• A road sign on the side of a rural highway indicating 2 kilometers remaining.

    Town with No Cheer (2015)

    Serviceton is a small town in Victoria, Australia, located near the Victorian-South Australian border, 437 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

    Faster trains, increased road haulage and decreased passenger numbers saw the railway refreshment rooms close in 1981, and the brick station with its 300 yard platform was closed in 1986.

    The town is the subject of a Tom Waits song entitled "Town With No Cheer" from his album Swordfishtrombones. The song takes inspiration from the Aussie drinking song "The Pub with No Beer" by Slim Dusty.

    “When my wife heard that for the first time she said: "Oh gee, you must have loved her very much." So I said: "Wait a minute. This is not a love song. This is about a guy who can't get a drink!" It's about a miserable old town in Australia that made the news when they shut down the only watering hole." - Tom Waits

  • Old, weathered building with a metal roof and two open doorways, situated along a city street in black and white.

  • Black and white photo of the front of a small building with a bench, a painted mural of mountains and trees on the wall, and a doorway.

  • Black and white photo of a rural scene with a small house, power poles, trees, and a dirt road.

  • Various potted plants, including succulents and flowers, on a garden surface with a garden bed in the background. A small bottle of Calvin Klein deodorant is nestled among the plants.

  • Black and white photo of a straight railway track extending into the distance, flanked by a small platform on the left and industrial structures on the right, with trees and power lines in the background.

  • Open photo album showing a black-and-white image of a rural road with power poles, a small house, trees, and a partly cloudy sky.