The bizarre FAKE hotel that sits beside an Australian motorway

Posted on : 03/21/2023
The bizarre FAKE hotel that sits beside an Australian motorway
Travel 

Pictured: The bizarre FAKE hotel that sits beside an Australian motorway – and confused motorists try to book a night’s stay in one of its nonexistent rooms

  • Hotel EastLink was designed by the Canadian artist Callum Morton in 2007
  • The artist says motorists might see it as a ‘prop that has escaped a film set’
  • READ MORE: Cyclist’s no-flight trip to Africa to take part in an 830-mile race

This hotel is a work of art. 

Hotel EastLink, set alongside a motorway on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, is designed to look like a real hotel, but it’s actually a sculpture.

The large-scale model of a high-rise hotel, which cost £655,000 (1.2millionAUD) to build, was designed by the Canadian artist Callum Morton and unveiled in 2007.

It has confused many who have driven past, with some even trying to book a stay at the model hotel – even though it doesn’t have any rooms and can’t be entered. The Hotel EastLink fansite reveals: ‘You’d be surprised by the number of enquiries we receive from people wanting to know room rates, availability and parking enquiries.’

Describing the concept behind the design, Morton said: ‘Motorists will view it from the car as an actual hotel and perhaps over time as a strangely de-scaled prop that has escaped a theme park or film set.’

Hotel EastLink, set alongside a motorway on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, is designed to look like a real hotel, but it’s actually a sculpture 

The ‘hotel’ was designed by the Canadian artist Callum Morton and unveiled in 2007

He adds that the structure is ‘effectively a giant folly’ – a building that has been designed for ornamental purposes.

Measuring 39ft (12m) long, 66ft (20m) high and 16ft (five metres) wide, it has a steel and concrete structural frame and glass panels. Some of the windows illuminate when night falls, giving the hotel an eerie glow.

It can be found by the northbound carriageway of the privately operated EastLink toll road in Melbourne’s Dandenong neighbourhood.

The artist behind the design says that motorists might view the sculpture as a ‘strangely de-scaled prop that has escaped a theme park or film set’

The structure measures 39ft (12m) long, 66ft (20m) high and 16ft (five metres) wide. Image courtesy of Creative Commons 


Epic drone footage by the Instagram user ‘zaim.fpv’ swoops over and around the intriguing art piece. Some motorists have tried to book a stay at the hotel, unaware that it’s simply an artwork

The building featured on the album cover for the U.S punk band Violent Femmes’ 2019 album ‘Hotel Last Resort’

The EastLink website says: ‘Positioned out of context, with no surrounding structures, the artwork appears out of place as if belonging to another time and place.’

Reviewing the site on Tripadvisor, user ‘Jeffry B’ said that it looked like something from a ‘parallel universe’, remarking: ‘Don’t try and get a bed at this faux hotel… Hotel EastLink doesn’t take guests, and never has.’

On its way to becoming a cult landmark in Melbourne, the hotel featured on the album cover for the U.S punk band Violent Femmes’ 2019 album Hotel Last Resort. 

It’s one of several large art installations commissioned on the EastLink road, billed as ‘Australia’s largest sculpture park’. Other distinctive art pieces include a steel structure by artist Simeon Nelson that’s designed to look like a fallen tree by the roadside, and a sculpture by artist Emily Floyd that’s shaped as a giant bird.

The hotel can be found by the northbound carriageway of the EastLink toll road in the suburbs of Melbourne (pictured) 

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