Tag:derelict
After August’s first highly successful and enjoyable light painting evening at Bradmill. Another was scheduled for October. In Yarraville, the old Bradmill Factory has been sold to a Chinese developer for $160m. It’s expected to be pulled down and redeveloped into a mini-city, but it’s a photographers mecca until then. And the Bradmill Factory and Lightpainting go hand in hand.
Bradmill
The place is massive.. and I do mean massive—all 24 hectares of it. Opening in 1927 and producing fabrics in heavy-duty cotton and canvas products it was abandoned in 2007 when manufacturing moved overseas. The main buildings are huge, open floor areas, pocked with small and alarmingly deep holes. Every wall is covered with graffiti and every window is broken. Broken glass, empty bottles, burnt mattresses, wrecked and burnt-out cars lie discarded. Not a single intact external or internal door exists. Access is beyond easy. Park the vehicle and walk in.
Exploring the furnace
The light painting was starting at dark, but I wanted to get another go at the site in daylight and my first stop was the old furnace. We crawled in through the small opening and looked straight up the chimney. Adorning the walls inside was a white walker scene. everyone’s a GOT fan 🙂
Leaving the furnace we headed to the little house..apparently, coal was unloaded here, and gone up the conveyor into the main building the fire the boilers. After deciding the conveyor was sturdy enough and seeing another two photographers and two models head up there as well, we entered the little house and walked up the conveyor. It’s not too bad a hike up there… I’m not young, and I made it though the heart was pumping by the time I got to the top 😉
The Boiler Room
At the top, we found a mesh walkway with a tantalising glimpse of stairs the floors below. This top room had machinery and rollers but we could see better machinery downstairs so we headed back down the conveyor again and found an opening on ground level. Once inside again we headed up the stairs one level and hit the mother lode on the first floor…..
Lightpainting
As it was getting close to meet-up time for the light painting, we left the machinery room and headed back over to the main buildings. Lightpainting at Bradmill is fantastic, and Bill and Deanne Holmer are the Light painting maestros. They are like the love children of Mc Gyver, where they take a bottle opener, two nails and a rubber band and create something unique.
All of their light-emitting equipment is original, designed and made by them. They put on an excellent LED light show for about 30 of us, tripods lined up in front, the camera’s on bulb, with Bill calling the ‘shutter open’ and ‘shutter closed. After the LEDs, they followed up with the steel wool spinning. The factory by now was black as pitch, and when the steel wool spins, it throws out amazing sparks, dancing across the floor and roof. And standing in the middle is our own ‘God of Fire’
The Maltings at Mittagong had been on my ‘decaying, decrepit places I must visit before they are razed to the ground’ list for some time. At the urging of my travelling companion, who seemed to think there were 30 hours of daylight each day, we added it to the travelling plan of our south coast trip. Leaving Kiama and travelling to Sydney, we took a detour to Mittagong.
History
The Mittagong Maltings Works was established initially by the Maltings Company of NSW (Ltd) and operated from August 1899. Tooth and Company Limited purchased the Mittagong Works in 1905 and produced the malt used in Tooth & Co breweries in Sydney. The early 1940s was an active period, with malt’s output being approximately 200,000 bushels annually. This output was severely restricted following a large fire in August 1942, which completely gutted No.2 Malthouse and damaged No.1. The No.1 Malthouse was returned to service early in 1943. The No.2 Malthouse was completely rebuilt during the early 1950s and recommenced active operation in 1953. The process continued until another fire gutted the No.3 Malthouse in 1969. Tooths & Co continued to operate at the site until 1980 when the works were closed and the site sold to a group of local business people [Archives Collection, Australian National University]
Location
Located in Mittagong and bordered on one side by Ferguson Cres and Southey Street, it sits among housing slowly encroaching its borders. We parked in Southey St and entered through a wide-open chain-link gate. We explored the main building, first entering under a missing door to the right of the Tooheys horse insignia. The building is beautiful despite years of neglect and vandalism. Graffiti in the main building is minimal, however. This floor contained gorgeous old arched entryways between rooms, tall roof supports and an actual exposed ceiling 😉
We could not get to the second floor. Even though it appeared solid concrete, I had left my wings at home and brought common sense instead, so we didn’t climb up there. There was a staircase, but all the steps were gone. So leaving the main building, we headed down a little path to see where it led.
The Second building
This led us to the second Maltings building, lovely brickwork with arched windows again, interesting rubble… this was looking good.
