The Stick Shed

During the last school holidays, I found myself in the Grampians with a few hours to spare. Having read about The Stick Shed some months earlier, I was determined to see it and set off for Murtoa. First, some facts for the curious and factually minded…

The Stick Shed (previously known as the Murtoa No. 1 Grain Store) is the only remaining emergency grain store built during World War II. Designed in mid-1941, it was completed early in 1942 after an impressively quick five-month build. The structure is 265 meters long, 60 meters wide, and 20 meters high, constructed from 560 unmilled Victorian Mountain Ash poles, four acres of concrete, and approximately 10,000 sheets of roofing iron.

I was not disappointed to have made the effort. I spent several hours wandering, framing, making images and completely lost time, as I do. Much to my dismay on returning to the main shed door, it was locked shut! I had unknowingly overstayed my welcome and was locked inside. Fortunately, after a brief panic, I remembered that I had a mobile phone and weak but sufficient internet coverage to find a phone number for the office, who were horrified to hear they’d locked me in and were still 5 minutes out from departing for the day! Yikes.

Anyway, I lived to tell the tale and highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.

Something from the Japanese Alps

Another little collection from my 2025 Japan travels - this time from high in the mountains behind the gorgeous alpine village of Nozawaonsen.

A little bit of temple and a lot of concrete wall

I spent over a week exploring Tokyo (barely scratched the surface) and of all of the areas I spent time in, I’m going to say Yanaka was my favourite. It’s part of Tokyo’s “Old Town” and known for the high concentration of temples (70 something in Yanaka.) This little collection of photos includes a small part of one of those temples but is about the gorgeous surrounding concrete wall..! I love it. If you’ve been following for a while or you scroll back a few years, you’ll know, or find, that it’s not the first time I’ve professed my love for a wall and a concrete one at that.

Carme Pinós's 2018/19 MPavilion

I recently had the pleasure of capturing the 2018/2019 MPavilion by Spanish architect Carme Pinós. The pavilion was expertly reconstructed by Erbauer in it’s permanent home at Monash University’s Peninsula campus, late in 2024. In time, the pavilion has settled beautifully in the surrounding native plant life and is used regularly for social events, informal gatherings, and academic talks.

Architect: Carme Pinós, Estudio Carme Pinós
Commissioned by: Naomi Milgrom Foundation
Construction: Erbauer
Location: Monash University, Peninsular Campus

Arimasuton. Tokyo’s "Zombie Fish" Building

You may or may not know that I jetted off to Japan for two weeks last year. As you can imagine, I took a lot of photos. How to share them with you has perplexed me a bit as there are many ways I could shape them into little collections. I still haven’t come to any great conclusion so I thought I’d just begin. And begin with something very unique!

This is Arimasuton, Tokyo’s "Zombie Fish" Building and a handmade, concrete masterpiece. Tokyo’s small scale, lesser known answer to Gaudí, if you like.

Architect Keisuke Oka is the owner and builder of Arimasuton, which can be found in Tokyo’s Mita district, a lavish and upscale suburb where the building stands out and strangely fits in too. For over twenty years Keisuke, along with friends, family, students and neighbours, has crafted the building by hand, from concrete.

Though finished in 2024 the surrounding buildings have been demolished making way for a large-scale development leaving Oka no choice but to shift, yes actually shift, the building back 10 metres away from the construction site, which is what is taking place in my images below. I did attempt to get closer but was quickly ushered away by the polite security guarding the site. I am looking forward to revisiting in the future to see it settled and likely dwarfed amongst it’s future giant neighbours!

Eaglehawk from above

Following on from my previous post about Eaglehawk Community Health Centre, I thought I’d share some drone images of this great little building by Darragh O’Brien and his team at EDB Architects. Beautiful as they are, those gums made it tricky to get clean images!

Elizabeth Schiavello Australian Architectural Photographer Melbourne

Elizabeth Schiavello Australian Architectural Photographer Melbourne

Community Health Centre by day, art installation by night!

I first saw the Eaglehawk Community Health Centre on LinkedIn, it was a ‘nearing completion’ progress shot, I liked what I saw and was enormously pleased to be able to shoot and deliver the finished images. The weather gods were kind for most of the day despite a lacklustre forecast, and following a short dusk the building really sang at night. I’ve said it a number of times now, it reminds me a of a teamLab installation! A long and lovely day with Darragh and co at EBD Architects, assisted by the ever capable and helpful Kate McGovern.

St Kilda West with Meredith Lee

What a pleasure it was to shoot Meredith Lee’s St Kilda West project last month! One sculptural, artistic, design delight after another. Beautiful work as always from my talented friend and designer.