By Haesley Cush
Haesley Cush has been a New Farm local for 20 years, and is Principal at Ray White New Farm.
It’s late Sunday afternoon, it’s August, the sun is dropping quickly and there’s a slight chill in the air I’ve returned from another afternoon in New Farm Park. It was impromptu, we sent the word out to a few locals and everyone, as always, came to enjoy the park.
New Farm Park has been with us through every chapter of our married life. It’s been a sporting field, where the kids learnt to ride their bikes, the setting for one of our first kisses, the host to my brother’s wedding when he got married at the Powerhouse.
It was around 2004 I had my first magical moment in the park. I had met the girl of my dreams and after work we went for a walk in the park. There, standing amongst the roses with the soft perfume of the flowers, we had one of our first, and certainly our most memorable, early kisses.
In 2006, on Christmas Eve, Aleesha and I would go there for breakfast at Watt Cafe, underneath the Powerhouse. In between flat whites and egg yolks I dropped on one knee and asked her to marry me. Thankfully she said yes and our new chapter with the park had begun transitioning into place.
As our children were born and started to grow, we found the playground a wonderful venue for daily meetings with other families. Caregivers and grandparents would push the next generation on the swings leaving parents to discuss things from how to get them to sleep, what to feed them and figure out how anyone had ever gotten through this without the support of friends and a park.
When Covid hit we were living in a rental property right on the park. Once a week I would meet my mum in the park for a walk. We would cross on to the grass where we’d chat while we paraded past the rose garden toward the city. We still do this walk every Monday.
These days our weekends are bookended by two park activities, beginning with Jan Power’s farmers markets on a Saturday, with runners, strollers and shoppers all nestled under trees assessing their bounty from the farmers. Our weekends finish with sunsets over the park on Sunday afternoon with one of my favourite New Farm Park activities. We go on a treasure hunt under the trees searching for sticks and logs for our fireplace at home.
I’m sitting here now, in front of the fire, being warmed by New Farm Park timber. I must admit it has been fun to go on a trip down memory lane with a park. It’s been a place that for over 20 years has been as important and supportive as a solid mate that’s stood by you through thick and thin, that friend you can call on anytime and they always rise to the occasion.
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