Boiler House 3

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 1.6s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The boiler house at Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factories, where light falls on a yellow-painted staircase climbing between two massive rusted steel beams. A patterned metal grate floor sits in the foreground and a cart of coiled hoses rests in the background. The boilers were water tube units adapted for brown coal, supplied by Mitchell Engineering of London.

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 House 3
Series: Morwell Power Station
Catalogue: MPS-047
Process: Giclée
Captured: 15 April 2017
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1.6s 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: 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

Shafts of light cut through dust-laden air in the boiler house at Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factories and land on a yellow-painted staircase climbing between two massive rusted steel beams. Graffiti marks the lower ductwork on the left. A patterned metal grate floor catches the overhead light in the foreground. A cart loaded with coiled hoses sits in the lower right background. Everything is left where work stopped, the stair, the grate, the hoses, all of it in place and rusting in the same flat light.

The boiler plant at the complex used water tube boilers adapted specifically for burning brown coal, registered by the Victorian Heritage Register as rare survivors of their class. The boilers, ash handling, steel chimneys and the building were supplied by Mitchell Engineering Group Ltd. of London under the 1950 contract. The steel beams and the stair between them carried the structure that held this plant up across its working life. The last boiler and turbine were taken off on 8 September 2014. Brett photographed the boiler house on 15 April 2017, in the closed plant before the demolition program began.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A steel staircase rises through the centre of the frame, climbing between two massive boiler housings. Rust blooms across every surface. The walls are layered with grey steel cladding, ducts, and heavy structural beams. Metal grate flooring sits underfoot. A yellow handrail marks the base of the stairs. Light pushes through openings high above, catching the staircase and throwing the lower levels into deep shadow. The scale is industrial and vertical. The air looks thick with dust.

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.