On Copper Cutters and getting busted.

Uh -oh! 

For the first time EVER. I got busted.

This happened a while ago at a location I hadn't visited before. I won't mention the location or the date in case someone comes looking for me (healthy paranoia).

I'll start at the beginning of the day, I woke up early to go rock climbing out in Werribee Gorge with some friends, up at 7AM isn't something I usually do and as a result, I only got 5-6 hours of good sleep.
I spent the day trekking about, climbing and having a blast, after heading back home, after nearly 9 hours of climbing (and driving) I was fairly tired... I got a call from 2 of my friends saying that we should go exploring.

Me, thinking that was a good idea (and wanting to check out some places I'd previously seen (both on-line and while driving around) agreed. I swung by and picked up the crew.
We arrived on site and loosened some previously cut wires in the fence. This was to be the beginning of several mistakes...

Metal Factory

This place was a cool find up north. Its a fairly empty shell of a place, but we visited after a bit of rainfall, its a huge place. And lots of twisted bits of steel and empty hangars to wander around...

It was fun. 

Ex-Explosives storage facility

This place was pretty cool.

One of the more unusual places, its actually part of a cow farm...

Back in the day, this place used to be used for explosive testing and storage. 

This is a shot via Google earth of the area. As you can clearly see, its very large. I believe its on private property. Be we had no issues accessing it when we went to check it out. 

Camberwell House Shopfront

This place is a very unusual find. Its an entire double story shop, but the back half has been removed leaving it exposed. As well as that, there is a strange underground area... Not much to see. But good for a bit of a wander if you're in the area.... 

Bayside Hotel

Need a place to stay? How about the Bayside Hotel?

A classy establishment with ample space, especially for tall people!

4D - The Audio Engineer's Experience!

I'd dropped my mates a copy of my maps a while back, one evening not to long ago it was suggested that we check out 4D as the group hadn't been there. I'd been there previously myself and found it only moderately interesting. Not being one to say no to exploring though I agreed and we were on our way! 

Well... It turned out to be quite the experience in the end. Two of the people that came along are, for lack of a better term, audiophiles. One is studying to become an audio engineer, while the other practices singing in his spare time. 

What I had failed to give much notice to last time, was the extreme echo generated by this space. Any sounds made would echo for up-to 10 seconds!!! Incredible. 

The singer of the group (lets call him J) started singing deep low notes... And wow! The echoes were intense. It sounded like church music almost! 

We didn't have much time though as this was the last place we were checking out for that night and needed to get home. But we vowed we would return... With a vengeance! 

The Deathstar

In the final poop-related-piece for the near-future...

Much like the aformentioned dreadnaught, this place is a sewerage overflow that is also rarely used. So rarely infact. That all the matter left over has actually dried up and now resembles a dried lake of shit. 

Classy. 

So....

Dreadnaught - The Sewer Overflow

The largest one that the Exploring community is currently aware of in Melbourne.

Between roughly hockey field size length and width, this massive underground chamber is probably 3 storeys high and 2 meters underground.

Thankfully, for us explorers, it rarely gets used, hence why its safe to explore! All the same, the ground is covered in decomposing matter. Not the nice kind of matter either...

Read on after the break for more...

Live sewer. Ew.

Anyone who knows exploring knows you don't go into sewers... Its bad for more than the obvious reasons. Poisonous (not to mention foul smelling and usually flammable) gas is a serious issue.

If you do go. Its best to bring disposable clothes, overalls, gloves, boots, breathing gear.

Or if you're like the guy in the picture, balls of steel.

This fine gentleman descended three (count 'em THREE!!) storeys underground to check out this new-found sewer. Note the colour of his gloves and shirt as he climbs back up!

There is nothing quite like the sight (and smell) of human waste flooding past 3 storeys below.

Disturbing. Yet, to an explorer... Interesting ;)

Yarra Bridge Room

A tiny little bridge room, but fun to clamber about in, out and around of.You can see the yarra straight through the walkway...

Pirates invading Caulfield Church!

