Power House Platform

The Power House Platform at Portland Cement Works sits in advanced decay, its concrete breaking away in sections and rebar protruding from the fractured edges. What remains records the slow structural failure of a platform that once sat at the functional centre of one of Australia's most significant industrial complexes. The powerhouse itself is among the oldest surviving structures on the site, dating to around 1902 as part of the original plant built under the direction of Dr August Wilhelm Karl Scheidel for the Commonwealth Portland Cement Company. Two originally separate buildings, they were joined into a single structure by 1910, with the southern end extended concurrently. An overhead gantry crane ran through the entire length of the building during operations, and the iron girders were imported from the same English manufacturer that supplied the Eveleigh Street Railway Yards. The structure saw numerous internal modifications across its operational life as the works grew and changed around it. The wider Portland Cement Works Precinct, listed on the NSW State Heritage Register in 2012, spans approximately 5.9 hectares at Williwa Street, Portland. The Commonwealth Portland Cement Company commenced cement production on site in August 1902. At its peak in 1911, the works employed 608 people and the town population reached 2,376. By 1912, the company was producing approximately 40% of all Portland cement manufactured in Australia. Cement production continued until November 1991, when the plant fell silent after nearly 90 years of operation. The photograph made in 2018 finds the platform in the state it has held since closure: concrete pulling itself apart, steel showing through where the cover has gone. The powerhouse building is recorded in the heritage listing as being in good condition relative to other structures on site, but the platform tells a different story at close range. This is what industrial fabric looks like when the maintenance cycle stops.