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The Age, 15 Jul 1998. By Hugh Martin
WITH a sense of humor as left field as Tim Ferguson's, it is no surprise the comedian has shunned the fashionable inner suburban lifestyle that is typical of today's television personalities.
Tim is living out his oft-repeated line about wanting to keep a safe distance from his contemporaries.
For the past 10 years, the Fergusons have made a home of a comfy Californian bungalow nestled in the wilds of Reservoir.
To Tim, the cosmopolitan make-up of Melbourne's northern suburbs beats hands-down the likes of Fitzroy, Brunswick and St Kilda.
Once considered a no-go zone for upwardly mobile buyers suburbs such as Reservoir have undergone a transformation.
"All the rough-heads who lairised around chucking brown-eyes out the back of cars have grown up and they have all had babies now," Tim said.
"While they might still have mug haircuts, their panel vans have broken down. They drive vans for Telstra instead and work full-time, probably in the computer industry," he said.
Complementing the thinning ranks of the local intensive correction order set, are growing numbers of bohemians and yuppies. Those groups are being forced out of their traditional inner-city enclaves by rising prices and rents and the urge to raise families.
Tim said the suburbs were only 10 minutes further north than Carlton and Fitzroy, which was a key to their revival.
"I don't know why people want to pay a quarter of a million dollars to live in a dog box in Carlton because they think it puts them closer to the city," he said.
"You don't need to be close to the city. In fact, the city is the worst place to be. If you shop there, you get rained on, it's windy and you get mugged; proximity to the city is a danger."
Tim said Melbourne's north was attracting a wide range of characters: "It is really cosmo. You have got people from every part of the world living around the corner from you," he said.
The area was developed after the World War II and was once the epitome of the Australian dream of property ownership.
"There are Californian bungalows on quarter-acre blocks as far as the eye can see, with front lawns and gum trees lining the streets," Tim said.
Those houses are now being renovated but have retained their suburban essence: "One of the things I like about the place is that it won't change. People might put a new roof on or change the taps in the kitchen but essentially the atmosphere of the northern suburbs will always remain the same."
And the Fergusons are determined to do their bit to keep their part of Reservoir this way. Their house has only been altered slightly from its original condition.
"We have kept it simple; I like the old style with a kitchen that feels like Nanna's kitchen," Tim said.
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