Control Room

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 52mm · f/11.0 · 1/2 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A yellow instrumentation panel covers the wall. Rows of circular analogue pressure gauges are mounted across its face. Dial labels name suburban reservoirs: Killara, Chatswood, Hermitage. Strip chart recorders occupy the left column. Gauge needles sit mid-scale. The panel appears to be mid-to-late twentieth century in origin.

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 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

See certificate sample →

Shipping Free shipping over $250. Ships worldwide, rates calculated at checkout.

Returns Damaged in transit? We replace it. Full policy →

Ships within 10 business days · signed & numbered

In situ

Control Room at West Ryde Pumping Station, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Control Room at West Ryde Pumping Station, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Control Room at West Ryde Pumping Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Control Room
Series: West Ryde Pumping Station
Catalogue: WRP-006
Process: Giclée
Captured: 26 August 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/11.0
Shutter: 1/2 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 52 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: West Ryde, 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

West Ryde, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The yellow panel occupies the wall of the control room at West Ryde Pumping Station, its surface crowded with analogue pressure gauges arranged in rows. Each dial is labelled for the reservoir it monitors: Killara, Chatswood, Hermitage among them. Strip chart recorders line the left column, their paper rolls keeping a continuous record of pressure across the northern distribution network. The needles sit mid-scale. Nothing here suggests the station has stopped. West Ryde Pumping Station, formally known as Ryde Pumping Station and site, was built in two distinct phases. Station No. 1 was completed in 1891 by the Harbours and Rivers Department and handed to the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage. It was the mechanism by which Sydney's developing northern suburbs first received a reliable water supply, fed by a 24-inch main from Potts Hill and lifting water to reservoirs at Ryde and Chatswood. Station No. 2 followed between 1916 and 1921, built to meet a demand that had outgrown the original plant. It was commissioned on 15 September 1921 as the largest steam-powered water pumping station in Australia. The station accumulated engineering firsts across three decades: steam turbine engines in 1906, the first in any Australian pumping station; reinforced concrete chimneys constructed in 1918 for an early industrial application of the material; electrically welded steam piping installed in 1921; and a pneumatic ash collection system in 1923. Progressive electrification through the 1970s and into 1982 replaced the steam plant entirely, bringing 13 electric pumping units into service and making the station the largest domestic water pumping station in Australia at that time. The control room panel in this photograph, captured in 2015, records the distribution system those decades of engineering built. The gauges name places, Killara, Chatswood, Hermitage, that the station has supplied without interruption since Station No. 2 was first commissioned. Listed on the NSW State Heritage Register in 2002 and awarded an Engineering Heritage National Marker in October 2017, West Ryde Pumping Station remains an active facility.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The control room panel at West Ryde Pumping Station carries a map of sorts: each analogue gauge labelled for the reservoir it watches, Killara, Chatswood, Hermitage, and the others spread across Sydney's northern suburbs. Strip chart recorders track the pressure history across each line. The needles rest mid-scale, the station still operational after more than a century of continuous service since Station No. 2 was commissioned on 15 September 1921. The gauges are the face of an infrastructure system that serves approximately one-third of Sydney's metropolitan area.

Brett Patman

The series

West Ryde Pumping Station

2015 · 17 photographs

Ryde Pumping Station, on the corner of Victoria Road and Hermitage Road in West Ryde, was the largest pumping station in Australia when its 1921 building was completed. The first station on the site went up in 1891, taking water from Potts Hill Reservoir and lifting it to Ryde tank and Chatswood through a pair of 146-horsepower vertical compound pumping engines moving 3,400 gallons a minute. The second and larger station was commissioned on 15 September 1921 and absorbed the work; the original station ceased pumping in November 1930 and was demolished in 1961. The 1921 station continues to operate as a working water utility, and was added to the NSW State Heritage Register on 15 November 2002. Engineering Heritage Australia recognised the place in 2017. The Lost Collective photographs are of the heritage interior of the working station.

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.