My story is a bit strange and it came about because of a series of strange events that normal people don't do. But hey I'm weird so let's get on with the story.
So I actually didn't get into urbex until fairly recently. I think maybe mid November last year I first set foot into the mouth of Anzac Drain. But why? Why did I find myself walking into this drain, alone, at 12am.
Well for the answer to that question we have to go back a month or so.
September 27th, 2014.
I just had another fight with my Mum, not going to go into detail but long story short I'd had enough. I packed a backpack with a few clothes and a sleeping bag and I jumped on the first V-Line train to Melbourne (from Geelong). I had about $10 in my wallet. I got into Melbourne in late afternoon. I headed to the eastern suburbs because that's where I had been living for a few years so I was kinda familiar with the area. It was getting dark so I found a park, rolled my sleeping bag out in the bushes and went to sleep.
Now to save some time here I'm going to skip ahead some days.
I ran out of money kinda fast and I basically decided screw this I'm going home. So I went to Southern Cross to get a train to Geelong, but I had no money.... So instead I just sat in the travellers lounge until like 1am. At about 1am the PSO's (basically police for stations) came in and started talking to everyone that was in there. One of them came to me and asked what I was doing there. Now I'm kind of stubborn so I decided that actually I wasn't going to admit to this guy that I wanted to go home. So instead I told him I was homeless trying to get some sleep. He asked me if I wanted him to call the Red Cross to maybe give me somewhere to sleep and I said yes. He called them and they actually came in a car and got me and took me back to this place they have in the city. They tried to persuade me to go home but at this point I'd decided to just stick it out. Cos you know I'm young and stupid and how dangerous can the streets really be.
Again we're going to skip ahead. Long story short I ended up in Enterprize Park, which is a fairly well known location where some homeless people can always be found sleeping. It's actually on what I deem to be prime real estate. Directly across from Crown Casino on the banks of the Yarra. The major down point is that the train line runs right overhead.
Now this is where my luck changed. In Enterprize Park there are 4 pylons that support the train tracks. On each of those pylons 4 people can generally fit with ample room. I chose what I called pylon 4. As far as I could tell there were 3 other people that had their beds on that pylon. Although when I threw my sleeping bag down at about 8pm the others weren't actually there yet. I don't know where they were but I later learnt that everyone just leaves their bedding there during the day and then goes off and does whatever.
So anyway I was kinda nervous about going to sleep plus my sleeping back wasn't making the concrete feel any softer.
It was at this point that this black (I'm not been racist and he is sorta my friend now so yeah) guy turned up and went to the bed on the opposite side of my pillar. He seemed to realise that I was new and maybe cos I looked young or something he came and talked to me. He seemed like a pretty nice guy and after he looked at my sleeping bag he went to his bed which was made of like 10 neatly folded blankets and 2 sleeping bags and took one of the sleeping bags and one of the blankets and gave them to me.
Now this just shows that just because you have nothing doesn't mean you can't still be a nice guy.
His name was Ken and he told me that the other 2 guys that slept there were Kevin and Chris. Now I just want to clarify right now that Ken doesn't look homeless. He doesn't dress like he's homeless and he's a really nice guy. Kevin too is a nice guy, although unfortunately he does have that homeless look. I am still in touch with both Kevin and Ken.
The last guy Chris though... Well. He was nice enough but he was on drugs you could tell. Now I have no problem with people on drugs so long as it doesn't affect me and luckily this guy never actually seemed to do the drugs at the park and whenever you talked to him he was always pretty nice.
So yeah now things were actually kinda looking up. Ken promised to tell me where to get breakfast, lunch, dinner, showers, do the laundry etc. he also showed me a rather interesting trick for storing valuables and things. Been that we were just across from Crown Casino Ken had been making friends with people over there for a few months. As I said he dresses quite well and showers everyday so he actually looks like a really nice guy. So anyway Crown has this thing called a Signature Club card which is a free signup. Now Ken and I couldn't caee less about all the s*** it gives you but something that it does give you is free access to the Crown Lockers. And because Crown is open 24/7 this is a wonderful thing to have. I had 2 lockers filled with my things and only kept my bedding over at Enterprize Park.
So we're going to skip ahead. About a week after I arrived at Enterprize Park I was nicely settled in. People had started to get to know me. I quickly learnt who was ok and who should be avoided. Ken was kinda like the boss, anyone on drugs wasn't allowed to sleep near us. Chris been the exception although he didn't turn up a lot of the nights anyways.
That was when Shaun arrived. I am quite a good friend of Shaun's now. Shaun is the reason I got into urbex. Shaun was a nice guy that had been staying in backpackers and had run out of money. He'd never slept on the streets before and even though I'd only been on the streets a few weeks I felt like I knew everything. I told him where to eat, shower etc. we got some blankets for him from the Red Cross and we were all good. Kevin actually got arrested and taken away so Shaun slept on our pylon. The police were always coming around checking on us.
Anyway the days kinda drifted into one. I actually began to enjoy my situation. I got used to the train noises and I felt safe at night. I think Shaun and Ken saw to that, nobody messed with us I mean why would you. Ken is a big muscly black guy and Shaun was average but he probably could've still messed you up.
I don't remember how it came about but been out on the streets we have a lot of free time on our hands, Shaun mentioned something about Bunkers under Flinders Street and that got me researching online which led me into urbex, which led me to Anzac Drain. Just a short walk down the Yarra.
So yeah I know that was a long story and I skipped a lot of it.
I actually ended up spending 2.5 months on the streets. I met so many wonderful people and made so many great friends. Friends that I am still in contact with, from people still on the streets to people that work for charities that helped me. In particular one charity called The Big Umbrella who I actually volunteer with now and am close friends with a number of people from there. Sure it wasn't all plain sailing, I was punched in the face one night by some random drunk and I did do some stupid things like swimming in the Yarra drunk at 10pm and having the cops come out and get pissed at us.
Also some things I'm not proud of like begging for money.
But all in all it was a good experience for me. A life experience that has taught me so much about the real world. And more importantly helped me find the hobby that I truly love. Urbex <3
So how did you get into urbex? Make it as long or as short as you like.
I started exploring most likely due to my childhood dreams of always finding an escape. In primary school, I had a little setup behind the administration building in the out-of-bounds area. Haha. Telephone books for chairs and so on. Much childhood, such awesome.
Sorry about the location drop, won't happen again
