First Aid Centre Kitchen

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
24mm · f/8.0 · 2.5s · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The kitchen in Wangi Power Station's first aid centre. The centre was staffed by a full-time nurse managing workplace injuries and health in an environment of heavy machinery. At its 1964 operating peak the station employed approximately 400 people on the shore of Lake Macquarie.

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
Size
Type
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

First Aid Centre Kitchen at Wangi Power Station, a steel-legged table sits centre of the room, surrounded by vinyl chairs.First Aid Centre Kitchen at Wangi Power Station, a steel-legged table sits centre of the room, surrounded by vinyl chairs.First Aid Centre Kitchen at Wangi Power Station, a steel-legged table sits centre of the room, surrounded by vinyl chairs.First Aid Centre Kitchen at Wangi Power Station, a steel-legged table sits centre of the room, surrounded by vinyl chairs.First Aid Centre Kitchen at Wangi Power Station, a steel-legged table sits centre of the room, surrounded by vinyl chairs.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
First Aid Centre Kitchen
Series
Wangi Power Station
Catalogue
WPS-030
Process
Giclée
Captured
27 November 2015
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
2.5s s
ISO
100
Focal length
24 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size
290 × 200 mm
Location
Wangi Wangi, New South Wales, Australia
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
02 LOCATION

Wangi Wangi, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The kitchen of the first aid centre at Wangi Power Station is a small fitted-out room beside the treatment area, sized for the nursing staff who ran the on-site medical operation. A short bench runs along one wall, fitted with a stainless-steel sink, a single-burner electric stove, and a small refrigerator. Cabinets above the bench hold the residue of working stock: tea, sugar, biscuit tins, cleaning materials, a few mugs. A small dining table with two chairs sits in the centre of the room. The fittings are mid-century institutional: pale green-painted plasterboard walls, vinyl tile flooring, fluorescent overhead lighting. A window above the sink looks out onto the plant.

Power stations of Wangi's scale ran their own first-aid centres staffed by registered nurses on shift, handling the daily injuries and medical issues of a workforce that peaked at approximately 400 employees. The kitchen attached to the centre was where the nursing staff took their breaks across the working day, with the door open to the treatment area in case of an emergency. After A Station retired on 7 March 1985 and B Station closed on 31 October 1986, the first aid centre wound down with the rest of the plant. The kitchen was vacated. The mugs are still on the bench.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A steel-legged table sits centre of the room, surrounded by vinyl chairs in faded red. Paint tins crowd the benchtop near a porcelain basin. Plastic sheeting covers most of the floor. Scattered clothing, newspapers and documents fill the gaps. A whiteboard on the far wall still carries diagrams in marker. Diffused light presses through bent aluminium blinds. The air looks thick. Everything is coated in a fine grey film.

Brett Patman

Wangi Power Station

The series

Wangi Power Station

51 photographs

About a thousand men built Wangi Power Station, on the western shore of Lake Macquarie. They were Hunter Valley locals and post-war Italian migrants, many living in a tent city on the lakeshore through the build. By 1957 they'd put up the main building, 228 metres long and eleven storeys high in triple-brick over a riveted steel frame, with three 76-metre concrete chimneys behind it.

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.

Anatomy · true ratio
TypeSizeWidthHeight
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