AB Launder Yard

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Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 0.6s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Inside Morwell Power Station, the AB Launder Yard reveals its intricate network of concrete channels and decaying machinery. This industrial space, once central to coal processing, now stands silent.

Edition

Open edition

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

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

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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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: AB Launder Yard
Series: Morwell Power Station
Catalogue: MPS-001
Process: Giclée
Captured: 29 March 2017
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 0.6s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Morwell, Victoria, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: National Trust of Australia (NSW), 2016 Heritage Award, Multimedia

03 THE STORY

About this print

Two brick chimneys rise from the centre of the frame at Morwell Power Station, flanked by the symmetrical bulk of the station's turbine halls. Cream-rendered walls stretch five storeys high, their tall windows dark and uniform. The launder yard between them is bare concrete, cracked and oil-stained, opening forward toward the camera. Conveyor gantries climb at angles between the buildings. Weeds push through the expansion joints. Both chimneys read as if they are still doing work, but no smoke has come out of either of them in more than a decade.

Morwell Power Station was built by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria from 1949 and ran from 1956 until a fire on 12 February 2014 closed the plant for good. At peak it produced 180 MW of electricity and over a million tonnes of briquettes a year for the Victorian solid fuel market. Heritage Victoria added the site to the Victorian Heritage Register in February 2018 (VHR H200429) as the state's earliest surviving large-scale grid power station, then granted a permit to demolish the main station while keeping the briquette factories. The two 94-metre chimneys in this photograph were brought down on 20 February 2021. The launder yard between them is still here.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Two brick chimneys rise from the centre of the frame, flanked by the symmetrical bulk of the station's turbine halls. Cream-rendered walls stretch five storeys high, their tall windows dark and uniform. The launder yard between them is bare concrete, cracked and oil-stained, open to a low grey sky. Weeds push through at the margins. Yellow steel gantries and conveyor frameworks line the base of the buildings. Nothing moves.

Brett Patman

The series

Morwell Power Station

2014 · 79 photographs

The Morwell Power Station and Briquette Works was an integrated cogeneration plant in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, built by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria from 1949 and operated from 1956 to February 2014. At peak it produced 180 MW of electricity and over a million tonnes of briquettes a year for the Victorian solid fuel market. A Boxing Day 2003 fire destroyed the conveyor feeding three of the four briquette plants; the conveyor was never repaired. The plant closed for good after a 12 February 2014 fire. Heritage Victoria added the site to the Victorian Heritage Register in February 2018 as the state's earliest surviving large-scale grid power station, but later granted a permit to demolish the main station while keeping the briquette factories. The two 94-metre chimneys were brought down on 20 February 2021. The site contained more than 10,000 cubic metres of asbestos.

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.