Split handrails its rooms emptied of everything

its rooms emptied of everything except the silence left behind when the last occupant walked out

at the time of its 1982 electrification

Arched window openings line the right wall

sunlight cutting through grimy windows onto a floor that once moved millions of bottles a year

Split handrails its rooms emptied of everythingA concrete column splits the frame down the middle: to the left, a large room with peeling plaster and boarded windows; to the right, a stairwell doorway. Light falls cold from above, across a floor covered in debris. The Kirkbride Complex at Callan Park was built from 1880 as Australia's first purpose built hospital for moral therapy, its pavilion layout designed to bring light and air to every ward. Part of the Callan Park series.