You're Rootyful: Rooty Hill

When looking for suburbs to visit, those with tee-hee inducing names are always appreciated. Here's Western Sydney's

Rooty Hill

This day's casual exploration of this pocket of Western Sydney had brought me to three suburbs before this, with Dean Park, Glendenning and Plumpton coming first. Rooty Hill was a natural continuation, sitting immediately south of Plumpton. 

As was the theme so far, I drove in, finding myself in a residential quarter of the suburb.

Not wanting to dilly-dally too much, I took a couple of photos of some unusual (but not bonkers) houses,

and some new (and far less unusual) townhouses,

before continuing up Rooty Hill Road to reach the commercial district.

I usually really enjoy exploring the commercial centres of Western Sydney, where there tends to be interesting stores, a dynamic bustle of people and plenty of cafes and restaurants. 

Rooty Hill was an exception to this rule.

Rather than bustle, this place had the unfortunate combination of plenty of cars, with not many people around,

and rather than cafes and restaurants, you mainly have takeaways, services, and small markets.

Some of the local stores do have some interesting designs on their shutters, however,

and I did enjoy the colour of the fresh food outside this Pacific Islands market. 

Also here is one of the thousands of Australian pubs named "The Imperial" where from across the street I was able to hear the familiar sound of nasal alcoholic Australian middle-aged voices yelling at each other. 

At the end of the road is Rooty Hill station,

which I used to cross the rail lines and see a stack of apartment development,

and more stores of the same ilk as the previous side of the tracks.

Hopping back into the car, I continued on a brief trip to visit this suburb's apparent highlights.

Most of this suburb's wealth appears to be funneled into Rooty Hill Casino RSL, a glass behemoth full of bars, restaurants, accomodation, conference rooms, exercise facilities and, of course, pokies. I was struggling to find somewhere to stop and get a good picture of the place, so here's this crappy one I took from a distance. I'm not sure if the beige cowboy hat looking building is part of it or is something else.

Back into the car,

I also found this adorable vintage church. I don't know if its still in use, but it's small, old and cute so I like it.

Finally, before I packed up for the day, I took a drive up Eastern Road, one of the roads out of the suburb, where I was able to pull over into a driveway and visit my final point of interest.

Rooty Hill... Hill.

On this day I learned that there is an actual Rooty Hill.

It's a pleasant enough lump of grass where you can recreate the Windows XP Wallpaper.

And from the top, you can enjoy sweeping panoramic views of the surrounding suburbs, with the Blue Mountains visible in the horizon. 

Until conquering Rooty Hill Hill, I wasn't too keen on the suburb (as you can probably tell from this article). The Hill of Rooty helped nuance my perspective on the suburb, allowing me to descend, head back to the car and collect my thoughts on the drive home.

Rooty Hill: Saved by the hill.