Iron Knob, SA

The Australian outback contains many abandoned townships: relics of a period of intense mining activity during 1880-1940. Iron Knob in South Australia is such a place and as I surveyed its empty streets and decaying buildings, I realized they contained a sort of collective memory of the people who had lived, worked and died here. Indigenous Australians believe the spirits of their ancestors inhabit the land long after death and in my imagination, the departed residents of Iron Knob were still walking its streets, living in its mostly ruined houses and working the abandoned mines of this genuine 'ghost' town.