The Long Walk

The Long Walk at Waterfall Sanatorium is a covered corridor that connects two of the major ward blocks across the site. The corridor is roofed with corrugated iron and sided with timber lattice, the latticework letting in light and air without exposing patients to direct sun or rain. The floor is concrete, polished smooth from decades of foot traffic. The corridor is empty in the photograph; no benches, no equipment, just the long perspective from one ward block to the next. The colour of the timber lattice is faded grey-brown. At any time of day, the light comes through the lattice in patterns of bars and squares on the floor.

The Long Walk was the connecting tissue between Waterfall's ward blocks. Patients, staff, food trolleys, and laundry carts all moved through this corridor every day for the operational life of the sanatorium. The lattice was deliberate; the open structure provided fresh air on the principle that air was therapeutic, while keeping the corridor usable in poor weather. The corridor in this photograph is empty because the wards on either end have been empty for decades. The lattice still works the same way: air still moves through it; the light still comes in through the gaps. Only the people are gone.