Control Room

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 3s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The control room at Kandos Cement Works, built to replace the earlier room when Y2K vulnerability concerns prompted an upgrade. A circular red seat sits at the centre; timber benches lining the walls have been stripped of equipment. The plant closed in September 2011.

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.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

See certificate sample →

Shipping Free shipping over $250. Ships worldwide, rates calculated at checkout.

Returns Damaged in transit? We replace it. Full policy →

Ships within 10 business days · signed & numbered

In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Control Room
Series: Kandos Cement Works
Catalogue: KCW-008
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 February 2016
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 3s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Kandos, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Kandos, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The control room at Kandos Cement Works has been left as it was at closure. The mimic-board on the back wall shows the plant in schematic, with switches, lamps, and analogue meters for each of the major systems. Most of the lamps are out. The desks in front of the board are still arranged in their last configuration, with chairs pushed back, paperwork left on the surfaces. A few coffee mugs sit where they were last put down. The lighting overhead is fluorescent, half of it dead. The room is otherwise quiet. The fluorescent hum that would have run all night during operation is gone.

The control room ran the plant from a single point. Every kiln, mill, fan, and conveyor in the building was wired back to this room, and operators monitored the readings from twelve-hour shifts at the panel. Kandos Cement Works closed in September 2011. The control room was switched off at the same time and the door was locked behind the last shift. Nobody has unlocked it since for any operational reason. The mugs and the paperwork are not staged. They are what was left in the room when the last operator walked out at the end of the last shift.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Built as an upgrade to safeguard against the Y2K bug, this control room became the heart of operations at Kandos Cement Works. Though the feared digital meltdown never came, the space remained, overseeing the plant’s daily rhythm.

Brett Patman

The series

Kandos Cement Works

2016 · 40 photographs

The town's first name was Candos, an acronym of the directors' surnames at the NSW Cement Lime and Coal Company. They bought 100 acres from local farmer John Lloyd Junior for £2,000 in 1913 and had surveyor James Dawson lay out the township. The Postmaster General ruled the name change to Kandos in 1915, and by August 1916 the kilns at the new cement works were firing.

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.