Exhaust Fan furnace its platform shelter stripped back

its platform shelter stripped back to bare timber and peeling paint

throwing back a reflection of the decaying walls and silent machinery above

Both pieces occupy a strip of dead grass

Dust lies thick across the silent stage of the Queen Victoria Sanitorium's entertainment room

hinting at the rooms beyond

Exhaust Fan furnace its platform shelter stripped backA heavy industrial exhaust fan, blades thick with accumulated dust, sits motionless on a grimy wall of the former production floor. Ventilation of this kind was standard in adhesive heavy footwear manufacturing, where fumes built quickly. The Northcote Shoe Factory operated from purpose built premises on Arthurton Road from 1926, later trading as Purnell Shoe Company. Part of the Northcote Shoe Factory series.