Tank Level

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 24mm · f/8.0 · 6s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Inside Wangi Power Station, a defunct tank level gauge displays its final reading. Rust colours the metal casing, while the glass face reflects the station’s silent, abandoned interior. It marks a forgotten industrial era.

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: Tank Level
Series: Wangi Power Station
Catalogue: WPS-042
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 6s 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 water-level indicator on one of the storage tanks at Wangi Power Station sits at eye height on the side of the steel-walled vessel. The indicator is a vertical sight-glass column built into a brass-bodied housing, calibrated in feet and tenths along the column. A small float inside the glass moves up and down with the water level, the float currently sitting at the bottom of the run. The brass has darkened with patina. The lettering on the calibration scale has worn at the most-read positions. A small bleed valve at the base of the housing handles isolation and drain for maintenance. The wider tank wall around the gauge is painted in a pale industrial green.

Wangi Power Station relied on three storage tanks on the hill behind the building, each holding 2.27 million litres of water. The tanks supplied the boilers, the cooling circuits, and the fire system through the working life of the plant. Operators read tank levels off gauges like the one in this photograph as part of the routine shift checks. After A Station retired on 7 March 1985 and B Station closed on 31 October 1986, the tanks were drained and the gauges left as they were on the last shift. The brass housing has stayed at eye height since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Once essential to the operation of Wangi Power Station, these makeup tanks played a vital role in supplying water to the boilers. Now, their rusted frames hold shallow pools of water, reflecting the fractured ceiling above - a mirror of time’s passage.

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.