Aerials

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 200mm · f/8.0 · 1/200 · ISO 180
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The shacks of Tin City sit at the base of the Stockton Bight sand dunes on the NSW Hunter coast. Aerials, satellite dishes and a small wind turbine rise from corrugated iron rooftops. The settlement began with late-19th-century sheds for shipwrecked sailors plus a 1930s squatter camp.

Edition

Open edition

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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: Aerials
Series: Tin City
Catalogue: TCI-001
Process: Giclée
Captured: 31 January 2018
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/200 s
ISO: 180
Focal length: 200 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

An aerial view across the Stockton Bight dune field puts the Tin City shacks in scale against the surrounding sand. The settlement reads as a thin line of rooflines along a low ridge, with the Pacific to the east, the deep dune field to the west, and the long pale strip of Stockton Beach running away to the south. From this height, the shacks are small. The dune field is enormous. Wind ripples mark the upwind face of the larger dunes, the patterns shifting daily. The line of shacks looks held in place against a landscape that is plainly not.

The Stockton Bight sand dunes stretch roughly 32 km from Stockton at Newcastle to Anna Bay at the northern end. NPWS describes the field as the largest mobile coastal sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere. The dunes migrate approximately 4 m northward each year, driven by the prevailing southerly winds. The shacks were buried once already, during World War II, when the Army cleared the site for a coastal camp and the sand moved in. The settlement that exists today was rebuilt on top of what the sand had taken. Tin City sits on Worimi country, returned to Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council ownership on 1 February 2007 and now jointly managed.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A low line of corrugated iron shacks sits half-buried at the base of the Stockton Dunes. Aerials, satellite dishes and a small wind turbine rise from the rooftops. Sand blows across the foreground at ground level, softening the base of every structure. Roofing colours vary: faded red stripe, dull green, grey steel. The dunes behind climb several storeys high, pale gold and featureless. No vegetation. No roads.

Brett Patman

The series

Tin City

2018 · 37 photographs

Two tin sheds were put up on the Stockton Bight dunes in the late nineteenth century to hold provisions for sailors shipwrecked on the beach. During the Great Depression a group of squatters built a series of shacks around them. The settlement that grew became Tin City, on Worimi country, in the largest mobile coastal sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere.

View all in this series →

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.