Goss is a freelance photographer who snaps country football grounds in his spare time while following cycling tours around Australia.
While others put their feet up when the tour stops at a country town, Goss gets out and about to find the local footy ground and add some snaps to his impressive collection.
“With the grandstands at footy grounds in the old days, a football club would be an important part of the community. It brought players to the town and kept them there.
It was a big day out for everyone,” Goss said.
“People sat in the stands to watch the game and nowadays they sit in cars around the ground. It has become of no use to a lot of the grounds. The history that the ground is part of the town and what it stands for.”
Goss said he would often find grounds or grandstands that were throwbacks to the old days when life was a bit simpler.
“The way country football is played, a lot of teams are merging or folding and the grounds are becoming unused. A lot of them are being overrun and a lot of the grandstands are being taken down because of safety issues,” he said.
Goss said he was amazed at where footy grounds would pop up in his travels.
“Some places in Tasmania don’t even have a town, it’s just a football ground and five kilometres away there is a small township. Some of them are so remote that you get there and wonder why there is a football ground there.”
Goss has seen hundreds of grounds but says no one ground stands out above the others.
“As far as grandstands are concerned, there is North Hobart’s and one at Bendigo which were built in a similar era. The grandstands are massive and sensational and have such grandeur about them – to think that going back to the ’50s and ’60s that they would have been packed on a big day.
“Then there are ones like Derby in Tasmania, which isn’t far from Scottsdale. Derby has an old stand which is falling apart now but is very photogenic. It is a very small stand but there’s nothing else there and it just stands alone looking over the ground. If you know a bit about the history of the stands it means quite a bit. Those ones stand out.”
To view Shane Goss’s photos, go to www.licoricegallery.com.
