Brisbane Urbex
The Abandoned Wacol Mental Asylum, Brisbane, Australia
On the same day that I explored and photographed the abandoned Broadway Hotel in Brisbane, I almost managed to document the Wacol Mental Asylum in Brisbane, Australia. I had my head underneath the wired fence when a policeman drove up to the building and told me that not only was I trespassing, but rapists and murderers were wandering around and might kill me. But I couldn’t accept defeat so quickly. After all, it is one of the oldest mental asylum in Australia and one of the most protected abandoned buildings in the country. I wanted to know why. I walked the perimeter of the site again looking for any other way in that didn’t involve me breaking through the fence surrounding the ruins. I knew there was a basement section, so I tried snooping around for a tunnel or underground entrance, but the policeman was back in flash, this time driving onto the grass right up to me. As you can see in the photo below, I was being stalked by the police AND kangaroos! Unfortunately, I had to accept defeat and say I’d try again another day. The History of Wacol Mental Asylum The abandoned Wacol Mental Asylum was founded
Abandoned Broadway Hotel, Brisbane, Australia
The abandoned Broadway Hotel in Brisbane has been protected by the Queensland Heritage Register since 1992, but that hasn’t deterred arsonists, graffiti artists, squatters and urban exploring photographers like me! :) Sadly, the building has been destroyed by three fires and much of the structure, walls and ceilings are totally dilapidated. The ground floor is still mostly intact whereas the upper floor required a lot of caution. Due to the fires, many of the upstairs rooms and corridors end abruptly with a gaping, charred hole leading straight down to the ash-covered ground floor. Broadway Hotel, located in Brisbane’s inner-south, was designed by John Hall & Son and built from 1889 to c. 1942 by Wooley & Whyte. Its architecture and interior, or what is left of it, is interesting and beautiful to photograph. I only wish more of the building was still intact! The hotel was the third building I tried to photograph in one day and I was delighted to find a way in, as the first two buildings didn’t work out. The first attempt was the abandoned Wolston Park Hospital (otherwise known as Wacol Lunatic Mental Asylum, Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum or Goodna Mental Health Hospital) and the second was the
