A single security light burns above room 16, throwing hard white light across the concrete walkway. Rooms 14, 15, 16 run in a flat row beneath a corrugated iron verandah edged in blue trim. A mustard vinyl couch sits outside door 16 beside a stackable wooden chair and a small cabinet. The carpark is bare dirt. Lattice fencing closes off one end. Curtains hang behind narrow windows. No cars. No guests. The Appin Motel operated on the outskirts of Appin, a small town in the Macarthur region of New South Wales. The area developed around coal mining and dairy farming from the early nineteenth century. Motels like this one served truck drivers and workers passing through on regional routes.