Between Silos

Between two of the Portland Cement Works Precinct's cylindrical silos, a tangle of steel pipes and concrete forms fills the narrow gap. Corrosion and weathering have worked across every surface, the industrial textures thrown into relief by the angle of light cutting through the space. What is visible in this frame is the accumulated effect of decades without maintenance: concrete spalling, steel oxidising, the structures settling into their own weight. The silos are mid-twentieth century construction, part of a processing and administrative precinct that spans approximately 5.9 hectares on Williwa Street, Portland, in the City of Lithgow. The precinct was built by the Commonwealth Portland Cement Company, registered in December 1900 and operational by 4 August 1902. At that moment, the rotary kiln technology installed at Portland was at the global leading edge of cement manufacturing. By 1912, the company was producing approximately 40 per cent of all Portland cement manufactured in Australia. Cement production at the site continued until November 1991, with limestone quarrying running until 1998. The precinct was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 3 August 2012 (SHR #01739), recognised across all seven significance criteria. It meets criteria for historical, associative, aesthetic, social, research, rarity, and representativeness significance. This photograph was made in 2018, the same year artist Guido van Helten completed large-scale murals on eight of the site's cylindrical silos depicting six former workers. The pipes and concrete caught in this frame, unnamed and unpainted, record what the site looks like in the spaces between those more celebrated structures. Decay at scale, and the particular quality of light that finds its way into industrial ruins when no one is watching.