Filthy Phills Ranch

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
98mm · f/8.0 · 1/125 · ISO 64
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Inside Filthy Phills Ranch, a broken chair sits amidst scattered possessions. Dust blankets the room in Tin City. Sunlight filters through a grimy window. It reveals the slow decay of this forgotten space.

Edition
Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD
Size
Type
Colour
Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.
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In situ

Filthy Phills Ranch at Tin City, sand drifts against the base of a low shack built from corrugated iron, timber cladding.Filthy Phills Ranch at Tin City, sand drifts against the base of a low shack built from corrugated iron, timber cladding.Filthy Phills Ranch at Tin City, sand drifts against the base of a low shack built from corrugated iron, timber cladding.Filthy Phills Ranch at Tin City, sand drifts against the base of a low shack built from corrugated iron, timber cladding.Filthy Phills Ranch at Tin City, sand drifts against the base of a low shack built from corrugated iron, timber cladding.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Filthy Phills Ranch
Series
Tin City
Catalogue
TCI-010
Process
Giclée
Captured
31 January 2018
Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
1/125 s
ISO
64
Focal length
98 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size
290 × 200 mm
Location
Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
02 LOCATION

Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

Filthy Phill's Ranch is one of the named shacks at Tin City, built and maintained by its long-time occupant, who is the source of the name. The shack is set back slightly from the main row, with a corrugated iron front and a large painted sign reading FILTHY PHILL'S RANCH across the front wall. A small porch has been added to one side, with a couple of folding chairs out front. The lettering on the sign has weathered to a soft red against the greying iron. The door is closed but the windows are open.

The Tin City shacks are referred to by a mix of numbers and personal names. Some are called after the family that built them, some after a feature of the structure, and a handful, like Filthy Phill's Ranch, after their resident's nickname. The naming goes back to the period when the shacks were technically illegal, before the licence system was formalised, and the personal names stuck. Tin City sits on Worimi country at the Stockton Bight, on land granted back to the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council on 1 February 2007 and leased to the NSW Government. The 11 remaining shacks are administered through the Worimi Conservation Lands Board of Management. Tin City itself is not on the State Heritage Register, but the surrounding lands are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Sand drifts against the base of a low shack built from corrugated iron, timber cladding and salvaged sheet metal. A hand-painted sign reads "Filthy Phills Ranch" across the roofline. A poly water tank and solar panel sit on the roof. The verandah is open, half-swallowed. Behind the structure, pale dunes rise and keep rising. Tufts of coastal grass cling to the margins. The sky is flat and grey.

Brett Patman

Tin City

The series

Tin City

2018 · 37 photographs

Two tin sheds were put up on the Stockton Bight dunes in the late nineteenth century to hold provisions for sailors shipwrecked on the beach. During the Great Depression a group of squatters built a series of shacks around them. The settlement that grew became Tin City, on Worimi country, in the largest mobile coastal sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.

Anatomy · true ratio
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