Metropolitan Dissolution

Two guys from Perth, Western Australia who find urban decay intriguing. Here are our adventures.

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Abandoned Monk Village, Hong Kong

While travelling off the beaten track in Hong Kong, I came across this old living quarters used by monks from the local monastery. It would appear nature has been aggressively consuming it for years now. Not far from the famous giant buddha statue on Lantau Island.

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Picton Rail Yard, Bunbury

Trains come here to die. Or at least to be soaked in paint, rust and spiderwebs. Over the decades, hundreds of ageing locomotives have ended up in this graveyard which sits right next to an active rail line between Perth and Bunbury. These trains came from Queensland where they carted around wood chips. It’s unclear why they ended up in WA, but were likely brought over as part of plan to move coal to port. Who knows how long they’ll remain posing as canvases for Bunvegas graf kids.

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Old TAFE campus, Subiaco

Before the State Government spent millions on the glossy new Central Institute in Northbridge, this was the go to place for all your non-university higher education needs. It now lays dormant and will probably end up being swallowed up by the lavish housing developments surrounding it.

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Abandoned drive-in, York WA

We were unwanted patrons of this rusty old drive-in theatre, so we didn't have much of a chance to explore. The cinema has spent more time trapped behind a rickety fence than it had bringing the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to the bush. Regional WA is full of abandoned drive ins - this one still has the original projectors inside. With the shells of vintage cars littering the property, it's amazing to think there hasn't been an inkling of progress on site since it was first propped up in the 60s. It's now just another relic in York's treasure chest of heritage gold.

Click here for a video tour!

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Yarloop, Western Australia

Through my work as a journalist, I was granted media access to document the aftermath of a huge fire that ripped through southern Western Australia this year. The inferno all but completely destroyed the small town of Yarloop. It was incredible to stand there and picture how intense the fire would have been while surrounded by the charred remains of a once happy and vibrant rural community. The fire’s path of destruction is totally random; some buildings were left standing, others were reduced to ash and rubble in a matter of minutes. I urge people - don’t let go there. Let the residents grieve and let the authorities do their jobs.

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We recently stumbled across an abandoned primary school while passing through Mt Barker, deep in WA’s Great Southern. Its certainly seen better days; kids have gotten in with paint and basically ransacked the place. Was good to see something derelict in the country for a change. The land has been earmarked for sale since 2009, but clearly there’s been no takers.

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Statham's Quarry was built in 1894 to mine rock for the building of streets in the early days of Perth’s development. There’s an abandoned rock crushing plant fenced off near the quarry which we found to be pleasantly thriving with rusting relics and bright street art. It’s been largely gutted, but you can still see how it may have operated more than 100 years ago.

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Greenough River Resort, Cape Burney

The Greenough River Resort south of Geraldton in WA’s Mid West region was built in 1981. With sweeping views of the Greenough River mouth, it was a popular venue for weddings, birthdays and tourists for over 20 years. The resort shut in the mid 2000’s and has remained idle ever since. Perched on a hill overlooked the seaside town of Cape Burney, the boarded up building has certainly weathered a few storms in its lifetime. Its future remains unclear, but land adjacent to it is earmarked for residential development.

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George Town, Penang - Malaysia

A friend of ours is currently on exchange at a university on the island of Penang, Malaysia, and ran into this amazing piece of urban decay. It is situated in the heart of George Town, right near the Komtar Tower - which is the tallest building on the island (You can see it in the final picture of this set). We don't know much about this building, though it seems to have probably been some sort of housing.

Thanks Haley! https://www.facebook.com/haleyedouglas

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Taman Festival, Bali - Indonesia

Part 2.

Better late than never....

Here is the second part to our trip to the abandoned Taman Festival Theme Park in Bali. Probably one of the best places we've visited, wish we had a bit more time to explore as there was certainly a lot more hidden treasures in the jungle there.

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Whim Creek Hotel - Pilbara, WA

Through my work as a journalist, I had the opportunity to tour the abandoned Whim Creek Pub, an iconic relic in the Pilbara region of WA. The pub was built in the late 1800's to serve the copper mining town halfway between Port Hedland and Roebourne. The pub is also known for its odd Pilbara-centric quirks that were a hit with locals and tourists alike, such as the Barra burger, native wildlife park, Harry the talking cockatoo, a beer drinking camel and of course the hook and ring game. . In 2011, the pub was bought by a mining company and has basically been neglected since then. It looked like the last drinks were served and then everyone left and the doors were chained shut. There were still half drunk beers sitting on bench tops, empty glasses scattered around the place and balls on the pool table. It's now been sold back to locals, who plan to restore it and open the bar once again.

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The Dome (Burswood Dome), Crown Perth

Part 1.

The Dome, an iconic piece of Perth history - being demolished to make way for a car park. Since the fans inflating the roof were turned off at the end of June - work on getting this structure down has moved extremely fast. Due to the work going on, there was no way to explore the inside - keep an eye out for part 2, we will get inside. 

[metropolitandissolution]

Taman Festival, Bali - Indonesia

Part 1.

On a recent trip to Bali, we visited Taman Festival, which is an abandoned theme park about a half an hour taxi ride out of central Kuta. Apparently the park closed in 2000 after being open for only 3 years as the owner went bankrupt. A small group of crocodiles were left at the park and ended up breeding with each other. We were hesitant about entering because of that, but luckily we didn't see any. The locals told us they were removed some time ago after intervention from animal welfare groups. The park is massive and unfortunately because we were strapped for time, we didn't get to truly explore it. But what we saw was unlike any other derelict place we'd visited.

[metropolitandissolution]

The Grange, Belhus

When walking through this place you can just sense the bad vibes. As we discovered, The Grange used to be breeding centre for horses. Nowadays it comprises of acres of overgrown scrub land, a trashed homestead and many derelict offices, wheat silos, sheds and stables. Oh yeah, it's also the home of the shell of a burnt out car and a haven for bored teenagers who like blowing shit up with deodorant cans. Pretty soon it's going to be swallowed up by the suburban sprawl of Ellenbrook. We were lucky enough to go the weekend before the demolitions began.

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Abandoned House on Beaufort Street

We see this place all the time on our lurks into Mount Lawley. I had no work today so took the opportunity to check this abandoned house out. It's located on Beaufort Street, just near the Inglewood Hotel. Squatters have stacked shit behind the front door to prevent people from entering. I had a look through the only window that wasn't boarded up, and the smell inside was horrible - so just stuck to photographs from the outside. 

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Abandoned House in Maylands

We visited this abandoned house on Guilford Rd, Maylands just a couple of weeks back. Although it is abandoned, we discovered many people have made this place their temporary humble abode. The place is littered with mattresses and an incredible amount of empty beer bottles. 

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The Pacific Motel in Highgate

This is one of the first derelict buildings we ever visited. We first went there at night, what an experience that was. The motel has now been demolished, traded for a block of apartments. These photos were taken in 2011, probably a good 3 or 4 months before the bulldozers entered.