Escaping The Urban Grind: Toodyay
Sometimes when the world gets a bit much, it’s important that you can get away. We urban explorers are naturally a big fan of breaking out and adventuring away, but sometimes it’s not enough to simply go into another building. And so, with this in mind we packed our bags and headed out to a place in Toodyay where we could soak in the goodness of nature and smell the sweet country air.
A little outside of the town, towards the area of Coondle there lies a hulking warehouse by the train tracks which presumably was used as a place to store and then load agricultural goods onto trains and then onwards to markets both national and international. The marvel of industry. Whether it is a site still used and was merely temporarily out of action, or indeed it is truly abandoned was not entirely clear.
We started off by climbing some kind of lookout post where we could get near the roof of the building; however, it was of little more interest than giving the initial rush of climbing. Back on solid earth we entered a loading bay and spied a ladder up onto the roof and loading machinery. Bingo (appropriate for the farming community context). I always loved climbing trees as a kid, and climbing buildings has proven no different. A series of ladders were present on the roof and there was a hell of a view from the top of it all. Not to mention the whole thing felt like a James Bond set. But perhaps the most sensational bit of everything was an open hatch leading to a walkway suspended above the factory floor. I must admit a fear of heights at this stage hurt my chances of enjoying this aspect all that much, and a stinging paranoia related to dropping my phone where it would be broken and irretrievable also overcame me. Curse ye gods.
About 1 minute further down the road, there’s an old mud-brick home that’s been left to the mercy of the weather (and by the amount of excrement, sheep as well). What a location. Hopefully the photo’s give you an idea of what the surrounds were like. Obviously this is my love affair with Toodyay coming through. Can you blame me? It’s hard not to romanticise about this place, think of the family that once used to live here, farm the land. All too soon though, the city calls us back. So it goes.
Tom Camp, Nathan Shaw & Chris Beecroft
Note: These are some really nice images, but they are a little bigger than normal, please give them a chance to load!
