Driving around the countryside in Victoria, Australia, you are bound to come across old homes that are home to no one anymore. Some of them are easy to get to, while others you need to get permission to go there.
They are made from different assorted materials. Usually very small. It is amazing to consider what they lived in back then and what we live in now. It is also amazing how solidly they were built, considering how quickly houses seem to fall apart these days.
This is on the roadside and many people stop to photograph it. I don’t know if it was a home, but has usual markings of a small two roomed house from the 19th century. Buildings like this are very common around central Victoria from the gold rush days. Many tiny homes. I’ve been in a couple of them and they are so small. I couldn’t imagine living in one of them. What’s that old saying, no room to even swing a cat. I know it isn’t a good saying, but fits what I was trying to say.
This old home is a lot bigger than the previous one, but it is no longer inhabited and has been devoid of life for some time, around 100 years. It was abandoned to make way for a reservoir or dam. The Loddon River was sort of dammed and this house was under water for a very long time. I don’t know when it emerged, but think it may have happened during the drought we had at the beginning of this century. I don’t know if it will ever go under again as our climate warms up and water becomes scarcer.
Another reason for empty homes is that as farms join and get bigger and bigger the homes of the original farms are no longer needed and are just vacated and left.
For whatever reason the homes are abandoned it is good for us photographers. There are so many photographers that love abandoned buildings, so they now get a new purpose. I am finding more and more all the time.
