Welcome To Tin City

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 1/60 · ISO 64
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A hand-painted metal sign reading "Welcome To Tin City" lies half-buried in sand beside a rotting timber post. Rusted corrugated iron structures and low dunes stretch behind it under a flat grey sky.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

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: Welcome To Tin City
Series: Tin City
Catalogue: TCI-036
Process: Giclée
Captured: 1 February 2018
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/60 s
ISO: 64
Focal length: 14 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

The entry into Tin City sits between two of the remaining shacks, a sand path between corrugated iron walls that opens onto the small inner cluster of the settlement. A hand-painted WELCOME TO TIN CITY sign is fixed to one wall, the lettering weathered down to a pale red against the iron behind it. The sand path is loose underfoot; the wind has worked at it the same way it works at everything here. Salvaged timber is stacked along one wall ready for the next repair job. The opening frames a small section of dune field and ocean beyond.

Tin City is reached by NPWS-licensed 4WD across the Stockton Bight dunes or on foot. There is no road in. There are no services on site. The settlement sits inside the Worimi Conservation Lands, gazetted under Part 4A of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 as three reserves with the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council holding freehold title since 1 February 2007. The welcome sign reads as part of the settlement's character: handmade, friendly, and entirely on the residents' terms. There is no gate. The path is open. Whether anyone will be home when you arrive is a different question.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A metal sign lies face-up in the sand, its blue painted letters barely legible. "Welcome to Tin City." Rust bolts hold it to a warped sheet of aluminium. A speed limit sign sits underneath, half buried. Behind it, corrugated iron shacks scatter across the dunes under a low grey sky. Spinifex pushes through the sand between structures. No footprints. No movement.

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.