The great red-hooped tower has stood above Geelong for almost half a century. For generations of travellers approaching Victoria’s second city by car or train, the enormous chimney, once emblazoned with the letters SHELL, has been as familiar a landmark as the football stadium or waterfront.

Beside it, a flame burns day and night, an industrial beacon visible around Corio Bay. Across the water, the Spirit of Tasmania ferry is docked at the port. It is a reminder of what this city was, what it’s lost and what it – against considerable odds – has managed to keep.

Viva Energy’s smokestacks dominate the horizon. Craig Sillitoe

The city has spent two decades reinventing itself after the departure of the great employers that once defined its economy. Ford stopped making cars. Alcoa closed its aluminium smelter.…