Lisa Wilkinson has made much of her humble beginnings as a 'westie' from one of Sydney's most working-class suburbs.
And the family home on Sturt Street, Campbelltown, where she dreamed of becoming a star is virtually unchanged since the The Project host lived there more than 40 years ago.
The house, built by her father Ray - a local Lions Club official and Campbelltown Harlequins Rugby Union Club president - is a classic mid-20th century brick and weatherboard home with awnings.
Still with its original 1950s-style bright blue bath and separate toilet room, the three-bedroom home has hand-made wooden cupboards in the kitchen where Wilkinson remembers her mother serving 'jam drop biscuits fresh out of the oven' after school.
The original Hills Hoist where Wilkinson remembers pegging with sheets to make cubby houses still stands under a maple tree in the substantial backyard.
Lisa Wilkinson's family home (above), built by her father Ray is still in virtually original condition with some of its interiors unchanged from when she lived there
TV star Lisa Wilkinson grew up in one of Sydney's most humble 'westie' suburbs, Campbelltown, 50km from the CBD
The 1950s-style blue bath in the three-bedroom house harks back to the mid-century era in which Lisa's fencing salesman father built the house
Lisa went to Campbelltown High School (above) which was a short drive from the house in which she grew up in the 1960s and 70s
The old Hills Hoist in the backyard of the brick and weatherboard house where Lisa grew is still there, decades after she attached it with pegs and sheets to make cubby houses
The three-bedroom house still has the evenly-spaced brick garden beds Ray Wilkinson built next to the verandah the TV host rode around on her tricycle, as recalled in her new book 'It Wasn't Meant To Be Like This'.
Neighbours said Sturt Street - which is only three blocks from what used to be the suburbs 'town limits' - was a dirt track which is still lined with fibro shacks.
Lisa grew up with an older brother, Kyle, and a younger brother, Brett, with their father Ray daily taking the long drive to Granville where he worked as area sales manager for Cyclone Fencing.
The house was one of the smartest on the street back when Lisa was growing up.
One long-time neighbour said the Wilkinsons were a proud family but 'not very friendly'.
'But back then she wasn't anything special, slightly up herself I thought,' the neighbour said.
Another neighbour, Margaret, who has lived on Sturt Street for 85 years said Lisa seemed like an 'ordinary girl, but she's no fool'.
'She loved the (primary school) teacher Miss West who lived around here before she died,' Margaret said.
As in the style of mid-20th century houses in Australia, it was a touch of private luxury to have the toilet located in a separate room from the bathroom
In the Wilkinson's old kitchen, original hand made wooden kitchen cupboards, possibly crafted by Lisa's father, still adorn the room
Lisa and her beloved mum Beryl pictured in the same kitchen when they visited the old Campbelltown house and were invited inside
In fact, as Wilkinson exclusively told Daily Mail Australia, she continued to visit Miss West before her death, attended her packed funeral at the local church and has continued to visit the suburb with her own children over the years.
She said that just last week she swung by Campbelltown while researching her family history in the area, where 'my Wilkinson connections go back to the 1880s'.
Lisa also vividly recounted her time at Campbelltown High School, now renamed Campbelltown Performing Arts High, which is a three-minute drive from the house.
She was bullied and bashed in the high school yard by a thuggish girl, who hung with at least six girls Wilkinson calls her attacker's 'henchwomen'.
Wilkinson describes in her book how the 'gum-chewing' schoolgirl knocked her Vegemite sandwich into the dirt and punched her right fist into Lisa's temple after yelling at her 'you're a show-off little b***h'.
Lisa (above) with her parents, Ray and Beryl, who lived at Campbelltown with the future TV star and her two brothers, Kyle and Brett
A bedroom in the three-bedroom house built by Ray Wilkinson for his family at Campbelltown in western Sydney
The solid brick foundations of the weatherboard home can be seen at the back of the house which has a large garden
The five-room mansion in exclusive Mosman where Lisa went to live with writer husband Peter Fitzsimons in the 1980s is around 60km from Lisa's Campbelltown childhood home
Mercifully for Wilkinson, her tormenters left Campbelltown High School in Year Ten which in part encouraged her to persist with finishing the HSC.
A schoolgirl contemporary of Wilkinson's told Daily Mail Australia that Lisa had her own group of close girlfriends who made her feel 'as if they were above us'.
One of Lisa's friends was the daughter of the then Campbelltown mayor, who possibly was friends with Lisa's father, given his prominence in the local community.
Lisa's school friends, Sue, Julie, Michelle and Chris, caught up with Campbelltown High School's most successful graduate when Wilkinson attended the school's 1976 Year 12 40th anniversary reunion in 2016.
Lisa (above) with her mum Beryl and three children, Billi, Louis and Jake when the now-grown up Fitzsimons children were just children
Lisa (above as a schoolgirl) very vividly recounts her battles in the yard at Campbelltown High School where a group of girls preyed upon her and one of them assaulted her
The sloping walkway at the back of the Wilkinson house which leads down to a classic Aussie yard complete with Hills Hoist, shed and lots of room to play
NSW politician Mark Latham, who is a friend of one schoolgirl contemporary of Wilkinson's, recently used parliamentary privilege to slam the TV star.
He claimed in the NSW Upper House last month that Wilkinson had 'always been about the money' and couldn't leave Sydney's western suburbs 'fast enough'.
He also blasted the 61-year-old for 'reinventing herself as a victim of the gender pay gap at Channel Nine', referring to Wilkinson's comments about what she earned on the Today Show in comparison with Karl Stefanovic.
'Recently one of Wilkinson's old classmates contacted me to say "that's Lisa, it's always been about the money",' the former federal Labor Opposition leader said in Parliament.
'We went to Campbelltown High together and she couldn't get out of here fast enough,' Mr Latham said Wilkinson's old classmate revealed.
At Campbelltown High School's sports yard (above, this week) a tough group of girls picked on a young Lisa Wilkinson, one of them punching her in the face
Lisa had her own group of friends at Campbelltown High School (above, pictured in the yard), Sue, Julie, Michelle, Lisa and Chris
All grown up and still friends, the five women including a now famous Lisa Wilkinson got together in 2017, having remained close since leaving school in 1976
'When she was editor at Dolly and Cleo magazines Wilkinson would take the free promotional merchandise sent to her and sell them at the weekend markets and pocket the funds,' Mr Latham told NSW Parliament.
He added: 'She's always been as tight as all get out, it's always about the money and the victimhood.'
But that view has only angered Wilkinson's
