burnies warehouse

“Burnies” was the nickname given to a burnt out warehouse by three skater dudes I met in an industrial suburb of Darwin called Winnellie. The three friends had built their own skatepark at Burnies over a number of years, complete with wooden ramps and rails cemented into the ground.

Graffiti artists practiced their craft on the prefab concrete walls, which were constantly changing as new artists re-sprayed the walls with their work.

Shopping trolleys moved mysteriously between my visits to make photos of the place, and sometimes backpackers slept in their campervans in the vacant parking lot nearby.

One time three teenagers were hanging out with their bomb of a car in the middle of the warehouse, making tik tok videos or whatever kids do these days for attention. I considered asking the shaggy looking driver for a portrait with his p-plated car, but then the couple he was with suddenly seemed keen to leave and they drove off.

The place had it own quiet ecosystem. It was mostly empty when I visited, but I always wondered how many other visitors it received when I wasn’t there. Who moved the shopping trolleys around between visits and why did it’s population keep changing?!

Then one day I saw an excavator tearing down the walls on my drive home from work. I was aghast, as I had recently decided to visit Burnies more often to make photographs. So on the weekend I grabbed some film and rushed to take some last photos before it disappeared.

That’s when I met the three skaters, who had come for one last skate in their home built park. They gave me their history of the place, how they had built it up, and said they skated together 2-3 times a week. One worked as an economist and the other two as surveyors, who were from France. All had been skating since the 90’s but were brought together in Darwin through their love of the sport.

I photographed them for a few hours until I ran out of film, grabbed their phone numbers, then went home.

The next week Burnies was gone.

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