BlueScope Steel, Port Kembla
BlueScope Steel, Port Kembla
The Port Kembla steelworks has been producing steel continuously since 1928, making it one of the longest-running heavy industrial operations in Australia. The plant processes iron ore and coal through blast furnaces, basic oxygen steelmaking vessels, and continuous casting machines to produce slabs that are rolled into the structural steel and sheet products used across Australian construction and manufacturing.
At peak capacity the plant employed over 20,000 workers. The current workforce is a fraction of that, as automation has replaced most manual operations. The scale of the equipment is difficult to comprehend at ground level. The blast furnaces stand 100 metres tall. Ladles of molten steel move overhead on travelling cranes. The slab caster produces a continuous ribbon of steel at temperatures above 1,500 degrees.
Unlike the decommissioned sites that make up most of the Lost Collective catalogue, Port Kembla is a working industrial facility. These photographs were made with access granted by BlueScope Steel and document a plant in active operation.
Browse the BlueScope Port Kembla print collection — printed on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag archival paper, limited editions signed by Brett Patman.