Steam Vessel

A grated steel walkway runs the length of an interior corridor at Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factories, terminating at a broad rectangular opening where daylight cuts through the far wall. A large cylindrical tank marked 'NU' rises along the left side, its surface showing heavy corrosion. Yellow safety railing tracks the walkway edge below it. Through the grate floor, lower levels of the structure are visible in the shadows. The corridor is long and stripped back, the corroded vessel and the railing the only strong forms against the light at the end.

The vessel stood in the boiler house, where the boilers were water tube boilers specifically adapted for burning brown coal, cited by the Victorian Heritage Register 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 plant ran until the last boiler and turbine were taken off on 8 September 2014, when Energy Brix Australia closed the operation and about 75 direct jobs were lost. Brett photographed the steam vessel on 30 March 2017, in the closed plant before the demolition program began.