Wednesday 27 November 2013

Abandoned houses

For those of you who don't know, we live next to an old abandoned cottage. I wrote about it here back in 2009 when we first moved to the Sow's Ear.

I really haven't found much more information about the house since 2009... The owner comes around periodically to mow the lawn and tidy the yard: the house itself is now beyond repair and maintenance. The kookaburras peck at the rotting weatherboards cladding the house, probably to feast on the termites slowly devouring all that delicious timber.

By the looks of the house it is perhaps an early 1900s Queenslander cottage - it is definitely older than our 1928 Sow's Ear.

View of the old abandoned house from our deck. And the missing stump.

Word on the street is that the house was once owned by a famous aboriginal boxer (Lionel Rose?) and the house, at some point in time, operated as an illegal brothel. Yes, a house of ill-repute!

Someone told me that under the house there are still all kinds of adult devices suspended from the floor beams...of course! I don't know that any of this is true mind, but there is always a grain of truth in these neighbourhood folklores, surely? Anyway, I'm running with the story because it's a good one!

The view of the house from our side stairs. Here is the fallen timber house stump.
I'm not game enough to find out the truth about the adult devices under the house business and I will definitely not go to investigate after one of the house's foundation stumps keeled over during the storm last week. Yikes!

Although, it is very sad the home is falling apart, I find the whole abandoned house business morbidly fascinating. Clearly I'm not the only one who finds it so, as I recently discovered.

There is a whole Facebook page dedicated to abandoned houses in and around Brisbane here. The person who runs the page records the ruins for our viewing pleasure - there's nearly 10,000 likers!

So, are you fascinated by abandoned house too?

11 comments:

  1. Yes abandoned houses are often things of such beauty, the history they must hold.
    Around here there are several old farm cottages and stone buildings that have me dreaming of moving right in.
    x

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    1. It must be the history that attract me to abandoned houses...and makes me ask why they are left empty an uncared for... xx

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  2. Of course I am! But I've never really understood how or why a house can be left to rot like that - a bit sad really. Amazing FB page! If only the walls could talk. If our place didn't have all the utes parked out the front, I fear the owner of Abandoned Brisbane might think ours is too. It's still looking pretty shabby from the front. xx

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    1. Ha ha! Your house will be a gem when it's finished. And that facebook page is hard to look away from, isn't it? xx

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  3. Yes... Can you get inside and take some pics? There is probably some beautiful decay in there...

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    1. I would love to except for the fact that I'm completely gutless...!

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  4. I LOVE abandoned houses, there are so many out away from the coast in little towns, such a shame to see them fall apart. Mr CH and I went into one in our town years ago, it was up for sale. We were fascinated by a decorative veranda only a foot wide outside the bay window, the wallpaper and paint colours were amazing, but the giant termite nest up in the corner of a room freaked us out. It was torn down for a block of modern units, I wish I had photos. I hope you don't get units nextdoor. Congrats on your coffee pot, love the colour, amazing find.

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    1. I hope we don't get units next door either or a couple of McMansion (the more likely scenario)...Abandoned houses always seem to have the potential to be saved...but sadly it takes a lot of time, money and madness to salvage these poor old things. xx

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  5. Okay. I've just spent an houir on that site. It's amazing. So sad but so lovely. There is something fascinating about the evidence of lives spent and gone. What a shame so much of that stuff was just dumped and demolished. There is a black teapot in a sideboard in one abandoned house that is just beautiful.

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    1. Oops! That facebook page is a time suck. Fascinating that there are so many houses left vacant like that. Why? I'm always wanting know the backstory. Anyway, I think it's very cool that someone out there is recording it. xx

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    2. Thanks for link - my first 'freeish' weekend in a while and I can see time flying by while I look at some of those properties. Amazing! As for your house next door, on the upside you have no noisy neighbours. Ever toyed with the idea of buying it and expanding the 'VJ Estate'?!

      Cheers, Col

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