Again ‘they’ had left the door open for us, so we went straight in. It was in pretty good shape for a building that’s been abandoned for 30 years. Kudo’s to the 1899 builders; they built things to last! We found a wooden staircase that looked safe enough, and we headed upstairs to the graffiti we could see through the cracks on the floor above.
Puddles! I love puddles and the reflections they make in these old buildings. But, unfortunately, this room must be close to a swimming pool in wet weather from mould and moss on the walls.
Heading back down, we went to the machinery shed. It still has remnants of old equipment, chains, rubble, giant cogs and tiny windows that look into a semi-subterranean level partly filled with water.
Through the arched windows above, you can see down into the lower level with its arched ceiling
Access to the Maltings
On the day we visited, the buildings were easy to get into, parking is right out front though it’s possible to drive your car right through the gate and up to the building. Security is nonexistent. None of the nearby residents was concerned with us wandering around with cameras. Both buildings are good, but the second was better, purely because there was more we could explore, unlike building one, in this one we could get to the upper floors.
Buddy System
I would definitely suggest taking a friend with you, though. It’s not somewhere I would go alone. Too many holes in the floor to fall through, debris to fall over and break a leg, etc.. It’s a great location, easy to spend a few hours there, but it is a large block with all the dangers that go with derelict buildings. The staircase in the second building is pretty sturdy; the one in the machine shop wobbled a bit when I tried it, and it doesn’t go all the way to the top floor. The staircase in the main building is gone. Someone has removed all the wooden steps.
The Shipwrecks and Wetlands of Homebush Bay are stunning. They are also a credit to the reclamation and beautification of old industrial locations, with paths, cycle tracks, wetlands, and shipwrecks.
Location
Previously a heavy industrial area, the wrecks are situated on the south bank of the Parramatta River. This was also the location of Sydney Olympic Park for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Because the river is heavily polluted with dioxin, heavy metals and other chemicals, fishing is banned in the river. The shipwrecks were the remains of ships and barges from a ship-breaking yard in 1966. Behind are four ships’ hulls and several smaller barges protected under the Shipwrecks Act, 1976. This act applies to all shipwrecks over seventy-five years old. Relics over fifty years old and located in lakes and rivers are protected under the NSW Heritage Act, 1977.
We took a day trip down here to photograph the shipwrecks. However, after a week of sunrise starts, we were too slow getting out of bed and arrived mid-morning. Unfortunately, the sunrise had gone, and the sun was high in the sky. The shots I wanted weren’t possible due to the light, so we had to make do.
SS Ayrfield
The SS Ayrfield was a steam collier of 1140 tonnes and 79.1m in length. It was built in the UK in 1911 and registered in Sydney in 1912. Purchased by the Commonwealth Govt, it was used to transport supplies to American troops stationed in the Pacific region during WWII. She’s now far more beautiful with lush shrubs and trees growing on her decks and sits directly outside an apartment block. The best spots to photograph her are from the apartment block’s front or on the little footbridge. And at early light.
SS Heroic
A stunning display of rusting beauty, The Heroic is a steel-hulled steam tugboat of 258 tonnes and 38.1m in length. It lies just near the mangroves. The Heroic was built at South Shields, the UK, in 1909 for Thomas Fenwick [tugboat operators] of Sydney. It was commandeered by the British Admiralty, renamed Epic, and engaged in rescue work off the Scilly Isles during WWI. By 1919, it was back in Sydney as a working tug. During WWII, it towed Allara back to Sydney after that ship had been torpedoed off Sydney.
SS Mortlake Bank
The Mortlake Bank has been broken up, and only the stern section and part of the bow remain floating approximately 50m northeast of SS Ayrfield. The Mortlake Bank was a steel-hulled steam collier weighing 1371 tonnes and 71.65m long. It was built in the Wallsend-on-Tyne in the UK in 1924 and was purchased by a Melbourne company. The Mortlake operated between Hexham and Mortlake, transporting coal to the Mortlake Gasworks of the Australian Gas Light Company. On 31 May 1942, during WWII, SS Mortlake Bank entered Sydney Harbour. She passed through the anti-submarine boom net when the Japanese midget submarine (M-24) made entry under the ship’s keel.
Waterbird Refuge
If you follow the 1.3 km walking track past the shipwrecks, the other side of the path is home to the salt marshes of the Waterbird Refuge. We spotted several different bird species on our shipwreck spotting walk.
