Rising Conveyor at Morwell Power Station, the enclosed conveyor carried coal from the storage bunker up to the boiler house.

01 Morwell Power StationMorwell2017

ISO 1001/250f/8.0200mm

Series · 79 prints

Morwell Power Station

Photographed 2017
Frames 79
Camera NIKON D810
Location Latrobe Valley, VIC
Status Demolished 2018-2020
Years 1958 to 2014
Heritage VHR H2377
Specs Brown coal lignite · Two briquette factories · Four steel chimneys
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

The State Electricity Commission of Victoria built Morwell as the centrepiece of its postwar plan to sever Victoria's reliance on black coal from New South Wales. Construction ran from 1949 to 1959; electricity production commenced in December 1958 and the first commercial briquettes followed in December 1959. With the demolition of Old Yallourn between 1995 and 1999, Morwell became the earliest surviving large-scale Victorian state-grid power station, registered on the Victorian Heritage Register as H2377 on 1 March 2018.

The complex sits on Gunaikurnai Country, traditional land of the Braiakaulung people of the Gunnaikurnai clan. Premier John Cain Snr proclaimed the project on 8 August 1947; parliament approved the first two briquette factories and a power station the following year, and the State Executive Council added two more factories and the British and German equipment contracts on 11 October 1950. Post-war credit restrictions halted the project in 1951 under SECV chairman R.A. Hunt; construction staff was cut from 1,360 to 300 by December 1952, and the third and fourth factories were cancelled when Premier Galbally's government resumed work in May 1954.

SECV chief engineer Ernest Bate sourced the briquette presses from Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf of Germany, two 30,000-kilowatt back-pressure turbo-generators from Metropolitan-Vickers of Manchester, the boiler plant and steel chimneys from Mitchell Engineering Group of London, and the generator houses from Wright Anderson of England; the dredgers and conveyors were Australian-built. About 250 single British men came to Australia as assisted migrants from 1951 to erect the equipment, joined by a post-war operational workforce drawn largely from Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries, many of whom settled permanently in the Latrobe Valley. The Morwell brown coal proved unsuitable for briquetting because of its high alkali and sulphur content, so Yallourn coal was railed across the interconnecting line; after Hazelwood Power Station went into operation in 1971, the proportion of Victoria's electricity supply sourced from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley reached almost 90%.

In 1993 Energy Brix Australia was created as the first new Victorian Government Business Enterprise under the State Owned Enterprises Act. A Boxing Day 2003 fire destroyed the coal cross-over conveyor feeding the B, C and D briquette plants; only A plant continued, and the complex ran at a fraction of its intended capacity until Energy Brix Australia decided to close in July 2014. After Moe resident Cheryl Wragg secured an Interim Protection Order in March 2017, the Heritage Council of Victoria determined the complex significant on 12 February 2018 and Heritage Victoria registered it on 1 March 2018 as VHR H2377; the November 2018 to June 2020 demolition program followed under a Heritage Victoria permit.

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1917
1918
1947
1948
1948
1949
1950
1951
1951
1952
1953
1954
1958
1959
1971
1993
2003
2014
2017
2018
2018
2018
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.

