Turbine

A small wind turbine sits on a galvanised pole behind one of the Tin City shacks, the blades spinning in the southerly that runs up the dune face most afternoons. The pole is guyed to anchor points set into the sand. The turbine itself is a domestic-scale unit, the kind that produces a few hundred watts in a steady wind. Cabling runs from the head of the pole down to a junction box on the side of the shack. The blades catch the late-afternoon light against the dune ridge behind. Sand has built up around the base of the pole in a small mound.

Tin City has no mains power. The shacks run on whatever each owner has installed, which is typically a combination of solar panels, small wind generators, and gas. The wind on the Stockton Bight is steady and strong from the south through most of the year, which makes a small turbine a reasonable supplement to solar on overcast days and through the night. The systems are sized for the shacks' actual loads: lights, a fan, a small fridge, a radio. The 11 remaining shacks are administered under licences that prohibit the construction of new structures and any rebuilding after destruction, but the day-to-day work of keeping the existing shacks habitable continues.