective memory for people in Wagga, or it was long before they were born. I LOVED THAT SONG.
That’s kind of sad about the laurel tree. Fresh leaves are best. I had one in my back yard two houses ago and I loved popping out for a leaf.
I doubt the owners could ever have realised a goldmine but they may well have been oblivious as to the identity of the tree and thought it looked a bit scrappy. They probably just wanted more light into the flats. They could just have cut it back.
Look, I don’t judge all of them. When I lived in that apartment, one of the greatest things was looking out at the lagoon—the views were beautiful. But the tree just got in the way, so they chopped it down. Meanwhile, I’m dealing with a family issue right now where an older relative wants to cut down every single tree on his block. They moved in a couple of years ago to a property with beautiful, mature trees, but he comes from a generation and mindset that views trees purely as a “problem”—something that blocks the guttering and drops leaves. It’s causing a bit of family grief at the moment, but as I reminded another family member: “It’s okay, in time they’ll grow back.”