Urban exploration is one of my favourite pastimes when I have a camera in hand, and on a recent trip to NSW, I ticked a few more locations off my list. On day one of our Sapphire Coast road trip, we flew into Sydney and then drove down to Eden. As it was only a slight detour, we factored in a route that took us past the Loftus Tram Sheds, O’Neills Amusement Park, and St. Johns Orphanage For Boys.
O’Neills Amusement Park
Our first stop was O’Neills in Edmonson Park. Even though this is private property, entry wasn’t tricky. The gate was wide open, and an old sign clearly said ‘Open’, so we accepted the invitation and wandered in. Littered around the expansive grounds are an old dodgem car ride, swings, funhouse, ghost train, old vehicles and lots of beautiful decay.
Loftus Tram Sheds
Hidden out in the bush in Royal National Park is the Loftus Tram Sheds. Again entry wasn’t a problem with the door behind the tow truck wide open. Inside are several old trams, a couple of buses, and even an old cable car—all heavily vandalised. There were holes in the roof everywhere, and the sun was coming through, creating magical light in pinpoints and shafts.
Security was non-existent, and the only other people we saw were two photographers heading in as we headed out.
Footnote: Loftus Tramsheds was destroyed by fire in Oct 2015
St Johns Boys Orphanage, Goulburn
Our last stop for the day was the boys’ home in Mundy St, Goulburn. The building sits on the hill overlooking Goulburn and would have been beautiful back when it was a functioning orphanage, but now, like all other sites, the windows are smashed, and the walls are covered in graffiti and tags.
Again entry was straightforward, right up the path and in the open (missing) door. There is no security, and we saw no one during the hour we spent rambling around.
The orphanage had 2000 boys pass through its doors between 1912 and when it closed in 1978. There has been talk of turning it into apartments, but that’s going to be some task in its heavily derelict state.
Footnote: St Johns was destroyed by fire in Nov 2016
The Wimmera Silo Art Trail is planned to be 200km long and lies within the Wimmera Mallee Region. The Wimmera is a large, flat region in the North West of Victoria, regarded as Victoria’s agricultural heart. A significant proportion of the world’s wheat and barley is produced in the Wimmera. The wheat silos dominate the landscape of every town, small and large.
Horsham Overnight
We drove up from Melbourne the day after Boxing Day, staying overnight in Horsham near the start of the Wimmera Silo Art Trail. The weather in Melbourne had been somewhat erratic, with a scorching hot Christmas day and a mild and wet Boxing Day. Driving up, we had rain on and off all day, but the temps were still pleasant. Leaden grey skies are not my favourite photographic background, though, and we had our fingers crossed we would get blue skies the further north we drove.
Grey Skies
We woke to more grey skies, and it rained the following day. The weather forecast was rain and high winds. Loading up the car in the rain as we booked out, it looked like we would have a wasted trip. I wanted fields of yellow grass and blue skies! Leaving Horsham, we passed through Dooen and Jung and stopped briefly to shoot the silos. Our goal was to shoot as many silos as possible.
Just after leaving Dooen, the heavens opened. We were photographing train tracks and silos in the rain, attracting confused looks from cars driving past.
From Dooen, we drove to Jung, a tiny town with a population of 246 and just 18 km northeast of Horsham. The name came from the Parish of Jung Jung, derived from an Aboriginal expression of uncertain meaning but ingloriously recorded as meaning a big mess in some places.
Murtoa
While still a small town, it was much bigger than tiny Jung and boasted a population of 991 in the 2011 Census. Murtoa comes from a local Aboriginal word meaning “home of the lizard”. The silos at Murtoa can hold 400,000 tonnes of grain and is Australia’s largest inland receival centre. Before long, we were getting occasional breaks in the cloud. Then, finally, we were getting some sun and patchy blue skies!
Rapunyup
Next stop, we were heading to Rapunyup. The name is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘branch hanging over the water. With a population of 549, we weren’t expecting a metropolis. But Rapunyup, like the towns before it, was deserted. I beg to differ on the “town with a pulse”. We started to feel like we were heading the wrong way. Had everyone left town for the city? Had there been a warning of an approaching zombie apocalypse?
Leaving Rapunyup behind, we headed to Minyup. While Minyip has no painted silo and isn’t part of the Wimmera Silo Art Trail, it’s a town you must go past to get to Sheep Hills. With a population of 667, Minyip’s claim to fame is the town where they shot the Flying Doctors TV series, with the senior citizens centre becoming ‘coopers crossing flying doctors base’. ‘Minyip’ means ‘ashes’ in the language of the local Aborigines.
