Colorbond

A section of red Colorbond cladding on one of the Tin City shacks runs across part of the front wall, fitted in among older corrugated iron sheets in a patchwork repair. The Colorbond is in good condition; the colour is bright in contrast to the weathered iron around it, recently installed. The sheet has been cut to size and screwed onto the timber framing with capped fasteners. The edges where the Colorbond meets the older iron have been overlapped and sealed with silicone. The bright red panel reads as the most recent repair on this wall.

Colorbond replaced uncoloured galvanised steel as the standard residential cladding across most of Australia in the late twentieth century, and the supplies of it now flowing into Tin City reflect the same shift. When an old sheet of corrugated iron rusts through, the replacement that gets carried in across the dunes now tends to be a Colorbond panel from a hardware store in Newcastle or Port Stephens. The 11 remaining shacks at Tin City are administered under the Worimi Conservation Lands Plan of Management 2015. Ongoing maintenance is allowed; the prohibition is on new construction and on rebuilding after destruction.