Soot Blower

Boiler number 5's soot blower occupies the left side of this level at Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factories, the machine that fed steam into the furnace to clear accumulated soot from the boiler tubes. Soot buildup on those tubes reduced heat transfer to the water, lowering the efficiency of steam production. Yellow-painted staircases rise on the right past stencilled beam markings reading '5 BLR' and '16 SB'. A dense run of large grey pipes fills the central background. Peeling white paint on the far walls exposes the metal panels beneath, and natural light enters through a row of windows along the upper left. The level reads as working plant, marked and numbered for the men who serviced it.

The soot blower served the boiler house, where the boilers were water tube boilers specifically adapted for burning brown coal. The Victorian Heritage Register cites them as rare survivors of their class. The boiler plant, ash handling, steel chimneys and building were supplied by Mitchell Engineering Group Ltd. of London under the 1950 contract. Electricity production at the complex commenced in December 1958, and the boilers ran on through decades of service until the last boiler and turbine were taken off on 8 September 2014. Brett photographed the soot blower on boiler number 5 on 30 March 2017, in the closed plant before the demolition program began.