Conveyor at Bradmill Denim, an old coal conveyor used to feed to the boiler furnace.

01 Bradmill DenimYarraville2011 - 2012

ISO 1002sf/13.036mm

Series · 27 prints

Bradmill Denim

Photographed 2011 - 2012
Frames 27
Camera NIKON D7000
Location Victoria, Australia
Status Mixed-use residential redevelopment
Specs 40,000 bales of cotton processed per year · Third-largest water user in Victoria
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

The Bradford family founded Bradford Cotton Mills in Sydney in 1927. The company expanded into Victoria in 1940, began producing denim in 1945, and grew into Bradmill Industries Ltd. The Yarraville factory on Francis Street was the country's only indigo denim mill.

Yarraville was a full-vertical mill, the rare kind where every step of the process ran under one operation: spinning the cotton, weaving the cloth, dyeing it indigo, finishing it. The plant ran across a brick complex of connected buildings, built up over decades.

By the 1970s peak Bradmill Industries Ltd was the largest textile manufacturing company in Australia, with around 7,000 people across 15 manufacturing sites in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. The Yarraville factory ran 40,000 bales of cotton a year, the third-largest water user in the state. Electricity bills could exceed $1 million.

Cheap textile imports pushed Bradmill into receivership in the early 2000s. The closure ended domestic indigo denim manufacturing in Australia. Frasers Property Australia and Irongate now hold the site and are redeveloping it as Bradmill Yarraville, a mixed-use residential precinct.

Frasers Property (Bradmill Denim Factory history), Frasers Property (Bradmill Yarraville development history) and Specialised Textiles Australia (history page)

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1927
1940
1945
1962
1966
1975
2002
2020
03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed limited editions, printed from the original RAW file. Editions run from 100 down to 25 and are not reissued once they sell through.

Conveyor at Bradmill Denim, an old coal conveyor used to feed to the boiler furnace.
Conveyor
Roto Feeder at Bradmill Denim, a Babcock Detroit Roto-Feeder sits square in the frame, its cast iron face blackened.
Roto Feeder
Tank at Bradmill Denim, lagged hot water tank from the top of the boiler house.
Tank
Doorway at Bradmill Denim, a heavy steel fire door marked "2" fills the end of a narrow brick corridor.
Doorway
Rear Boiler House at Bradmill Denim, shot from the rear of the boiler house showing to the top of the windows.
Rear Boiler House
Paint at Bradmill Denim, montana Black 400ml cans lined up on a concrete ledge, labels spattered and worn.
Paint
Hopper at Bradmill Denim, the bright daylight on the levels below worked well to create the dramatic effect in the dark.
Hopper
No Entry at Bradmill Denim, a scuffed No Entry sign hangs from a steel gate at the Bradmill compound.
No Entry
Fire Damage at Bradmill Denim, a section of the factory where the roof has collapsed due to fire damage.
Fire Damage
Lights at Bradmill Denim, steel beams cut diagonally across the frame, crossing pipes and structural columns inside.
Lights
Boiler Front Panel at Bradmill Denim, heavy cast-iron boiler fronts sit in a row along a red brick wall.
Boiler Front Panel
Plant Room at Bradmill Denim, dormant machinery and rusted pipes dominate the plant room at the Bradmill Denim factory.
Plant Room
Valves at Bradmill Denim, cast-iron valve wheels line a steel manifold, their spokes thick with grease and grime.
Valves
Blower at Bradmill Denim, motorised blower probably for feeding air to the boilers.
Blower
What You Got Is This Whole Miserable Subculture at Bradmill Denim, someone took the time to paint this across the full.
What You Got Is This Whole Miserable Subculture
Meters at Bradmill Denim, a steel control panel stands at the edge of the boiler floor.
Meters
Fisheye Boiler House at Bradmill Denim, a fisheye shot of the entire boiler house.
Fisheye Boiler House
BW Windows at Bradmill Denim, steel beams and steam pipes climb the full height of the boiler house wall.
BW Windows
Spring Valve at Bradmill Denim, a heavy cast-iron valve assembly dominates the right of frame, its spring mechanism coiled.
Spring Valve
Boiler House Walkway at Bradmill Denim, steel cross-bracing and diagonal pipes cut across a narrow elevated walkway inside.
Boiler House Walkway
T Section at Bradmill Denim, a heavy cast-iron pump valve sits bolted to the brick floor, its flanged body thick.
T Section
Blood Wars Buddy at Bradmill Denim, deep red block letters stretch across a concrete tilt-panel wall.
Blood Wars Buddy
Outside Boiler Plant at Bradmill Denim, galvanised pipes run along the brick face of the boiler plant, bolted at intervals.
Outside Boiler Plant
Hydraulic Machinery at Bradmill Denim, a yellow hydraulic power unit stands open on the factory floor, its gauges and valve.
Hydraulic Machinery
Chemical Plant at Bradmill Denim, a green dust extraction unit stands bolted to the red brick facade of a factory building.
Chemical Plant
Bus at Bradmill Denim, a decommissioned bus sits against corrugated steel cladding in a yard at the Bradmill site.
Bus
Fire Extinguisher at Bradmill Denim, a red fire extinguisher sits upright on a concrete floor thick with dust and fallen.
Fire Extinguisher
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

05 FIELD NOTE

From the field

Read all field notes
06 PRESS

In the press

Holding a solo exhibition in one of the spaces I've photographed would also be a dream, particularly at a site with a strong community connection - so the images can be enjoyed by the people who made it matter.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

I'm not trying to make out like I'm some kind of mysterious urbex badass. Lost Collective isn't about me. It's about the places I shoot and even more about the connection that the people have to the sites.

Broadsheet

Brett Patman·2016

lostcollective.com

On the LC archive.

Often I'd find myself looking at the machines and architecture and challenging myself to find one single object designed purely for aesthetics. Craftsmanship made way for efficiency in engineering long before I'd even left school.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

Read the full story

Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

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