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Thirroul Beach Motel, Thirroul at Hotel Motel 101, a red brick motel with pastel coloured doors under a starlit sky.

01 Hotel Motel 101New South Wales2018

ISO 8004sf/2.814mm

Series · 103 prints

Hotel Motel 101

Photographed 2018

Frames 103

Camera NIKON D850

Location NSW, within roughly 170 km of Sydney

Status Most motels still operate

Specs 101 motels photographed · Photographed 2018 · NSW within ~170 km radius of Sydney

01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Hotel Motel 101 is a series of one hundred and one motels photographed in 2018 across three runs out of Sydney. North to the Central Coast, west through the Blue Mountains to the central western tablelands, south down the NSW South Coast. The count crept up from a planned seventy toward the round number, plus one for safety.

Approximately one hundred and twenty motels were visited; ninety percent of those were photographed. The work was shot late at night and very early in the morning, when the signs are still lit and the lots are mostly empty. Most of the motels in the series still operate. The Thirroul Beach Motel is one of them: Brett Whiteley died in room 4 there on 15 June 1992. The room appears in the series. The work was first published in Suitcase Magazine on 1 May 2018, sold at the Finders Keepers market the same week, and was the subject of a Vivid Ideas talk at the MCA on 2 June.

Suitcase Magazine (Transient Lives), Broadsheet Sydney (Kei Wa Lee) and BROAD Magazine

02 CAPTURE TIMELINE

Chronology

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.

Thirroul Beach Motel, Thirroul at Hotel Motel 101, a red brick motel with pastel coloured doors under a starlit sky.

Thirroul Beach Motel, Thirroul

3 Sisters Motel Sign at Hotel Motel 101, red neon outlines the tall MOTEL blade.

3 Sisters Motel Sign

Grandstand Motel, Warwick Farm at Hotel Motel 101, a decaying red brick motel with a dark top level and lit bottom level.

Grandstand Motel, Warwick Farm

Mt Kuring-Gai Motel Sign at Hotel Motel 101, the neon sign for Mt Kuring-gai Motel burns against a black sky.

Mt Kuring-Gai Motel Sign

Sapphire Palms Motel, The Entrance at Hotel Motel 101, a statue stands in the motel carpark with palm trees rising behind.

Sapphire Palms Motel, The Entrance

The Entrance Reef Resort, The Entrance at Hotel Motel 101, a Kitsch motel with palm trees in front of yellow arches.

The Entrance Reef Resort, The Entrance

Bargo Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, green-painted brick and corrugated iron.

Bargo Motor Inn

Beach Park Motel, Wollongong at Hotel Motel 101, colourful doors in a white brick motel stairwell.

Beach Park Motel, Wollongong

Warilla Hotel, Warilla at Hotel Motel 101, chairs in front of motel rooms with a fluorescent light under the night sky.

Warilla Hotel, Warilla

Parkside Motor Inn, Lithgow at Hotel Motel 101, the Parkside Motor Inn sits under one of the better Milky Way views in New.

Parkside Motor Inn, Lithgow

Motel 617, Kiama at Hotel Motel 101, blue and purple walls with white handrails and stairs leading to the top level.

Motel 617, Kiama

Jolly Knight Motel at Hotel Motel 101, three doors face the car park.

Jolly Knight Motel

The Fontainebleau Motor Inn, Liverpool at Hotel Motel 101, thirty rooms, each with its own white plastic chair and a view.

The Fontainebleau Motor Inn, Liverpool

Lithgow Valley Motel, Bowenfels at Hotel Motel 101, the Lithgow Valley Motel at night under a starlit sky.

Lithgow Valley Motel, Bowenfels

Robertson Country Motel, Robertson at Hotel Motel 101, a gravel car park in front of two motel rooms with a tall aerial.

Robertson Country Motel, Robertson

Resteasy Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick facade, dead straight, shot front-on at night.

Flinders Motel, Wollongong at Hotel Motel 101, two levels of a low rise motel with car parking spaces in front and trees.

Flinders Motel, Wollongong

Pacific Garden Hotel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick face the night.

Pacific Garden Hotel

El Toro Motel at Hotel Motel 101, cream brick and blue doors under a flat tile carport.

Commercial Hotel Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of cream brick face an empty car park.

Commercial Hotel Motel

Banksia Motel at Hotel Motel 101, a single bulb burns above room 3, throwing hard light across the verandah.

3 Explorers Motel at Hotel Motel 101, set in a town in the Blue Mountains, this simple motel is a 6-minute walk.

3 Explorers Motel

Town And Country Motel at Hotel Motel 101, brown brick units stretch in a low row beneath concrete tile roofing.

