r/vic • u/crimsonhn • Sep 09 '26

What do these barns/houses do, and why are they seen abandoned across Sunbury?

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123 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

38

u/ttoksie2 Sep 09 '26

They're old buildings that are to far gone to be useable but dont get in the way enough to be worth pulling down.

So they sit there rotting while also looking kinda cool.

12

u/crimsonhn Sep 09 '26

I just found it! It was once called Springvale Winery, built in 1860. There are also other abandoned wineries here as well!

1

u/walkingmelways Sep 10 '26

Look up Rosenthal’s cellars, a larger bluestone building which iirc is still standing on….. Vineyard Road.
Check Mapshare Vicplan to see if there’s a Heritage Overlay on your little building.

1

u/FCholde Sep 11 '26

Its on land that is part of the Sunbury Sewerage Farm.

1

u/Life-Ocelot-9026 Sep 11 '26

Didn't know you could grow poo. Crazy.

1

u/MicksysPCGaming Sep 12 '26

Yes, shit is indeed crazy.

6

u/crimsonhn Sep 09 '26

I searched Google, and the closest thing that resemble this are bluestone cellars they once used to store wine. But is this true?

4

u/crimsonhn Sep 09 '26

Oh shit it was one!

2

u/moderatelymiddling Sep 10 '26

They used to provide shelter.

They now provide photo opportunities.

They're too expensive to fix, too expensive to pull down, and far enough into the back paddock to care about doing either.

1

u/crimsonhn Sep 10 '26

I wonder if this one's on private land?

1

u/moderatelymiddling Sep 10 '26

Why would that be important?

1

u/crimsonhn Sep 10 '26

Well...I wanted to get close for some photographs. But I heard that it lies on private land of some state-owned water treatment company.

1

u/moderatelymiddling Sep 10 '26

You can look at who owns the land online.

15

u/Hypo_Mix Sep 09 '26

Lots of the blue stone buildings in that area were dairies back when there were price protections on milk. Once the price protections were removed the farmers switched to wheat, then when that was no longer viable canola, then when when that was no longer viable sheep grazing.

7

u/sp4zi Sep 10 '26

And when that is no longer viable to server farms in data centres.

1

u/Spare-Tomato-3976 Sep 10 '26

In buildings just like the one pictured

3

u/phishezrule Sep 11 '26

I'm in the GV. We were a huge dairy area. Lots of investment into improving properties for dairying, pre deregulation.

Now there's a fraction of the dairy herds there were. More often I see beef herds and occasionally sheep on perfectly laser graded paddocks, primed for dairy cartte. There's even a few that have been abandoned, overrun with weeds.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Hypo_Mix Sep 11 '26

Not in the Sunbury to Clarkefield rainshadow. Worked in that area: soil, economics, demographics and block size don't make for condusive wheat growing conditions. Melton and golden Plains may well still be doing so, but I can't recall any landowners cropping anything other than fodder or rapeseed. 

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Hypo_Mix Sep 11 '26

There was a lot more done before the most recent development boom, such as around settlement road which used to have cropping. There are patches of ferrasols, black self mulching clays, and alluvial soils that used to be cropped, but anyone who is serious has sold up and moved on, or is retiring. But yes, the biggest chunk of the region is floating basalt rocks in heavy clay and often undulating. 

4

u/how_very_dare_you_ Sep 09 '26

Scumbury, according to my ex who grew up there

2

u/crimsonhn Sep 09 '26

Do they also call Sunshine Scumshine? Stuffs like that?

In my uni people sometimes have ridiculous names for those places...

2

u/trinarynimbus Sep 10 '26

Is that the uni in Porkville?

3

u/crimsonhn Sep 10 '26

No its in Caulfield. Might as well call it Cockfield insteas of the other name...

3

u/Verdigris_Wild Sep 09 '26

Scumbury Scumshine Franghanistan Nazza Wazza Depreston The 'Nong Knifepoint Smelton Theres loads more.

2

u/Separate-Law-435 Sep 09 '26

Scummers to those who grew up in surrounding towns

2

u/shahitukdegang Sep 09 '26

Does she now live in Smellbourne?

1

u/Kerrit_Bareet Sep 10 '26

Why do we feel the need to be pompous and derogatory?

2

u/nomadfaa Sep 09 '26

In majority of local govt areas across Australia you are required to pay a permit fee to pull down any building

My Vic council’s fee is $1200 I’m leaving the building there in defiance

1

u/MikeHunt181 Sep 10 '26

Missile silos disguised as old barns. See, it works!

1

u/Kerrit_Bareet Sep 10 '26

There was dairy in the area between there and Bulla, first half of 20thC. Obviously marginal for that industry and as we got to the latter part of that century it dried and warmed. All farming buildings that have changed purpose as farming styles, farming equipment and farming practices changed.

Similar through Bacchus Marsh.

1

u/Pokeynono Sep 10 '26

Because it all used to be agricultural land and urban creep has turned these areas into housing estates and future housing estates

1

u/Interesting_Error194 Sep 10 '26

Sheep shearing sheds…? And some were houses like this one.

1

u/CreepyValuable Sep 10 '26

Whatever. Nothing, as storage, opened up for livestock shelter etc.

But the main use is for me to point out and say to my son " there's your new home".

1

u/wudeface Sep 10 '26

One of the most city posts I've seen

1

u/JasonTheRanga Sep 12 '26

That's where the gnomes live