Signs from the gold country

On the weekend our band played a show in Castlemaine, the gold rush town north of Melbourne. So took the opportunity to take some snaps here, and in the nearby hamlet of Maldon, a well-preserved tourist town full of overpriced antique shops. Taking ghost sign shots in Maldon felt odd, like shooting fish in a barrel - the whole place had had its past preserved and preened, and in some cases reinvented (see the fake - and uncraftsmanlike - Bushell's sign). A strange and vaguely disconcerting experience: the past here was dead, like some stiff, taxidermed museum animal with glass eyes.

First, Castlemaine:

This one was interesting...the guy in the antique shop had stripped it back 20 years before to reveal a ghost sign that read: THREE COURSE MEAL and a price. But now, he lamented, it was nearly gone after exposure to the elements. A re-ghost sign?

Three three are from what is now a hipsterish cafe.

taken through a gate

And now, Maldon:

the fake sign, perhaps painted on top of an old one...seems to have original window signs