Scratch cattle its rooms emptied of everything

its rooms emptied of everything except the silence left behind when the last occupant walked out

the Federation face brick slowly surrendering to decades without maintenance

The building sits somewhere between standing and gone

and empty window frames stare out over dormant fields

its lettering faded but still legible

Scratch cattle its rooms emptied of everythingA single deep scratch cuts through the peeling paint of a wall in Female Ward 9, Callan Park's Kirkbride Complex. The ward is part of the Victorian sandstone pavilion system built between 1880 and 1885 to house patients under the principles of moral therapy. The scratch is the only mark here anyone chose to leave. Part of the Callan Park series.