Rising Conveyor at Morwell Power Station, the enclosed conveyor carried coal from the storage bunker up to the boiler house.
Rising Conveyor
Generator at Morwell Power Station, the blade rings inside have the kind of precision that heavy industry does better than.
Generator
Turbine Floor 3 at Morwell Power Station, a turbine control panel lines the left wall, its rows of analogue gauges.
Turbine Floor 3
Turbine Hall Control Room Entrance at Morwell Power Station, the control room sat above the turbine hall floor at one end.
Turbine Hall Control Room Entrance
Turbine Front at Morwell Power Station, a heavy cast-iron valve wheel sits in the foreground, its spokes thick with dust.
Turbine Front
Turbine Floor at Morwell Power Station, four turbo-alternator units sit in two rows, their cylindrical steel casings grey.
Turbine Floor
Turbine Floor 2 at Morwell Power Station, the turbine hall stretches deep into the building.
Turbine Floor 2
Turbine and Condenser at Morwell Power Station, the condensers below the turbines returned exhaust steam back to feedwater.
Turbine and Condenser
Transfer House at Morwell Power Station, cream brick facade, blackened where water has tracked down from the roofline.
Transfer House
Top of the Bunker at Morwell Power Station, the top of the coal bunker, where the conveyors discharged into storage below.
Top of the Bunker
Top of Boiler at Morwell Power Station, steel grating covers the floor of the upper boiler level.
Top of Boiler
The Corridor at Morwell Power Station, a wide concrete corridor runs between two multi-storey industrial buildings.
The Corridor
Steam Vessel at Morwell Power Station, a steel grating walkway runs between a massive cylindrical vessel and a concrete.
Steam Vessel
Soot Blower at Morwell Power Station, steel grating stretches down a narrow service walkway between boiler units.
Soot Blower
Shuttle Conveyor at Morwell Power Station, a steel grating walkway runs alongside a heavy conveyor system deep inside.
Shuttle Conveyor
Shaker Screen No 6 at Morwell Power Station, no.
Shaker Screen No 6
Shaker Screen Floor at Morwell Power Station, six screens to a row, drive motors still mounted in place.
Shaker Screen Floor
Screen Floor at Morwell Power Station, steel hoppers line both sides of a narrow corridor, their conical bases suspended.
Screen Floor
Raw Coal Bunker at Morwell Power Station, a massive steel drum roller sits at the top of the coal bunker, mounted.
Raw Coal Bunker
Press Covers at Morwell Power Station, two pale green steel covers angle upward from the concrete floor, flanking a narrow.
Press Covers
Precipitator at Morwell Power Station, a concrete roadway runs between the precipitator housing and a three-storey cream.
Precipitator
Power Station Window at Morwell Power Station, one window, two broken panes.
Power Station Window
Workshop at Morwell Power Station, a rectangle of sunlight falls across worn timber floorboards inside the maintenance.
Workshop
Wet Section at Morwell Power Station, rows of steel filtration trays stretch the full length of the hall, coated in fine.
Wet Section
Wet Section Western End at Morwell Power Station, visitors Carpark is painted on the base of the western end building.
Wet Section Western End
Wet Section Walkway at Morwell Power Station, the walkway ran the full length of the wet section above the processing.
Wet Section Walkway
Wet Section 213 Conveyor at Morwell Power Station, the wet section handled freshly mined brown coal before it was dried.
Wet Section 213 Conveyor
Vanishing Conveyor at Morwell Power Station, the frame is numbered 59, which tells you how far along the conveyor you're.
Vanishing Conveyor
Through the Window at Morwell Power Station, through the boiler house window, another wing of the station.
Through the Window
Press Floor at Morwell Power Station, a heavy flywheel sits at the centre of the frame, bolted to a large reciprocating.
Press Floor
Power Station Riser at Morwell Power Station, the riser corridor gave access to the steam valve gear that fed the turbines.
Power Station Riser
Point to Point at Morwell Power Station, an enclosed conveyor bridge cuts diagonally across an overcast sky, supported.
Point to Point
Number 10 Briquette Factory at Morwell Power Station, the high-level corridor in Number 10 Briquette Factory ran.
Number 10 Briquette Factory
Number 2 Crusher at Morwell Power Station, a steel mesh walkway runs between two rows of crusher housings.
Number 2 Crusher
Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factory at Morwell Power Station, steel beams and concrete walls frame defunct machinery.
Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factory
Metropolitan Vickers at Morwell Power Station, metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co.
Metropolitan Vickers
Mechanical Workshop at Morwell Power Station, the machine tools are still here, green paint mostly intact.
Mechanical Workshop
Maze at Morwell Power Station, cream brick and corrugated iron press tight against each other.
Maze
Main Press Floor at Morwell Power Station, large green steel housings sit at sharp angles along the concrete floor.
Main Press Floor
M50s at Morwell Power Station, a long covered conveyor gallery stretches into the distance, its timber-lined roof darkened.
M50s
Loading Shed at Morwell Power Station, pale brick buildings stack behind a cracked concrete apron.
Loading Shed
Launder Yard at Morwell Power Station, cream brick buildings rise several storeys high across a cracked concrete yard.
Launder Yard
Hiding Spot at Morwell Power Station, a steel mesh grating floor stretches across a maintenance platform inside the power.
Hiding Spot
Hammer Mills at Morwell Power Station, a large industrial fan sits caged behind steel mesh on the right.
Hammer Mills
Hammer Mills 2 at Morwell Power Station, two hammer mills sit heavy on the concrete floor, their cylindrical steel bodies.
Hammer Mills 2
Hammer Mill Conveyor at Morwell Power Station, the idler rollers are still in place, frozen at whatever angle they were.
Hammer Mill Conveyor
Grinding Shop at Morwell Power Station, heavy milling machines line the workshop floor, their cast-iron beds thick.
Grinding Shop
Fire Escape at Morwell Power Station, three levels of steel-grated landing platforms climb the pale brick face.
Fire Escape
East and West at Morwell Power Station, steel coal bunkers hang overhead, labelled East and West.
East and West
Dust Extraction at Morwell Power Station, steel grating covers the floor of the upper level, gridded and dark with decades.
Dust Extraction
Dryer Motors at Morwell Power Station, heavy industrial dryer motors line the ground floor on concrete plinths,.
Dryer Motors
Double Shaker Screens at Morwell Power Station, the shaker screens sorted coal by size before it moved further.
Double Shaker Screens
Divider at Morwell Power Station, two multi-storey brick buildings stand parallel, forming a wide concrete corridor.
Divider
Descent at Morwell Power Station, a steel grate staircase climbs steeply between levels inside the boiler house.
Descent
Cooling House at Morwell Power Station, three vertical bays of steel-framed glass rise the full height of the façade.
Cooling House
Cooling House 2 at Morwell Power Station, a narrow service corridor runs the length of the cooling house.
Cooling House 2
Conveyor and Wet Section at Morwell Power Station, the conveyor bridge connected the wet section to the main building.
Conveyor and Wet Section
Condenser at Morwell Power Station, a massive green condenser drum dominates the right side of the frame, its bolted end.
Condenser
Collector Conveyors at Morwell Power Station, the collector yard empty now, weeds finding the cracks in the concrete.
Collector Conveyors
Chimneys and Precipitator at Morwell Power Station, the Lurgi precipitators pulled ash out of the flue gas before it went.
Chimneys and Precipitator
03 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Victorian Heritage Register Statement of Significance The earliest surviving large-scale Victorian state-grid power station from the State Electricity Commission era

