south morang

Back in 1974 I was doing my second year of my Diploma of Accounting and one of my lecturers was a man called Ken Hopper. At the time, to me he was an “old guy” but looking back he was probably in his late 40’s or early 50’s.  Many times he would give us advice and he would say: “Boys! If you want to be smart you should be thinking of buying land in South Morang because of you look at the demographics shifts in Melbourne you will see that this will be a great area to invest in for the future!”

At the time, I was a 19-20 year old with no real sense of investing or even thinking about investing. All I wanted to do is either get out of the lecture and go out or even just hoping to finish my Diploma so I can get a job and but myself a car. I thought what a crazy thing to say because who would want to buy in South Morang? Are you crazy? It was “the bush” so far away from everything.

I have told this story many a times to clients that come into my Bundoora office because it is not far from where I did my accounting but also to prove that (the old guy) Ken Hopper was right in what he was saying because the traffic streaming past my office window was the proof. But now I have more proof.

Statistics have been released to show that the suburb is growing at it’s fastest pace. In 2001 South Morang had 6,667 people and in 2011 that number grew to 38,895. It seems that in one decade it grew by the entire population of Carlton, Fitzroy and Collingwood.

Mr. Hopper! Why didn’t I pay more attention to you?

Does anyone reading this know of Mr. Hopper? I would love to meet with him and tell him what I remember about him most.

Do you have a story of “missed opportunity”? If yes, please let me know it may be a good yarn for my next blog.