Tin City

Rising above the mass of sand dunes on Stockton Beach, north of Newcastle, NSW Australia, is a place called Tin City. A cluster of old fisherman’s huts, which its resilient inhabitants have lived in for the past six decades.

It is said that the town came to be after two local fishermen dug up an old tin shed from the dunes and started using it as a base for their overnight fishing expeditions. A total of eleven sheds were built without permission from the government and they were classified as squatters. During the Second World War the town was used as accommodation and storage for the Australian army that had been placed out along the whole length of the beach. With razor wire and tank traps they were waiting for the advancing Imperial Japanese Army. But the attack never came and the beach and the sheds were left untouched.

Today the residents of Tin City are slowly disappearing. In fact, Robert makes up one third of it. His daughter Rose comes to visit once in a while, then they are four. Robert believes the town only will be around for another thirty years, it will only get smaller since the government doesn’t allow new sheds to be built. And with ever-moving sand dunes the houses needs constant excavation to not disappear, but with less people preforming the up keep, the job becomes more difficult.