Towns were mapped out, road and rail put in. The pubs and churches were built, wheat grew tall. In very short order civilization was imposed on the land. All on the back of years of good rain and the hopes and energy of a hardy breed of settler.

But then the rains failed, the topsoil blew away, and what had taken a busy decade or so to build settled into generations of decline. Homesteaders walked off the land to try their luck in the bigger towns and cities, the pubs closed, trains stopped running, and homes that had known very human lives of joy and hardship were boarded up and slowly became derelict.

And now, the doorless, windowless sandstone ruins look out onto dry, treeless spaces. The wind blows dust across parched land, the flies buzz incessantly , the sun beats down, and only sheep shelter in the ruins.

Biography

Paul Briggs is a photographer from Melbourne who aims to create a feeling of place and time within his imagery of Australia’s colonial past.

Instagram: @shot.through

Facebook: /shot.through