From the Archives: The old Oxley Flour Mill

It was a trip to the Milawa wine region just south of Wangaratta in Victoria, when I first laid my eyes on the ever-imposing old Oxley Flour Mill. A large sandy-red brick building protruding proudly above a very flat flood plain, the building stuck out of the surrounding trees, as if to stare at you as you drive by, making sure that no crazy shenanigans are afoot with the upcoming weekend of indulgence of wine and cheese.

Subsequent visits to Milawa and the King River Valley region only made me want to take a photo of this magnificent and sturdy, yet unused and dilapitated brick building. So back in May 2023, as we visited Milawa again, I was determined to take a photo of this landmark.

I had done all my calculations, crossed my fingers for some cloud, and waited until the last day before we were to head back to Melbourne to take a photo. As golden hour was approaching, I made the trek to the location, but when I got out of the car and looked up at the sky, there were no clouds! I then looked at the horizon and saw that beautiful golden light, as it filtered through a line of trees that the owner of the neighbouring property must've planted years ago, because it was blocking that golden light from hitting the side of the building.

Well, I was here now, may as well set up and take a photo of something! So I set up my tripod at the end of the road, plugged in my remote shutter trigger, set up my D500 for bracketing exposure, and fired away. I was crossing my fingers that Adobe Lightroom will be able to produce something good – anything good – otherwise I'll have to do it all again next time I'm up in this area of rural Victoria.

So the main image of this blog post is the result of 5 exposures, merged together in Adobe Lightroom CC. The golden light looks pretty good, but the sky just fades out to a very light blue-grey at the top. Having some clouds here would've been top-notch-stuff, but alas it was not to be.

I absolutely love the state of the building, its wooden posts in the foreground slowly dry-rotting away and half collapsed into the unkempt brush vegetation on the ground. The rusted corrugated roofing skirting the lower third of the building, and then as your eye draws up to the side of the building that faces the sunset, you can see the boarded windows as they too rot away.

As I was shooting away, the owner of the flour mill drove up the road and stopped close to where I was set up, and rolled down their window. Here we go, I thought, I'll be asked to move on now. But no! The owner had a chat with me about the building, and she was really nice. She asked if I got anything good (I shrugged my shoulders and sheepishly laughed – when do I get anything good?) and I made something up about the golden light, to sound like I knew what I was talking about. It was starting to get cold though, so soon afterwards I packed things up and headed back to the place we were staying.

I'm in two minds about what I think about these photos. The building is magnificent, but the weather conditions could've been better. I think this landmark would do well with a twilight / night shot and some light painting, just imagining this imposing building being surrounded by the rural night sky might be just the treatment that would work here.

Oh well – maybe next time!