The Slaughter House

This building was a very creepy place to explore. Apart from being out in the middle of nowhere (literally) it had a dark history. The building had been built to serve as a meatworks, a slaughter house. There was still plenty of signs of its' past use. Straw and chaff for feeding cattle, lots of dried out manure and worst of all, a pervading smell of .... poo? Another big worry was the large number of holes in the floor of the building. From stairways with no banisters to many small holes in the floors of the rooms and balconies this made for an added hazard in this building. My companion for the day stepped into one of these holes that was partly covered in straw and fell forward, fortunately onto some more hay rather than through the hole. Needless to say we were both shocked at the potential for injury in this building.

The Slaughterhouse 3 stories of scary fun. It is about 80-90 metres long.

This water tank up the hill provided pressurized water to the slaughter house.

View from the eastern end.

It is not till you get up close that you realise how big it is. Judging by the windows and line in the wall this part used to also be covered in.

Just inside the big door above.

We knew we had hit pay-dirt when we reached this point. Note the bundles of hay, metal frames and abandoned car to the left. This was going to be a pretty good abandoned industrial building here.

An abandoned land rover or jeep lies partly covered by straw.

This car has seen better days.

On the right was furniture and more abandoned vehicles. Note the car bonnet and windscreen.

There was also a few stalls and more abandoned furniture.

The remains of another abandoned jeep.

Yet another abandoned car.

These things were a bit strange. They looked like props from a circus act. Or temporary pens for cattle.

We took the door on the left into this room. It was covered with newspapers from the 1960's. I regret not taking a few as souvenirs.

As we passed through the door at the far end I stopped to get this picture looking up.

Then I looked down and saw this. See what I mean by a dangerous place with potential for injury? That's a three story drop. We later walked down these stairs.

Looking out the window we see a small country railway winding past the building.

Balcony and railway siding.

Countryside.

There were several rooms like this, with black and gray walls.

Back at the dodgy stairs I prepare to descend to the level below.

Looking back up the stairs.

The rooms on this floor looked just the same as above.

A closer look at the railway.

Though lopsided this image is a good one. Note the box to the left and pallet to the right by the pillar. Both were used to cover holes in the floor that led to the level below.

Further in on the middle level were rooms that could have been used to store meat or cattle.

This was a spooky room. It was full of chaff for feeding cattle and had this pot ready as if to pick up feeding where it had left off years ago.

Stairway. There was three stairways in the building, though this one was partly blocked off.

Sun room. I don't really know what this room was used for. It had a fire place in the corner on the left.

Kitchen. Note the sinks on the wall to the left.

Stink room. That muck on the floor is dried cattle poo.

Bench. Note the thing on the right. This was a chute that led from the floor above, where the abandoned cars were.

Detail of some of the junk on the middle level. The silver looking thing is in fact a small horse float trailer. The big blue thing is another trailer of sorts.

The place was littered with junk.

Looking back across the room.

Looking out of the windows in the sun room.

This is the room that Enigma, my friend fell part way through the floor. Note the round hole in the floor with boards in it? Well there was another of these to the right covered in hay. But the boards were all old and weak.

The hole is under the hay. This photo was taken seconds before she walked out into this area.

The only toilet in the whole building.

Another stair case. This one bypassed the middle floor, going direct from bottom to top. But someone smashed through the wall here and opened up the stairs to the middle level.

Walking down that dodgy stairway to the lowest level. No, they are not the best shoes for exploring.

Dodgy stair case from hell.

Looking right up that dodgy staircase.

The building was intended to process meat from around a large area and then load it on to trains for shipment to UA City. Note the two holes above, another example of the more than a dozen we counted. I presume that processed meat would have been lowered through these holes and into refrigerated carriages for shipment.

More of the loading platform.

The dodgy staircase runs up the side of the building.

This gives you a better idea of how high it was.

The downhill end of the building is quite imposing.

This looks like it was once the dispatch office.

Just about 50 metres from the building is the remains of a massive boiler. It would have been used to power machinery in the slaughter house before electricity arrived.

The boiler with the slaughter house in the background. To the left is the remains of a chimney.

Detail of the boiler. This is the firebox end. Note the duct for a chimney above.

Boiler's steam pipes.

Side view of the massive abandoned building from the boiler.

The massive cylinders of a standing engine that was once connected to the boiler. Note that they about 4 metres high.

The cylinders of the standing engine. Up the hill stands the header water tank.

Inside the ground floor of the abandoned industrial complex stands the remains of a horse draw cart.

The ground floor. It was partially underground.

Main fuse panel. It was on a stairway landing between ground and middle floor. Note 415 Volts!

Detail of that bench on the middle floor with the chute.

The building from the hill side end.

Abandoned truck left to rust beside the building.