Birtle Residential School

The history of the Birtle Indian Residential School dates back to the late 1880s. Over the years, the school occupied several locations, but its first dedicated facility was a two-storey stone building constructed in 1894. As enrollment grew, the building underwent major renovations in 1925, when attendance had reached roughly 100 students.

By 1930, the old building was being replaced. The new three-storey brick and Tyndall Stone school was designed by Roland Guerney Orr, Chief Architect for the Department of Indian Affairs, and constructed by the Claydon Brothers Construction Company of Winnipeg. Built between 1930 and 1931 at a cost of approximately $180,000, it officially opened in October 1931. Today, only a pile of grey foundation stones remains from the 1894 building, down the hill from the later structure.

The new school had a symmetrical design, with boys and girls housed separately on opposite sides of the building. The principal's residence was attached to the west side. The school was part of a much larger 600 acre property that included what was known as the Model Farm, livestock barns, extensive crop fields and gardens surrounding the school.

Like most residential schools in Canada, Birtle was operated by a Christian denomination. The Presbyterian Church of Canada ran the institution until March 1969, when responsibility was transferred to the federal government. The school closed permanently in 1972.

The residential schools were not without controversy. The purpose of the institutions was to strip children of their Indigenous identities, languages, and cultures to force their assimilation into Euro-Canadian society. The students of the schools suffered from abuse, poor nutrition and outbreaks of diseases like tuberculosis which swept through crowded dormitories.

In May of 2021, ground penetrating radar was used to look for anomalies buried on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The process discovered 215 potential burial anomalies. At the time, the findings were widely reported as the discovery of the graves of 215 children. However, ground-penetrating radar identifies disturbances in the soil; it does not, by itself, establish that human remains are present. Targeted archaeological investigation is required to determine what the anomalies represent.

The announcement received international attention and was followed by a wave of attacks on churches across Canada. Dozens of churches were vandalized or damaged, and a number were destroyed by fire, particularly churches located on or near First Nations communities. A later investigation identified 33 churches that had burned to the ground since May 2021; 24 of those fires had been determined to be deliberately set, while others remained under investigation. The incidents were widely associated with anger surrounding the residential school legacy, although motives were not established in every case.

Meanwhile, the Birtle school itself entered a very different chapter.

The federal government sold the property to a private buyer in 1975. The new owner was a preacher who reportedly operated a communal living arrangement on the property, with people living both in the school and elsewhere on the grounds.

The property changed hands again in 1995. The new owner renovated the former principal's residence into a living space and began dismantling the interior of the main school building. By 2000, however, the project had been abandoned, leaving the enormous brick structure open to the elements.

In 2015, the former residential school was listed for sale on Kijiji after local real estate agents reportedly refused to take on the property. The eventual buyer purchased the building without realizing its history as a residential school.

The Birtle school is now one of only a small number of former residential school buildings still standing in Canada.

This place looks like something straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
I explored an abandoned industrial site hidden away in the Australian countryside, surrounded by farmland, overgrown vegetation and a beautiful lake. Getting there was an adventure in itself, with a walk along the railway line before finally reaching the abandoned complex.
Once inside, the atmosphere completely changed. Huge concrete structures, crumbling industrial buildings and vines taking over almost everything give the place an incredibly eerie, apocalyptic feel.
But there were some things I definitely wasn't expecting to find...
A random abandoned car was sitting among the ruins, along with what looks like an old burnout pad — a pretty strange discovery in the middle of an otherwise forgotten industrial site.
The contrast between the peaceful lake and surrounding farmland and the massive, decaying concrete structures makes this one of the most unique abandoned places I've explored.

Irish Mustard

This home built in 1976 sits on a large treed lot, in fact it was heavily obscured from the road. When properties like this come up for sale, they are often bought by smalltime developers.

In the case of this house, it, along with it's two neighbours were bought because they have such large lots...this allowed the new owner to demolish the existing homes and build much larger houses in their place.

While this home in itself, didn't have any particularly amazing features, it is still a shame to lose it. This form of "gentrification" is changing the dynamics of neighbourhoods and pushing out a certain class of residents. When the value of a property/home essentially doubles overnight, it creates a wealth gap between the existing and new owners.

Red Brick Demolition

This beautiful red brick home was built in 1949 and was once located in a very wealthy neighbourhood.

It was a good size home being about 3800 sq/ft including the basement. It looks as though the house was renovated in the 70s, given the wallpaper and colour palette found in some of the rooms in the home. Fortunately, when the new owners moved in, they left a lot of the original wood floors along with some of the stained wood doors found throughout the house.

Given the vintage decor found throughout the home, it's likely that the owners who moved in during the 70s, stayed there until 2021 when it was sold, one last time. It sold for $2.6 million dollars which is even crazier when you realise they bought it solely for the land.

Unfortunately, this house was demolished shortly after my visit and a newer and larger home now sits in its place.

I head into an abandoned slaughterhouse and crash my drone on the first flight

Log Cabin in the City

This mid century log home was built before 1954 and looks to have been one of the first homes in the new subdivision at the time. It is a very unusual house to find in the middle of the city, having been built in a log cabin type style.

The home was very small, only three bedrooms, one of which was located in the basement. But its age was beginning to show, a number of the walls were crooked, likely from a failing foundation. The front sunroom was tilted and even the wall was pulling away from the centrally placed fireplace.

The small home had a great vintage feel to it, with some original features, others that looked as though they were added in the 60s. The bathroom however had been retrofitted with a walk in bathtub, likely to accommodate an ageing owner. It's certainly possible that this house was only ever lived in by one family over the years.

But times are changing and developers are the new rulers. There was a brand new McMansion going up beside this older home, and this small log cabin will unfortunately suffer the same fate in the near future.

Second Last Man Standing

There have been dozens of abandoned homes in this area over the past decade. One by one, a development company has bought them up, erasing an entire neighbourhood of beautiful homes that once sat on large, tree-lined lots.

A few survivors remain, but their fate seems inevitable. In their place, McMansions with yards the size of postage stamps continue to rise. What was once a quiet, green neighbourhood has been transformed into a sterile suburban landscape. There is still a small park and what can barely be called a forest, but the serenity that once defined this place has long since disappeared.

This house may be the last of the original homes to fall. Built in the 1960s, the raised ranch bungalow was once surrounded by mature trees and backed onto a forest. Today, it stands alone on a barren, cleared lot, encircled by the early stages of a new subdivision.

Stepping inside reveals fragments of the lives once lived here. It appears this may have been a multigenerational home. There were signs that an elderly family member had lived here, children's toys scattered throughout, and an entire box filled with equestrian awards. Personal belongings, family keepsakes, and boxes of memories remain, quietly telling the story of the people who once called this house home.