Heritage site: keep out
Back in about 2003, we were at the filming of the video clip for Fear Factory’s Cyberwaste. I’ve talked about it before, but just to summarise it was filmed in the South Fremantle Power Station which was closed down in 1983, and we didn’t realise they didn’t have permission to film there until we were taken inside through a hole in the fence (and later escorted out by the police). Overall it was a pretty fucking cool experience.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGk6w91zkyw]
I was telling this story to the lovely Biodagar and we thought it would be a blast to go visit the site again when she came to visit Perth. We timed our visit for late afternoon in the hope of getting the gorgeous late afternoon sun from over the ocean but true to form, it was pissing down with rain and miserable as hell.
The place is ridiculously easy to get into – the fence on the beach side is more hole than fence these days – and it’s always full of people, so the “cool and forbidden factor” is basically gone. There were a few groups of people industriously decorating the walls, someone was hefting a drum kit back outside just as we arrived, and a family, complete with kids and a dog, was roaming around upstairs.
Still, the building is hauntingly beautiful in it’s decay and I had some fun taking photos. I even found what was left of the massive Fear Factory logo painted on the ground where the band played.
The building is in such a severe state of decay that despite all the signs proclaiming it a “heritage site” i don’t think it would be good for pretty much anything these days – it’s too far gone. Rather sad, really.
Eternal YouTube fame for all of us!
That place used to be such a popular place for band pix & videos in the late 80’s. I used to do promo vids for pub bands & if my memory serves me well, I am sure we had to pay a couple of hundred bucks for a permit back then. Awesome place though, I drive past it often thinking I should stop in for a look see again. From what I hear its most probably going to be developed soon if someone buys it. This week the Cockburn Council voted to remove it from the city’s local Heritage Inventory and wont support its inclusion on the interim State Heritage List. Councillors pretty much said it was an eye-sore & either do it up or get rid of it.
Personally…. I would like to watch it die a natural death.
[…] Also in July, I talked about the reformation of Skunk Anansie (still don’t have that album yet) and the second coming of earthtone9, and posted some awesome photos that we took at the South Fremantle Power Station when my pal Leticia came to visit. […]
2010 in Review; or, what the fuck happened to the Goatlady? « enter the goatlady said this on January 12, 2011 at 9:29 pm |