The Clan

The Clan carries its name on a pole sign at the kerb in a serif face picked out in white against a backlit panel, with a small heraldic-shield graphic beside the lettering. The building behind the sign is two-storey, brick, with the room doors opening onto continuous balcony walkways at each floor. The brick is dark, the trim a contrasting cream along the eaves. The Scottish-clan naming gives the property a tartan-and-heraldry aesthetic at the kerb, the kind of postwar Australian motel that reached for cultural reference to differentiate at the highway-side. The carpark is empty in the late evening. A single security light at the office end throws warm cones across the asphalt.

The Clan was photographed at 22:53 on 11 April 2018, on the second northern run of Hotel Motel 101. The project covered 101 traditional Australian motor inns across three sweeps out of Sydney in late March and early April 2018: south on the Hume, north on the Pacific, west on the Great Western. Drive-thru reception, parking in front of the rooms, low rise. Scottish-clan naming sat inside the broader Australian motel habit of reaching for British-Isles references to lend the property a sense of cultural belonging at the roadside trade.