Terra Australis

For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.

Lollyland is the story of 39 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, a two-story terrace house built in the 1880s with convict-made brick walls on sandstone foundations.

It is about roots of two poplar trees in the adjacent Minogue Reserve which were growing through the sandstone foundations and destroying the structural integrity of the building.

It also recounts the migration story of Amir Bodenstein from Tel Aviv, Israel to Sydney, Australia from just before the Sydney 2000 Olympics until now in 2022.

Contents
1. Introduction
2. About this website
3. 39 Glebe Point Road, Glebe (2017-22)

1. Introduction

From the ‘Holy Land’ to the promised land, the ‘Lucky Country’, an all-in voyage was undertaken in 1999 to seek a peaceful life, choosing the ancient Gadigal Eora nation, the City of Sydney to put down roots and become a safe haven far removed from the beating drums of impending war and the pressure cooker life in Israel.

A fateful meeting on 7 December 2001 at 39 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, a two-story Victorian terrace which was meant to be a ground-floor Moroccan restaurant with a first-floor home, led to an existential battle over trees roots that caused a breakdown of the structural integrity of the building and added two bulges to the east wall.

From old Babylon, my wondering I have led my roots to the homeland of ‘no worries, mate’, and whether this vast continent allows me after 21 years of a challenging path to realise my Aussie dreams remains to be seen; but when all is said and done, at the end of my life I will depart knowing that Sydney was well worth the try.