Department Store

Cities are a little like Shrek. They have layers. And when a building like Myer burns down, a small selection of those layers becomes visible to the whole world.

In Hobart, the 'Myer Fire' was a big thing. Everyone remembers where they were when they heard about it, everyone remembers watching the roof collapse, the plume of smoke rising up over the city, the worry about the spread of flames to an entire city block, the smog throughout the city. An electrical fault they reckon, plus perhaps other contributory factors. Myer was our big department store, and for a while it looked like it was no more. But half the building remained, smokey but standing. Now the discussion was about the site. I nosied past many times afterwards, watching the bulldozers pulling down the wreckage, seeing the heat damage on the buildings across the street, and finally it became just an empty site. The pathway through to the mall was now gone, and a solid fence of plywood blocked curious eyes. Then discussions were had, and the fences came down. A path was rebuilt, hovering over the destruction, enclosed by cyclone fencing, benches and plants were put down, and a slice of Hobart history was revealed.

At the bottom are stones like yesterday's, with bricks filling in gaps. Then layers of bricks and concrete, all interwoven with pipes. In the wall beneath my feet was a grilled window, bricked in. Upper left of this photo are a series of blocked off lift entrances. Graffiti adorns the walls, as do patches of paint, damp and moss.

The building was constructed in 1908, and newspapers rued the loss of the historic facade. As I wander through this area, I always find my eyes drawn to those lower levels of stone. Were they taken from somewhere else to build the foundations, or was there something else here before? I would suspect the former - that was no uncommon, but what may lie further down, beneath these foundations?



This is possibly the closest I'll ever get to a black and white photo. For a while it looked like it would be b&w, but my love of colour reasserted itself enough for this to be the end product. I was only playing quickly in iPhoto though, so it's not particularly fancy playing. I also tried to work with the fencing, and was semi-happy with some shots incorporating that, but will give it another go sometime when it's not raining... And for the detail, give this one a go in large.