Breakers

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 24mm · f/8.0 · 1.6s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Large electrical breakers stand silent within the abandoned Wangi Power Station. Their complex mechanisms once controlled the flow of power. Now they sit in decay, a relic of Australia's industrial past.

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 3 to 5 business days. Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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Ships within 10 business days · signed & numbered

In situ

Print datasheet

Title: Breakers
Series: Wangi Power Station
Catalogue: WPS-019
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 November 2015
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Wangi Wangi, New South Wales, Australia

Where this was photographed

Wangi Wangi, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

About this print

A row of vintage circuit breakers stands in the high-voltage hall at Wangi Power Station, each one mounted in its own steel cabinet about the height of a person. The breakers are bulk oil units, painted institutional grey, the colour darkened in patches with rust. Brass nameplates on each cabinet show the circuit label, the voltage rating, and the manufacturer. The handles for manual operation are still in their last position. Wiring and busbars run between the cabinets in heavy gauge, all dead now. The hall is quiet. The cabinets are bigger than they look from the outside; most of the switching mechanism is below the floor.

Bulk oil circuit breakers were the standard high-voltage switching technology in postwar power stations. Each breaker was a sealed cabinet containing the contacts immersed in insulating oil, capable of interrupting a fault current of tens of thousands of amperes without damage. Wangi's breakers were installed at the original 1958 build and worked continuously for the full life of the station. After closure in 1986, the breakers were isolated from the network and left in place. Removing them involves draining and disposing of hundreds of litres of insulating oil from each unit, which has not been a priority. The breakers in this photograph are still as they were left.

From the field notes

A bank of heavy-duty circuit breakers lines the left wall, their green steel casings dulled by corrosion and grime. Numbered panels. Thick cabling runs overhead. Someone has sprayed "Luks" in white paint across the face of the switchgear, a red cross beside it. Offcuts of timber and coils of copper wire sit heaped at the base. Beyond, the concrete floor stretches into a wide, empty hall. Blue-painted steel beams span the ceiling. Pale light enters through tall windows, catching the dust on every surface.

— Brett Patman

The series

Wangi Power Station

2016–2018 · 51 photographs

Wangi Power Station ran on the western shore of Lake Macquarie from 1958 until its decommissioning in 1986. Coal-fired, brought online to relieve rolling blackouts that hit New South Wales through the late 1950s, the station ran for 28 years before closure. The plant remains intact on its lakeshore site. Brett photographed across multiple visits between 2016 and 2018.

View all in this series →

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