Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.
Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.

Number Six Ball Mill Drive

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
14mm · f/8.0 · 8s · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Inside the derelict Kandos Cement Works, Number Six Ball Mill Drive stands dormant. Massive gears and drive shafts are now still, covered in rust and the fine dust of industrial decay. The machinery waits.

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
Size
Type
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

Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.Number Six Ball Mill Drive at Kandos Cement Works, the motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Number Six Ball Mill Drive
Series
Kandos Cement Works
Catalogue
KCW-025
Process
Giclée
Captured
13 February 2016
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
8s 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
National Trust of Australia (NSW), 2016 Heritage Award, Multimedia
02 LOCATION

Kandos, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The drive assembly for Number Six Ball Mill at Kandos Cement Works sits at one end of the mill bay, a massive electric motor coupled through a reduction gearbox to the mill's pinion shaft. The motor is painted pale grey, with a manufacturer's plate still legible on the casing. The gearbox housing is heavier steel, oil-stained around the inspection covers. Bolted to a deep concrete plinth, the drive sits at the height a worker could service it from a low platform alongside. Cabling runs from the motor terminal box up to the overhead trays. The pinion that engaged the mill girth gear is still in place; the gear teeth show wear patterns from decades of meshing. A heavy guard, removed for maintenance access, leans against the wall.

A ball mill is a slow-turning horizontal cylinder loaded with steel balls; clinker enters at one end, is reduced to fine powder by the tumbling action, and exits at the other as finished cement. The drive moves the whole cylinder at the right speed for the grinding action to work. Number Six Ball Mill at Kandos was one of the cement mills on site at closure. Cement Australia invested $10 million in plant modernisation in 2007, including a new Kiln 6 stack, but the works closed four years later in September 2011 for high fixed costs and considerable distance from market. The drive has not turned since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The motor and gearbox that once drove the ball mill, now sitting in silence. At its peak, this machinery powered the relentless grinding of raw materials, reducing them to fine powder for cement production. The wear and grime speak to years of constant motion - an industrial heartbeat that never stopped until the plant was finally shut down.

Brett Patman

Kandos Cement Works

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.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM KANDOS CEMENT WORKS

39 other prints in this series

All prints
Number Six Raw Mill at Kandos Cement Works, a ball mill sits heavy in the half-light, its riveted steel drum tilted toward.
Number Six Raw Mill $100.00
Clinker Shed at Kandos Cement Works, steel trusses span the full width of the shed, supported by heavy columns streaked.
Clinker Shed $100.00
Cyclonic Separator at Kandos Cement Works, steel mesh grating covers the floor, open to the darkness below.
Cyclonic Separator $100.00
Raw Stone Shed at Kandos Cement Works, dark heaps of crusite and stone dust cover the floor, rising in uneven mounds.
Raw Stone Shed $100.00
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.

You're subscribed.