Boiler 5

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 1s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A heavily corroded pressure vessel marked '5BLR' inside the boiler house at the Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factories, below a 'May Contain Asbestos' warning. Pipe sections labelled 'Steam' and 'Filter Water' run to its left with control wheels and valves in place. The vessel served the brown-coal boiler plant of the complex.

Edition

Open edition

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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: Boiler 5
Series: Morwell Power Station
Catalogue: MPS-008
Process: Giclée
Captured: 30 March 2017
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1s 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: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Morwell, Victoria, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

A warning sign reading 'May Contain Asbestos' sits high on the wall above a heavily corroded pressure vessel at the Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factories, its circular access panel thick with rust and scale. Pipe sections labelled 'Steam' and 'Filter Water' connect to the left side of the vessel, with control wheels and valves still in place along the runs. An overhead metal grating walkway crosses the upper frame, and a panel marked '5BLR' is visible on the wall above. A tripod-mounted device rests on the floor grating in the left foreground.

The vessel belongs to the boiler plant, water tube boilers specifically adapted for burning brown coal, which the Victorian Heritage Register lists as rare survivors of their class. That plant, along with the ash handling, steel chimneys and building, was supplied by Mitchell Engineering Group Ltd. of London under the 1950 contract. The complex produced electricity from December 1958 until the last boiler and turbine were taken off on 8 September 2014. Brett photographed the Boiler 5 vessel on 30 March 2017, in the closed complex before the demolition program began.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The front face of Boiler 5 fills the frame. A heavy circular drum sits centre, its inspection port cover dark with rust. Steel pipes and valve assemblies radiate outward like blunt mechanical limbs. Yellow safety railings line the walkway to the right. Metal grating covers the floor. Warning labels, faded red on white, read "May Contain Asbestos." The marking "5 BLR" is stencilled on the upper wall. Light falls flat and grey from somewhere above.

Brett Patman

The series

Morwell Power Station

1949-2014 · 79 photographs

The State Electricity Commission of Victoria built Morwell as the centrepiece of its postwar plan to sever Victoria's reliance on black coal from New South Wales. Construction ran from 1949 to 1959; electricity production commenced in December 1958 and the first commercial briquettes followed in December 1959. With the demolition of Old Yallourn between 1995 and 1999, Morwell became the earliest surviving large-scale Victorian state-grid power station, registered on the Victorian Heritage Register as H2377 on 1 March 2018.

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.