Portland #44

1. Portland Cement works
2. Heritage industrial building 
3. Heritage industrial building
4. Worker's cottage
5. Main street

There is a sadness at Portland.  All down one side of the long main street is closed off - industrial buildings, workers cottages, parklands.  The closed off area is the site of the Portland Cement Works which sustained the town for 100 years and shut down in the 1990s.  Portland was a company town. It is hard to imagine the impact of that closure.

Today Portland (population 2000) is a bit of a struggle town but kept ticking by the nearby Mount Piper Power Station (which opened about the time the cement works closed), mining and rural activities. I think it is a rather nice town with a pleasant historic feel to it.  I do hope that one day the heritage industrial buildings are put to good use.

There are 'signs of yesteryear' murals on many of the shops.  I am annoyed at not having taken a photograph but I think I realised these were modern renditions rather than genuine old signs and gave photographing them a miss.