Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.
Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.

Stairs

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
14mm · f/8.0 · 2s · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Steel grate stairs in the cement mill at Kandos Cement Works, one of many stairwells connecting platforms, conveyors, and machinery at every level of the structure. Built for durability in an environment of constant vibration and dust. The plant operated from 1916 until September 2011.

Edition
Open edition

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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.
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In situ

Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.Stairs at Kandos Cement Works, looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Stairs
Series
Kandos Cement Works
Catalogue
KCW-034
Process
Giclée
Captured
13 February 2016
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
2s 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

A run of steel stairs climbs the side of one of the bays at Kandos Cement Works, switching back at a landing halfway up to reach the level above. The treads are chequer-plate steel, riveted to the stringers. The handrails are mild steel pipe, painted pale yellow at some point in the plant's later years, with the paint now worn back to bare steel along the gripping line. The risers are open. The whole structure is bolted to the steel framing of the bay it serves. Cement dust has settled along the upturned edges of each tread. The light coming through the high clerestory windows above falls across the run at an angle, catching the underside of each landing.

Stairs of this kind are the connective tissue of a cement plant. Operators, fitters, and electricians moved between levels of the kiln building, the preheater tower, and the mill bays many times per shift across a working day, checking gauges, adjusting feeds, and clearing blockages. The treads at Kandos carried this foot traffic across the 95-year operational life of the plant, from August 1916 to September 2011. At closure the workforce was 98, made redundant in a single round across four months, with 34 workers offered roles at other plants. The stairs have not carried a working shift since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Looking down the stairwell of the cement mill - one of many that once crisscrossed the plant, connecting platforms, conveyors, and machinery at every level. The steel grates, built for durability, bore the weight of countless workers moving between shifts, their footsteps echoing through the structure.

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
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 $100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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