John Howard's Earlwood

The street address is given as 25 William Street and the house is described as a comfortable Californian bungalow. The chapter relates the sorry point that the house no longer exists and is now a KFC outlet. Drawing a longish bow, one that the authors themselves qualify by the use of a "perhaps", they describe the KFC site  as  " emblematic, perhaps, of the commitment of Australia's twenty-fifth prime minister to free enterprise and the American alliance".  Today, the suburb is diverse with a high number of people from a non-English speaking background.  When John Howard was growing up the inhabitants of Earlwood were predominantly Anglo Celtic. The authors, however, do run their finger along the discord then existing between those of English and those of Irish descent. The Anglican Catholic divide was, indeed, a feature of Australian society and was a division sharply drawn in the society of Howard's youth.