Ghost signs Melbourne #11 : a wild gallop

Cnr Ballarat St and Scandinavian Crescent, Talbot

Ballarat North Street, Talbot

we waded ashore in Talbot, cold and soaking wet; it was a long, long ways from Clunes and the horses were sore and hungry. when we were lost at sea this shuttered door was our beacon; a friendly wink in the dark. once fed and rested, the horses could no longer be restrained: they were off at a gallop.

Ghost signs Melbourne #5 : running with a bull

Union St, Brunswick

Large and bovine – with a reputation for the unpredictable – we approached this one with caution. Of course, the horns are long-gone; last seen, locals tell us, above the trolley pole of a W-class tram.

Ghost signs Melbourne #4 : time for a cuppa

Park Street, Carlton North

The neighbours thought it was a house. There were the windows, the front door; the walls of solid red bricks. And for many years this was what it was: a house. But just as the trees in the backyard grew taller over the years, so did this house. Windows lengthened, the walls pushed upwards, and the tenants started to leave. For it was not just the noise and the cracking walls that made people despair, but the heat: the constant, boiling heat. The chimney drooped into a thin curving spout and several roof tiles formed themselves into hinges, so that on a night when the wind blew hard from the north, the roof would gently lift like a lid before it settled, on the house, once again. So now, there it stands, on the corner of Park Street, Carlton North: a teapot.