The central and iconic role played by corrugated iron (of course, what is commonly referred to as ‘corrugated iron’ or even ‘tin’ has for a long time been corrugated steel, and has never been tin) in the vernacular building of Australia is well recognised; I have even seen Australia referred to as ‘the spiritual home of corrugated iron’. But what comes to most people’s minds when they think of this material is rural farm buildings isolated in paddocks, or the painted and galvanised iron roofs of inner-urban terraces and worker’s cottages, or the modern elevation of corrugated iron into an ‘architectural’ material by Glenn Murcutt et. al. Less well recognised is the use of corrugated iron in the sheds and fences lining the back alleys and laneways of older Australian cities and towns.

Back lanes present an entirely different picture to the well-manicured gardens and orderly weatherboard and brick houses that front the long, narrow blocks of old Australian neighbourhoods. The ‘lanescape’ is a jumble of weathered colours and textures, jungle-like growths of trees, plants and weeds, gravel and cobble paving, bits of machinery, dumped appliances, and building detritus. Often the iron used has been taken from the roof of the main house when it was no longer fit for that purpose, so there are mismatched sheets, flaking paint, lap-lines, rust holes, etc. Graffiti and stickers are common modern additions.

These lanes in a sense represent the purest kind of vernacular architecture, since they are completely unselfconscious, completely artless, and their ‘design effects’ are completely unintentional.

Sadly, due to the immense development pressure exerted on traditional residential neighbourhoods by Australia’s insanely high rate of migration and attendant population growth, backyards are being relentlessly infilled with bland unit developments, with their back fences and sheds replaced by treeless, charmless straight lines of colorbond. As the facades and streetscapes of old neighbourhoods are often heritage-protected, these serene frontages are truly a ‘facade’ in the sense that they conceal the destruction and loss of the ‘inner’ character going on behind.