I didn’t know this was a thing and didn’t expect to discover I’d become a ‘ghost sign hunter’ by seeking out these old signs in towns I’ve recently visited around central Victoria. But yes, apparently this is a form of ghost hunting that goes on throughout Australia (and no doubt other places too).
They’re called ‘ghost signs’ in that they’re ghosts of the past, along with the shopkeepers and many of the businesses whose names remain in paint, either slowly fading or kept alive by sign writer restorers. I also love the painted art in many of them and the stories that they conjure up, especially to possibly write about.
Ghost signs often seem vulnerable, left to weather or at the mercy of abandoned buildings, yet they’re markers of our cultural history, both past and more recent, so I hope they’ll last a long while to come. I can’t help but notice them now (and it’s great too when you see that someone with the surname, ‘Parsley’, once ran a town’s fruit shop). 💛🌿
Zoë Boccabella 