I've always been a fan of 'creative' art. Never so much of the church. So... We decided one night to commandeer a church flagpole and fly the Jolly Roger high and mighty!

 

With great success, this flag could be seen from the train on approach to Caulfield station!
Whats more, it was there for almost a month before the church owners noticed and took the flag down!

Exhaust Tower

This one's an old favourite.

Joshua Pitt Tannery

This was somewhere I hadn't been previously.

Previously, i've explored across the road from this place, but never actually got around to checking out this side of things as a result of distractions in the other warehouse.

Showing a couple of friends around i took them across the road, afterwards, we went and checked out the Tannery (for those that don't know, its where leather is made).

It turned out to be quite a large facility, and quite an interesting place to explore. For those planning on visiting. It now features security patrols and an attempt has been made to lock it down further.

This place also has some of the best graffiti i've seen in a while. I'm not usually to keen on graff in topsides as it usually results in them being locked down. All the same though. The detail in some of this stuff blew my mind.

Click through to read and see more!

Amazing Urbex Light Painting Stop Animation

THIS. IS. AMAZING.

See below!

Urbex Updates

I've found a large number of new and previously unexplored (by myself) locations recently.
Confirmation of several sites through google earth and through blogs.

So! Busy weeks ahead! If i keep up with the rate i'm taking photos at (over the weekend, i took a staggering 1500 photos (was just snapping away) ) i'll never have time to sort through them all! Let alone upload them!

Geelong Cement Factory + Train Pt3

So!

First off. The final piece of the train story! This model/particular carrige is known as BRF 91 / OWA 91 Community Service Car.

It took some finding, but i found some original photographs of the what the carrige in the below shots used to look like..

http://comrails.com/pic_jb/jb_70315.html

http://www.comrails.com/cr_carriages/r_brf.html

http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p661393.htm

In 1952 it entered service.

In 2006 it was left to rot in a hanger where it still sits by "Rail Experience"

Thanks to wongm for the research...

Amusingly, although this train is stored in the "Geelong Cement" shed, it apparently has nothing to do with it. It just happens to be parked there and forgotten like...

The actual cement factory!

Warning - Lots of photos(thumbnails) below the break!

Geelong Cement Train - Pt2

We went again.

This time, i introduced a few friends to the place and took a few new photos.

Last visit was done on my old Ixus 980IS, this visit. Canon 7D. ^_^

More pictures below the break

Geelong Cement Train

One of the stranger places we've come across. A trainyard with a single carrige. 

A memory from a time long forgotten.
Since then, its become the hangout for addicts and hooligans. People have given the old carrige new life, as something completely different, a gallery of human behaviour perhaps. Who knows.
But it is an eerie place to visit. That's for certain.

More to come on this one. I'll dig up some of the research about the place and put it here as well. It actually (as far as i remember, had its own private line to a place I explored when i first started out, the geelong cement factory in geelong (i'll upload those photos next)).

For now, just look through the photos. See what there is to see. We'll be visiting again soon hopefully. This time with a newer camera and a wider lens.

Wonky Town

As Far as I know, my girlfriend and I are the only people that made it into this site.

At the time, it had almost been completed. I believe that now, it is the Channel 9 offices or something.

Sadly, you can no longer access this location, nor the roof (which we stole a ladder from one area and used it to climb up onto the building through the 'smokers deck')
The views from the roof were great. Southern Cross Station (which we had climbed along before) looked totally different and almost like a giant artificial beach.

Below are the photos from one of my most enjoyable construction site explorations to date.

Collingwood Silos - 2011 Revisit

We rocked up to collingwood, having visited these silos before many months earlier.

Sadly, the first set we visited was in the process of being turned into apartments... As is the nature of the city...

From the inside, we realised that not only had the main structure been torn down from around the still standing silos, but there was no floors anywhere. Instead, there were just hollow silos with windows cut into them.
It was a very strange experience. And I must admit, having visited previously, I was sorry to see such an interesting place with many memories disappear.