Rising Conveyor

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Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 200mm · f/8.0 · 1/250 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Steel framework of a great conveyor system ascends into the derelict Morwell Power Station. In 2014, rust streaks the metal, a silent monument to its industrial past.

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

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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Rising Conveyor
Series: Morwell Power Station
Catalogue: MPS-036
Process: Giclée
Captured: 14 April 2017
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/250 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 200 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

A rising conveyor at Morwell climbs from a lower factory floor through the structural levels of the briquette plant to an upper bunker, the steel-cased belt rising at a steep angle on its diagonal frame. The casing is painted SECV grey, weathered to a darker tone along the underside where the lower air carries the coal dust. The conveyor passes through floor openings at each level, with concrete edges trimmed to fit the casing. The supporting steel frame is heavily bolted at the joints. The light catches the upper section of the conveyor where it emerges through the top floor; the lower section is dim.

Rising conveyors moved brown coal and briquette-feed material through the multi-level briquette factory, with the production line stacked vertically across the building's storeys. Lignite came in at the lower levels, passed through wet section processing, drying, and pressing, with the finished briquettes coming off at outputs at various levels. Morwell's integrated complex ran this flow continuously from 1956 to its closure in September 2014. Brett photographed the rising conveyor on 14 April 2017, in the closed factory before the demolition program began.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The enclosed conveyor carried coal from the storage bunker up to the boiler house. Standing underneath it, the scale is hard to process. A steel structure the length of a city block, aimed at the sky.

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.

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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.