Town And Country Motel

3 Sisters Motel, Katoomba at Hotel Motel 101, at the south end of town, this modest motel with a cottage is 7 minutes' walk.

3 Sisters Motel, Katoomba

Clarendon Guest House at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of identical rooms face the car park.

Clarendon Guest House

Blue Mountains Gday Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of cream brick face an empty car park.

Blue Mountains Gday Motel

Jetty Motel at Hotel Motel 101, a single-storey motel block stretches across the frame under a deep night sky.

Bella Vista Hotel at Hotel Motel 101, a two-storey motor inn facade faces an empty car park at night.

Bella Vista Hotel

Waterview Gosford Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of cream brick face an empty car park.

Waterview Gosford Motor Inn

High Mountains Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, rooms 16 and 17 sit side by side beneath a concrete awning.

High Mountains Motor Inn

Downtown Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick and concrete slab.

Ashfield Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick and blue steel.

Ashfield Motor Inn

Windsor Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two rooms face the car park under a low corrugated steel awning.

The Palms Hotel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of pale blue-green brick rise from the asphalt of a guest car park.

The Palms Hotel

Forresters Beach Resort at Hotel Motel 101, brown brick.

Forresters Beach Resort

Richmond Inn at Hotel Motel 101, a single floodlight on a timber power pole throws hard white light across the car park.

Shellharbour Resort at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of rendered concrete and cream-painted doors face an empty car park.

Shellharbour Resort

Poplars Inn at Hotel Motel 101, three rooms numbered in sequence.

Blackheath Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, three identical units sit in a row along a gravel forecourt.

Blackheath Motor Inn

Red Star Hotel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of cream brick and dark red doors.

The Clan at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick and white render face an empty car park.

The Oxley Motel at Hotel Motel 101, rooms 36 and 37 sit side by side under a grey tiled roof.

The Oxley Motel

Lakeview Hotel Motel at Hotel Motel 101, cream brick units stretch in a low, single-storey row beneath dark green roof tiles.

Lakeview Hotel Motel

Central Coast Motel at Hotel Motel 101, brown brick and a terracotta tile roof.

Central Coast Motel

Twin Willows at Hotel Motel 101, a single floodlight burns above a narrow doorway, throwing cold white light.

Appin Motel at Hotel Motel 101, a single security light burns above room 16, throwing hard white light across the concrete.

Ettalong Beach Motel at Hotel Motel 101, a two-storey motel block sits under a dark sky, its white-painted brick washed.

Ettalong Beach Motel

Gardenia Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick face an empty car park.

Gardenia Motor Inn

Sovereign Inn Wollongong Motel at Hotel Motel 101, teal doors numbered 25, 26, 27.

Sovereign Inn Wollongong Motel

Yetholme Motor Inn at Hotel Motel 101, a single-storey motel stretches low across the frame under a black sky.

Yetholme Motor Inn

Zig Zag Motel at Hotel Motel 101, cream doors numbered 44 through 47 line a single-storey brown brick building.

Hibiscus Lakeside Motel at Hotel Motel 101, a steel door marked 14 sits flush against cream brick.

Hibiscus Lakeside Motel

Abcott Inn at Hotel Motel 101, four rooms face an empty car park.

Mt Kuring Gai Motel Mt Kuring Gai at Hotel Motel 101, two brown doors flank a single security light.

Mt Kuring Gai Motel Mt Kuring Gai

Mittagong Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two white-painted brick units sit side by side under a dark sky thick with stars.

Mittagong Motel

Dandaloo Motel at Hotel Motel 101, cream and brown brick facade, lit by cylindrical wall sconces.

Berrima Bakehouse Motel at Hotel Motel 101, rooms 4, 5 and 6 face a gravel car park under flat fluorescent light.

Berrima Bakehouse Motel

The Beachcomber Motel at Hotel Motel 101, two storeys of brown brick and concrete planter boxes face the carpark.

The Beachcomber Motel

Colyton Hotel at Hotel Motel 101, a single-storey motel block sits flat against the night.

Twin Towers Inn at Hotel Motel 101, three storeys of open-air corridor stack in tight geometry.

Twin Towers Inn

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.

05 FIELD NOTE

From the field

Read all field notes

Behind the lens · May 2026

What I Learned Shooting Hotel Motel 101

Ever wondered where the idea for Hotel Motel 101 came from? Well, here's a bit of an insight into the inspration behind the project.

06 PRESS

In the press

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.

I'm often contacted by people who used to frequent the places I photographed. They share stories that enter the collections as additions or corrections. Sometimes they send their own photos from the same viewpoints, taken decades earlier.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.