When Abbey Rich was 16 years old, she hatched a plan to move from the family home in Frankston, on the edge of Melbourne, to the city’s inner-northern suburbs. “I like Frankston, but I always felt like I was on the outside looking in,” she says. As a budding artist, Abbey wanted to live on her own, but be surrounded by other creative people. Determined to make it happen, she worked full-time at a supermarket and “saved like crazy”. At 19, she packed up her things and moved to a one-bedroom unit on a quiet side street in Brunswick West, the place she now calls home.
“The property wasn’t listed anywhere,” Abbey says. “I didn’t exactly to live here.” It was a surprise then, that with no rental history, she got it. The apartment, which is in a little block of three, had the natural light and floorboards she was after – the only other thing she really wanted was somewhere to plant vegies. With the yard paved in concrete, there’s no real garden or even a grassy patch, but Abbey makes do with a collection of potted herbs that are shaded by a next-door neighbour’s lemon tree. Her neighbours often find her sitting in the yard, reading. “Everyone who lives here is lovely,” Abbey says. “The people next door just moved out and, when they went, they left me a picnic mat so I wouldn’t be sitting on cold concrete all the time.”
