When my family moved into our first suburban house in Melbourne’s south-east, the biggest attraction, at least for me, was the public school directly across the road. With younger kids to think about, it seemed like a sensible choice.

Beyond that, though, our new neighbourhood appeared to have very little going on.

The better libraries, bigger parks, cinemas and all the other pleasures of city life seemed to require a tiring drive. So we left most of that for the weekends. During the week, we were learning to live with a much slower, quieter suburban way of life. At first, it felt like a bit of a setback.

Before moving here, we had become used to the hustle and bustle of city life, and suddenly our evenings seemed unusually long. We missed being able to step outside and find something happening.

Then came the first Saturday morning that changed everything.

We were sitting on our Afghan carpet in the backyard enjoying our special weekend breakfast when we began hearing loud, persistent cheering coming from the direction of the school. We jumped in the car to find our local oval was packed. Suddenly, our supposedly sleepy little........

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