When we were house hunting a few years back, it was the height of the property boom in Queensland. Prices had been stable for about six months and we had saved up a deposit but then we noticed the market seemed to be moving again so we rushed to buy before it all went up by another 100k. I was not too keen on Forest Lake but it was the only affordable suburb for us that suited the commute to both of our workplaces and I found a house that had a big overgrown yard (the way I like it) so we ended up out here.
I knew there was a bit of stigma around Forest Lake, I had thought it would be a bunch of tiny alottments with identical houses packed together like the opening scenes of Edward Scissorhands. Driving out here, we found the place to be green and, well, “foresty”.
But nothing prepared me for the reaction we would get from so many friends and strangers when we say we live in Forest Lake. It’s not the kind of suburb that people have no opinion on. I often get “way out there?” or “why did you buy there?” (with that downward emphasis on the “there”) and other times people express that the fences are too high or that it’s full of MacMansions. Forest Lake has it’s share of grandiose housing but the majority of houses here are single story and three bedrooms. I agree that every house has a six foot fence around it but then I hear people complain about their neighbours or never talk to their neighbours in other suburbs so why is it considered such a big deal here? Also Forest Lake is not as far out of town as some suburbs on the North side or The Gap. So it takes twenty minutes (forty in peak hour) to get home from the city – a relatively long drive for Brisbane but considered a good time for other cities.
The most annoying slur is that Forest Lake is a dormitory suburb: “everyone leaves for work during the day”. WTF? Can you tell me a suburb where most of the people are sitting at home all day? We know for a fact that there are a lot of retirees and stay-at-home mums in Forest Lake, just go to the shopping centre during the day, it’s full of people. Likewise there are always people going for a stroll on the paths between houses and taking their kids to the park.
Forest Lake does have a high crime rate due to it’s proximity to Inala. Is this the thing that everyone’s trying to talk around but not wanting to directly say?
Maybe it is the values of Forest Lake. People here are obsessed with getting ahead and having the good life. What? None of this makes sense – why is Forest Lake singled out as the suburb that represents these values?
I think the stigma lies in all of the things I mentioned but also in something I’ve been reading about on some friends’ blog The Memes of Production which is the idea of authenticity.
I think authenticity is what most people are trying to get at when they have a go at me about Forest Lake. Forest Lake was created by Delfin ex-nihilo as the theologians would say: from nothing. The lake was carved out of a little creek, the land divided up according to Delfin’s plan. The streets, the lights, the gardens on the round-abouts, the landcaping, the shopping centre, the schools, the sports centre, all were orchestrated by Delfin. This has meant that people view the suburb as artificial and owned by Delfin. When you go to live there, you lose your identity and live the life that Delfin planned for you to live there. I think this is what’s at the heart of the Forest Lake stigma.
Delfin has almost finished developing it’s next big “artificial” suburb out at Springfield Lakes. It seems like they’ve managed to avoid the stigma that Forest Lake has, I’m not sure what they did differently but I suspect it’s they way they’ve marketed without using their name as much.
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authenticity, forest lake, life