We left Minyip and headed for Sheep Hills with a quick stop at the Nullen Sidings. By now, we had glorious blue skies and puffy white clouds, and the temperature was climbing and sitting at around 35C.
Sheep Hills
Sheep Hills had a population of 189 in 2006, and no population was recorded in 2011. Not sure what the significance of putting a silo there is. Graincorp, the owner of all the silos, closed the Sheephills silos in 2003, so maybe that is why there is no population there anymore. The Wimmera silo art trail starts at Sheep Hills, as Rapunyup wasn’t ‘online’ yet. The Sheep Hills silos are painted by Matt Adnate, an internationally renowned Melbourne artist. Matt is well-known for the indigenous portraits on walls and canvas.
Our next stop after Sheep Hills was Warracknabeal for lunch and a stretch of the legs. The weather was a balmy 38C with blue skies. While Warracknabeal was a much larger town, it still had a closed-up look about it the day we were there. Nevertheless, we found one fish and chip shop open and enjoyed a delicious lunch.
Then we headed off again towards the next one with a quick stop at Galaquil to shoot each other on the deserted rail line. We were thanking our planning on bringing insect nets for our hats. We learnt very quickly to put them on BEFORE getting out of the car. The flies descended in their millions as soon as we got out, though; for the pics below, we sucked it up and worked quickly 😉
Brim
With a population of around 260, no pub, no school, Brim is a tiny town on the Henty Highway just north of Warracknabeal. The locals hope the tourists will come now that they have the silos. Painted by Brisbane artist Guido Van Helton, they were the first silos to be painted. The silo was initially planned to be the only one. However, such interest in them was that five more towns were added, and the Silo Art Trail was born.
Between Brim and Patchewollock, we drove into Beaulah, another silo, another abandoned railway line with a quietly decaying station. The insect net and hat went on, and we wandered around the station, giving the crystal ball a workout.
Patchewollock
We were nearing Sea Lake, our overnight destination. Our last stop before our evening destination was Patchewollock. The silo’s here were painted by Fintan Magee, and like the Brim silo, they depict a local farmer. A tiny town on the edge of the Big Desert in the Mallee, it’s reportedly to have a population of 431, but I have my doubts. Unfortunately, Patchewollock had a couple of closed stores, a park and no internet access. This was a minor disaster because we relied on our phones for navigation. It necessitated a drive back in the opposite direction for about 30 km to reconnect, get Sea Lake on Google Maps, turn around, and head back again.
Sea Lake
When we arrived at Sea Lake, the temperature was firmly settled at 40C. We were booked into the Sea Lake Motel, but they had lost power with the high winds that afternoon, so the aircon hadn’t been on long. As a result, the room was just as hot inside as out. Before leaving our room, we ensured the aircon was running well and went to the pub for dinner. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the aircon on either. I don’t think they had aircon, period. Meals were typical country fare (deep-fried and overcooked), but the beer and wine were cold and cheap.
Following dinner, we headed to Lake Tyrell. The lake was just about dry, with a few puddles too far off to reach. The wind was blowing a gale. I set the tripod up but hung onto it for dear life to stabilise it. I managed a couple of shots of the setting sun before I gave up and dived back into the car’s safety.
Dimboola
The following day was overcast again with showers. We were heading back to Melbourne via Jeparit and Dimboola. The Dimboola pink salt lake is just beautiful, and while we did stop at a few other small silo towns on the way, we were under the pump to get to the airport for my travelling photographer friend to catch her flight home. We ended up getting there with about 20 minutes to spare. Fortunately for her, her flight was delayed due to the storm that hit us as we drove down.
We covered just over 1,000 kms, driving through wind, rain, blazing temps, storms, and flies. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any snakes. If you decide to do the Silo Art Trail Rapanyup, Lascelles and Rosebery will be completed by mid-2017. Make sure you have hats, sunscreen, bug spray, insect nets for your hats, and lots of water and snack supplies in the car.
A lot of the little towns aren’t exactly open for business. So, keep an eye on the fuel gauge. Many towns don’t have a petrol station, so fill up in Horsham, Sea Lake and Dimboola. And take a map, as your phone maps won’t work in Patchewollock. (Then you’ll be in the middle of nowhere without a clue like we were).
