Back of the Ranch

The back of Filthy Phill's Ranch faces away from the main row of Tin City, looking out across an open section of dune toward the larger dune field beyond. The rear wall is corrugated iron in greying galvanised steel, with a single high window and a small back door. A length of timber boarding runs along the lower courses where the iron has been replaced. A rainwater tank stands on a low timber stand against one corner. The ground behind the shack is open sand, marked only by a few footprints. From here the larger dune ridge rises a short distance behind the back wall.

The rear walls of the Tin City shacks are typically the most weathered. The southerly that drives sand against the south face also catches the back of the shacks on the rebound off the dune behind, working at the cladding from the opposite direction over time. Maintenance crews keep most of the rear walls patched up to the standard the front walls run at, but the back is always the side that needs the next sheet of iron. Tin City sits on Worimi country at the Stockton Bight; the surrounding dune lands are part of three reserves gazetted under Part 4A of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 on 1 February 2007.