St John's Park

I dropped Marcus at indoor soccer before 7 last night (Sunday) and went for a walk around New Town, with a vague plan to wander through the nearby school oval and follow my nose. It ended up being the most interesting short stroll through an abandoned-seeming but fully-maintained government education/health/social welfare precinct. While that sounds dull, it is anything but. It's made up of buildings from just about every decade back to the 1830s. I am yet to research all this but there's information here.

I say it seemed abandoned but everything is maintained, lawns mowed etc. And there were cars parked all over the place, so there were people at work in the buildings although it was Sunday evening. There are actually three aged care facilities in the area, so that explains it I suppose – I heard music from one of them called Rosary Gardens. The zone had a Chernobyl feel; so quiet but no vandalism, no hoons driving through although it is wide open with two entrances from main roads. I didn't trespass or hop any fences (this time) to get these photos.

Anyway – I clearly know very little so I am going to just dump the photos here and caption them as I find out more.

I walked in via Ogilvie High School. There was a casual game of cricket happening on the oval. I have come across these before, just a crowd from the local Indian or Pakistani community (you'd love to think both) with their families picnicking around the boundary.

Ogilvie High School (1937) has a nice art deco vibe like a few state schools around Tasmania. The St John's Park precinct is up the hill behind it. This is the northeastern end of a very large parcel of state government land that runs NE-SW from  New Town Road nearly to Augusta Road.

These buildings are unoccupied at the moment it seems. But there are cars parked around; there are people inside around here somewhere even on Sunday evening. It's very interesting to me that there is NO graffiti or other vandalism visible here.

The Infants Orphan School, 1861. This is now one of the aged care homes. 

Gellibrand House (1939) was built as a home for World War I veterans. I'm not sure if it's in use now.

I love this corner with its split level roller doors.

I think this is the original 19th century Kitchen (I had guessed it was an incinerator).

I guess they fed wood into the stoves through these??

This joins the old kitchen building to the new (1959) 2-storey red brick kitchen.

I didn't photograph the front of the church and orphan schools because I have before. I've added an image below for context. This is behind the northern orphan school wing. I love the prefab steel stairs.

Two orphan school wings (boys and girls separated) were built from 1831 and 1833. The church in between them was completed in 1834. The white building here was the boy's school.

Nice carved lettering on the dedication stone of the new Kitchen block.

A genuine Musset hut.

Hydroelectric substation 

Above and below: Wingfield House (1939). It was built for kids with polio by the Tasmanian Society for Crippled Children. Like Gellibrand House I couldn't tell if it's still in use, but there’s certainly no kids here now.