St Andrew's Residential College

St Andrew’s Residential College in Katanning was demolished about a year ago. It was a place where many boys experienced life-changing trauma at the hands of Dennis McKenna and his brother Neil. I’m fairly sure I started writing about the site some time ago but never finished. I’m also fairly sure I didn’t even check whether the building was locked. I just wanted to photograph it, get it done and return to Perth as quickly as possible.

Despite its horrific history of child abuse, I felt compelled to document the place. I’m still not entirely sure why. It feels like a record that the victims and their families would understandably never want to see and it’s hard not to feel conflicted. I limited myself to photographing the outside, which was hard enough as it was.