Heritage Council of Victoria determination, 12 February 2018; gazetted Victoria Government Gazette G 9, 1 March 2018, p.392

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
Field note · April 2017

I photographed Morwell over two days in 2017, in late March and again in April. The Heritage Council had just placed an interim protection order over the complex, so demolition was on hold and the buildings were still standing, closed and cold.

The boilers, the turbines, the briquette presses, the conveyors and the control rooms were all in place, just switched off. You could walk the briquette factories floor by floor, the whole production line still there from the wet section up to the presses. By the middle of 2020 all of it had been demolished.

06 PRESS

In the press

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.

People talk about what it was like to work or stay in these places, who they knew, what they did, how great the Christmas parties were, that store man nobody liked, what all the different machines were, how they worked and what became of them.

Broadsheet

Brett Patman·2016

lostcollective.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
08 REFERENCES

Sources and further reading

  1. 01
    Victorian Heritage Database, Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factory, VHR H2377Heritage Council of Victoria · 2018vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/200429
    T1
  2. 02
    Registrations Committee determination, Morwell Power Station and Briquette FactoriesHeritage Council of Victoria · 2018assets.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/assets/Morwell-Power-Station-and-Briquette-Factories.pdf
    T1
  3. 03
    Morwell briquette project, fold-out pamphletState Electricity Commission of Victoria · 1948find.slv.vic.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma999390153607636&vid=61SLV_INST:SLV
    T1
  4. 04
    Morwell briquette construction coverage, 1950 to 1954Trove, National Library of Australia · 1953trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/newspapers?keyword=Morwell%20briquette
    T1
  5. 05
    Morwell briquette photographic and report holdingsState Library Victoria · 2018find.slv.vic.gov.au/
    T1
  6. 06
    Morwell Power Station heritage listedLatrobe Valley Express · 2018latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/news/2018/02/12/morwell-power-station-heritage-listed/
    T2
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