Maria Tsopanis, Stavros Repanis, and their son Peter share a bluestone workers’ cottage from the late 1800s – now renovated – on Easey Street, Collingwood, in Melbourne’s inner north.
Maria and Stavros moved there in 1991, as the suburb emerged as an arts and cultural hub. In many ways, Maria and Stavros were pioneer gentrifiers in what was once a working-class and immigrant neighbourhood.
Maria, originally from Adelaide, is a senior manager at AMES, providing services for new and emerging migrants. Stavros is an electrical draughtsman who migrated from South Africa to Australia in 1985 to escape the horrors of apartheid. They met in Adelaide, fell in love, married, and soon left for Melbourne, where they have lived since. Their son Peter came into their lives in the early 2000s.
Stavros has always had a flair for design, once creating original furniture that he exhibited at the Fringe Furniture Show. His love of design is coupled with a passion for gardening. He turned his small courtyard into a dense jungle, so much so that fruit bats, possums, native birds, and other fauna live and visit.
“That wasn’t enough for Stav,” Maria said.
He soon cast his eye on the cobblestone service lane behind the house, and by mid-2021, the lane was transformed into a verdant paradise.
In the 1990s, Collingwood was the epicentre of a heroin epidemic that gripped Melbourne.
“The lane was a no man’s land – a junkie paradise,” Stavros said.
Melbourne was in a recession as the foot, textile and clothing (FTC) industry, under Paul Keating’s economic reforms, was moving to Asia. Collingwood, a traditional hub for the FTC industry, was one of the first to feel the pain.
Life moved on, and Collingwood soon became the hipster hub of Melbourne. By the 2000s, houses that once sold for $150,000 to $200,000 were now fetching over a million dollars.
It was sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s that Stavros began to “plant things in the lane.”
He had no illusions, nor was he worried. “Maybe with some transformation, junkies would be less inclined to leave their sharps around.”
By 2020, as the global COVID-19 pandemic gripped Melbourne, Stavros found the time to extend his life’s love, gardening.
“COVID was the inspiration so with more time on my hands and a love of gardening, I was focused on transforming the whole lane,” Stavros said.
“I should have continued it years ago when my child was young so he could have played there, but now our great-niece is enjoying the space and flowers.”
It is not uncommon now to see people in the lane enjoying the botanical haven that Stavros has created.
As for the method, “it’s simple,” Stavros says.
“I basically propagate more growth from flowers in the area and sprinkle them around.”
While the addicts may still visit, “but not as often,” he says, the space “attracts neighbours, it gets lots of compliments, and the addicts are very respectful and enjoy the space.”
Maria wonders where “Stav gets the energy” to complete “projects like that while still also working.”
“Even semi-retired, I can’t see Stav ever stopping. He loves the lane, and he has transformed it,” she said.
It’s no wonder that whoever visits their house will be ushered to the lane – a hidden wonderland.
