'Stepping back in time': Mystery surrounds abandoned house turned unlikely attraction
An abandoned house in Brisbane, still strewn with forgotten relics of the family who lived in it decades ago, has become an unlikely hotspot for urban explorers.
It’s location is a closely guarded secret among the community of urban voyeurs. Many of those who travel in search of the spooky and neglected residence are fearful that if word gets out about its location, it will be vandalised and its authenticity destroyed.
Others are no doubt concerned about the prospect of being charged with trespassing on the private land on which the home, simply known as Moira’s House, sits.
Recent photos and videos taken inside the house show old family photos and items from yesteryear, but it’s clear that the dilapidated house has been home to numerous visitors ever since.
However mystery surrounds Moira’s House and its current state.
Photos posted to a private Facebook group called Old & Abandoned Australia earlier this month show rooms filled with garbage, old toys and miscellaneous clutter.
There are family photos which appear to be many decades’ old and a television set from the 80s. Clothes still hang in the wardrobe while the bathroom has medicine dating from years ago, as well as new-looking bottles of hair products.
“So after some intense research we finally found it,” the Facebook post declared.
“There is an eclectic mixture here, and some of it seems oddly out of place ... None of the pieces seem to fit and no one really knows the whole story.”
Photos posted to Flickr in December 2014 show items found in the house including old books, music sheets and even lolly packaging that appears to mimic cigarettes for kids called Junior Special Cigarettes.
“Exploring Moyra's House was a bit like stepping back in time to about 30+ years ago, because it was filled with old things, many of which I have never seen before,” the photographer commented under one of the photos.
It’s said that the house was once owned by a woman named Moira Shannon and her husband, G. W. Cross, who married in 1954, according to archived newspaper articles from the time. She died in 2013, aged 97.
However Yahoo News Australia was unable to verify the story.
A YouTube video posted in July takes viewers through a seven-minute tour of the house and has been watched more than a 1000 times.
“While there are stories that her house has been untouched since the 1960’s and laid abandoned as she died in the 1960’s, this is untrue,” the video’s caption states.
“Her house was built in 1955 and the stuff as you can see in this video has very old items dated back in the 1960’s and before that era Mr Shannon aka Moira’s father was a land judge.”
The person who uploaded the video didn’t want to be named in this story but told Yahoo News “there is a great history story about the house and the family that lived there”.
He said the house has been bought by new owners and said he was careful to maintain the secrecy which surrounds the site out of respect for future explorers.
A new video posted this week by the same account shows a group of explorers sifting through the house at night.
According to online forums, there have been rumours that the residence was being cleared out for an eventual auction but others deny that is happening.
Yahoo News Australia contacted the local council where it’s believed the house resides.
For now it remains a captivating word-of-mouth attraction for so-called urban explorers, who are willing to wade through the junk and litter, to get a rare glimpse into the past.
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