Battle with bureaucracy has not dented her will

Resourced:  http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2014/millers-point/


The Millers Point that Wendy Ford moved to 35 years ago was a little-known place that "no one wanted to know anything about".

"You'd get in a cab and say, 'Millers Point, please', and they'd head over the bridge to Milsons Point," she says.

"And then suddenly it's become the most expensive real estate in Australia."

She moved to Millers Point from Neutral Bay and overnight, her rent halved, "which was a big help when you're a single parent".

The Millers Point of old was a quiet place, where at night "the only thing you'd hear would be the train on the Harbour Bridge", she says.

Now the city has grown up around it, but Wendy, 70, still likens the suburb to "a country town".

She battled the bureaucracy for decades to get basic upkeep on her home. New floorboards and a kitchen have been installed, but only after a falling cabinet door gave her a dent still faintly visible along her hairline.

"People walk into my house and say, 'you have such a nice house,'" Wendy says.

"It took 35 years to get the house the way it is - and a lot of that was fighting them."

The retired special education teacher had little time to be involved in the community when she was working, but that changed when she retired.

"Everyone knows everyone, and everyone sort of looks out for everyone," she says.

"They'll have to drag me out. We're here for the long haul; we're not going to give up."


Resourced:  http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2014/millers-point/