Stripped Cables at Balmain Leagues Club, here's an example of the work of other types of people who come to abandoned places.

01 Balmain Leagues ClubRozelle2015

ISO 1001.3sf/8.024mm

Series · 20 prints

Balmain Leagues Club

Photographed 2015
Frames 20
Camera NIKON D7000
Location New South Wales, Australia
Status Demolished 2024-25
Years 1957 to 2010
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Balmain Leagues Club opened in 1957 on the corner of Victoria Road and Darling Street in Rozelle, supporting the Balmain Tigers, one of the NSW Rugby League's original nine clubs. The Tigers' premiership tally was, until the mid-1990s, second only to St George and South Sydney. The Australian Rugby League listed the site as a place of historical significance during the code's 2008 centenary. The club closed on 28 March 2010 under a NSW Government order to vacate for what was then the Sydney Metro project. The metro alignment was later changed and the site was not used. The building stood empty on the corner of Victoria Road for over a decade through a series of failed redevelopment attempts. Demolition and rebuild as the Rozelle Village mixed-use development began in 2023, with a new Wests Ashfield Leagues Club to return to the site.

03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed limited editions, printed from the original RAW file. Editions run from 100 down to 25 and are not reissued once they sell through.

Stripped Cables at Balmain Leagues Club, here's an example of the work of other types of people who come to abandoned places.
Stripped Cables
Girls' Bike at Balmain Leagues Club, there's something about this shot that is just very still and easy to keep looking at.
Girls' Bike
Hose Reel at Balmain Leagues Club, sometimes (always) the light on its own can make something uninteresting look good.
Hose Reel
Kitchen at Balmain Leagues Club, the large commercial kitchen at the abandoned Balmain Leagues Club stands empty.
Kitchen
Auditorium Entrance at Balmain Leagues Club, a corridor leads toward a glass-block wall at the far end, where a sign.
Auditorium Entrance
Basement Ramp at Balmain Leagues Club, the Ramp leading to the basement carpark.
Basement Ramp
Restaurant at Balmain Leagues Club, years of rain water leaking onto the floorboards have caused them to warp and undulate.
Restaurant
Auditorium at Balmain Leagues Club, shot inside the auditorium.
Auditorium
Cocktail Bar at Balmain Leagues Club, the carpet was dank and squelchy, and all the paper that was strewn across it was.
Cocktail Bar
Carpark Level One at Balmain Leagues Club, a low concrete ceiling presses down across the open floor plate.
Carpark Level One
Basement To Victoria Road at Balmain Leagues Club, concrete columns run in rows through the basement level, holding a low.
Basement To Victoria Road
Gaming Floor at Balmain Leagues Club, a gutted interior stretches back into grey half-light.
Gaming Floor
Rear Carpark Walkway at Balmain Leagues Club, nature reclaiming the walkway to the back carpark.
Rear Carpark Walkway
Betting Station at Balmain Leagues Club, a TAB Sportsbet terminal stands against the wall, its blue plastic surround still.
Betting Station
Kitchen Back Wall at Balmain Leagues Club, white ceramic tiles line the back wall of the kitchen corridor, stained brown.
Kitchen Back Wall
Pokies at Balmain Leagues Club, overturned poker machine cabinets sit in a heap on the wet floor.
Pokies
Fire Exit at Balmain Leagues Club, a low concrete ceiling presses down over a corridor deep inside the building.
Fire Exit
Front Parking Area at Balmain Leagues Club, concrete columns rise from a bare floor to a low slab ceiling.
Front Parking Area
Main Bar at Balmain Leagues Club, leftover garbage from parts of the club which has been ripped apart and strewn.
Main Bar
Offices at Balmain Leagues Club, the ground was kind of like a mushy mixture of rotting paper and plasterboard.
Offices
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

06 PRESS

In the press

Often I'd find myself looking at the machines and architecture and challenging myself to find one single object designed purely for aesthetics. Craftsmanship made way for efficiency in engineering long before I'd even left school.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

People talk about what it was like to work or stay in these places, who they knew, what they did, how great the Christmas parties were, that store man nobody liked, what all the different machines were, how they worked and what became of them.

Broadsheet

Brett Patman·2016

lostcollective.com

On the LC archive.

There's this sense of wonder you get when looking at abandoned buildings. You try to imagine what these spaces were like when they were filled with busy workers trying to meet production targets. And why did they close?

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
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Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

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