Pedestal Looking Out Towards Switch Yard

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 24mm · f/8.0 · 1/10 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A robust concrete pedestal stands within Wangi Power Station, overlooking the expansive, silent switch yard. Corroded structures and decaying infrastructure mark the scene.

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: Pedestal Looking Out Towards Switch Yard
Series: Wangi Power Station
Catalogue: WPS-037
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/10 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
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
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

A turbine pedestal at Wangi Power Station looks out through one of the turbine hall windows toward the switch yard beyond. The pedestal is the heavy concrete plinth on which one of the six Parsons turbo-alternators sat, set into the turbine hall floor and rising about waist height. The bolt holes that anchored the machine are still in place across the upper surface; the machine itself is gone. Through the window, the steel lattice of the switch yard's high-voltage gantries is visible, the conductors and insulators removed. The window glazing is mostly intact but coated with the dust of decades of disuse. The light comes through in a flat band across the empty floor.

The six turbo-alternators at Wangi were supplied by C.A. Parsons & Co. as three-cylinder tandem compound steam turbines, each direct-drive at 3,000 RPM and synchronised to the 50 hertz NSW grid. From this pedestal, generated current ran out through the switch yard visible through the window to the transmission network beyond. A Station retired in 1985 and B Station in 1986. The generating equipment was removed between 1995 and 1997. The pedestal and the window remain.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Amidst the rusted remains of industry, a lone fern emerges through the cracks - flourishing in the very space where a massive turbine once hummed with energy.

Brett Patman

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.