Back in the day, this stretch of Parramatta Road (opposite Underwood Road) used to be a hotspot for hoons and revheads to congregate ahead of drag races through the old abattoir and brickpit. The most popular meeting spot was Big Chief’s, a burger joint a bit further west of here. Presumably, this tattoo parlour (imaginatively titled ‘TATTOO’, leading one to suspect they only had one design) was a by-product of that era. In an effort to quell bikie activity, it has been rebranded Strathfield Laundry, but there’s no guarantee it’ll work. Bikies need their clothes washed, too.
Past/Lives of the Near Future 
[…] restaurant, a reception centre and a squat before it was finally allowed to rot alongside the other corpses on Parramatta Road. For more on its years as a squatters paradise, check out this […]
I spent a good part of my youth along that strip in the mid 80’s. At that time at least half of those shops were still open. Starting from the top of the street the following were operating: the newsagent on the corner, a takeway (great burgers), the pinball parlour, a trailbike shop and a pizzeria. The pinnie parlour was the main attraction – all the latest games: Gyrus, Xevious, Super Galaxian, Dig Dug, Galaga and Defender. Juke box had latest hit singles and harder stuff like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.
I remember one other machine in the pinball parlour. It was called wild fire and childen would play it after they closed because it was a gay pedophile hangout. Does anyone remembr what the parlour was called or what the owners name was? I saw an article from 2017 suggesting that two pedophiles got caught for some of it.
Got that article handy?
Yes, here’s the link: https://www.miragenews.com/another-man-charged-over-historical-child-sex-offences-in-pinball-parlour-in-homebush/
Thanks. Very sorry to hear you had to go through this.
Thankyou, but that was just the tip of the iceburg sadly. In Sydney there was a gang of them. One of them used to hand the ice skates out at the ice rink next to Central station (he was particularly violent). I saw him king hit another pedphile once screaming that’s my boy (they treated them like their possessions) when he got jealous. I was in the toilets at Central station one day in the City section and because there was a guy peering over the top of toilet doors I went to the furthest trough from the door and ‘he’ walked In an said “hello, how are you?” to which I replied your no supposed to talk to people in toilets. He blushed as I started to leave he was having problems with his fly thankfully as I’m pretty sure he would have king hit me also. Just for verbally standing up for myself. I know of one pedophile that got an order of Australia from the Governor General (but then they hand them out like candy (800+ per year) to try to get more credibility for the system. I know of another pedophile that went to jail for bank robbery (he also landed in the newspapers although most of what they said about him wasn’t true). A couple of years after he got out he was driving a new looking small utility through the main drag of Kings Cross with 2 little boys standing in the back with their hands on the roof. They have nothing to fear somehow. I’m starting to write a book about it all but it hurts to think about it so I have only written a few pages of it. It’s called “It wasn’t about luck in the lucky country, it was about pedophiles and what happens under capitalism”.