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Although I was born in
Melbourne, Australia, I lived in San Francisco for twenty-five years before returning permanently to Melbourne just two years ago.
In San Francisco I lived in the bayside
suburb of Dogpatch. There is no definitive explanation for the name; popular hypotheses are:
• It was named after packs of dogs that used to scavenge discarded meat parts from
Butchertown, a slaughterhouse district in the area.
• It was named after Dogpatch, the fictional middle-of-nowhere setting of cartoonist Al Capp's classic comic strip,
Li'l Abner (1934–1977).
• It was named after the dogfennel that proliferates there.
Upon my return to Australia I took up residence in Williamstown which
carried the nickname of Dogtown. In the nineteenth century, health inspectors would pick up stray dogs from Melbourne's CBD and dump them at the end of the train line in
Williamstown.
Coincidentally, both homes face east and overlooked their respective
bays. Here are some views from each of those perspectives.
Rainbow, overlooking old cement works, Dogpatch
.
Apartment view, Dogpatch
Sunset, Dogpatch
Sunrise, Dogpatch
Rainbow, Williamstown
Sunrise, Williamstown
Walking the dog, Williamstown
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