Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.
Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.

Storage Shed

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
14mm · f/8.0 · 15.0 sec · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Corrugated metal walls, buckled and torn on the right side. A metal walkway with timber steps runs along the left wall. A yellow gantry stands in the mid-ground. Window light cuts across a concrete floor marked by a central seam. A roller door is closed at the far end.

Edition
Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

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Type
Colour
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In situ

Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.Interior of the storage shed at Awaba Colliery, showing buckled corrugated metal walls, a metal walkway with timber steps along the left side, a yellow gantry in the mid-ground, and bright window light cutting across a concrete floor.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Storage Shed
Series
Awaba Colliery
Catalogue
AWB-002
Process
Giclée
Captured
20 December 2015
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
15.0 sec s
ISO
100
Focal length
14 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Location
Awaba
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
02 LOCATION

Awaba

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The storage shed at Awaba Colliery is one of the corrugated iron surface buildings that characterised the pit-top infrastructure of this drift-access underground mine. Its right wall carries the visible record of years of vehicle contact: the metal is buckled and torn at intervals along its full length. A metal walkway with timber steps follows the left wall toward a closed roller door at the far end. A yellow gantry structure stands in the mid-ground, and bright window light punches through the right wall at intervals, cutting sharp lines across a concrete floor marked by a long central seam.

Awaba State Coal Mine began development in 1947 on 8,500 acres in the Awaba district formally reserved for state mining operations. Premier James McGirr officially opened the mine on 14 July 1948. The operation targeted the Great Northern Seam using bord-and-pillar methods with continuous miners, and was built specifically to supply thermal coal to Wangi Wangi Power Station. A dedicated railway branch line opened on 25 May 1954 to carry coal from the pit top to the power station.

Ownership of the mine passed through several hands over its operational life. The State Coal Mines Control Board governed the mine from opening, succeeded in March 1950 by the State Mines Control Authority. On 1 July 1973, ownership transferred to the Electricity Commission of New South Wales under the Electricity Commission (State Coal Mines) Act 1973, with day-to-day management through Elcom Collieries Pty Ltd. The mine was subsequently consolidated under PowerCoal Pty Ltd before the NSW Government sold the PowerCoal portfolio to Centennial Coal Company Ltd in August 2002 for $331 million. Centennial Coal was itself acquired by Thai group Banpu Public Company Ltd in 2011.

The mine produced over 35 million tonnes of thermal coal across its operational life. Mining ceased in March 2012 when coal reserves in the Great Northern Seam were exhausted. The shed and the surface infrastructure it was part of stood idle after closure, the site subject to ongoing rehabilitation. This photograph was made in 2015.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The storage shed at Awaba Colliery stands as one of the corrugated iron surface buildings that made up the pit-top infrastructure of a drift-access underground coal mine. The shed's right wall carries the accumulated damage of years of vehicle use, its metal buckled and torn at intervals. A metal walkway with timber steps lines the left wall, and a yellow gantry structure occupies the mid-ground beneath roof-height windows that send hard lines of light across the concrete floor. Awaba operated from 1947 until coal reserves were exhausted in March 2012.

Brett Patman

Awaba Colliery

The series

Awaba Colliery

1947 to 2012 · 2 photographs

Awaba Colliery worked the Great Northern Seam at Awaba, on the western side of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, from 1947 until 2012. The state opened the mine to supply thermal coal to Wangi Power Station, and from 1954 a branch railway carried the coal there. It was a drift mine, entered by an inclined tunnel rather than a vertical shaft, so it never carried a headframe. Mining ended in March 2012 when the workable coal in the seam ran out, and the entries were sealed that year.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM AWABA COLLIERY

One other print in this series

All prints
A tiled hallway at Awaba leads to a pair of partially open security-grated double doors, with a text sign on the right wall and a mop and bucket visible through the gap.
Revolving Door $100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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