XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: G6JPG@255soft.uk   
      
   On 2025/8/30 2:32:40, Peter Moylan wrote:   
   > On 30/08/25 09:42, J. P. Gilliver wrote:   
      
   []   
      
   >> village (bigger than Hauxley at times), until it disappeared almost   
   >> entirely in the 1970s. The first part of its name was variously   
      
   []   
      
   >> (Google Maps aerial views are often great for seeing vanished   
   >> outlines!)   
   >   
   > When I was about 18 years old, so in the 1960s, my father showed me the   
   > ghost town of Whroo in Victoria. It had had a population of 10,000 in   
   > the gold rush era, but afterwards it just disappeared. My father had   
   > grown up halfway between Whroo and Moora (another town that's close to   
   > disappearing), so he was one of the few people who knew where Whroo was.   
   >   
   > When we got there, all I could see was bush. Then, gradually, I noticed   
   > faint straight lines in the grass, that showed where the foundations of   
   > buildings had been. That was all there was to see.   
      
   Has Google done aerial views of the area? They call them satellite views   
   on Google Maps, but - in England at least - they're mostly done from   
   aircraft. I'm sure there are empty parts of the planet (and a lot of the   
   oceans) where they do only use satellite views, though. Anyway, have a   
   look at the area you describe: you might be surprised what's visible.   
   And do go back from time to time: Google do renew their images sometimes.>   
   > Years later I went back there, and by following an overgrown bush track   
   > I discovered the cemetery. It was mostly unmarked graves, but I did find   
   > the grave of a French distant relative.   
   >   
   > Later on the town was rediscovered by the local historical society, so   
   > now there's an information board.   
   >   
   There was something on the local news last night about one of the   
   reservoirs being so low (we've only had I think it's about 60% of normal   
   rainfall so far this year) that the foundations of some of the buildings   
   that were demolished when the reservoir was created, were exposed; they   
   found the chap who lived in the house and interviewed him there.   
      
   --   
   J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf   
      
   aibohphobia, n., The fear of palindromes.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)