Ammeters

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 21mm · f/8.0 · 1s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A control panel at White Bay Power Station, its dials, relays, switches and meters laid out in a deliberate grid. Rows of glass-covered instruments sit beside black cases and labelled circuits, each placed for the operators who read the panel by habit. The paint is peeling now and the gauges sit still.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

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A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

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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.

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In situ

Ammeters at White Bay Power Station, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Ammeters at White Bay Power Station, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Ammeters at White Bay Power Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Ammeters
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-004
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 21 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 297 × 210 mm
Location: Rozelle, 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

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

A bank of ammeters at White Bay Power Station sits in a row across one of the switchboards, each meter a circular dial in a brass-rimmed bezel set into the panel face. The dials are calibrated in amperes and labelled by hand above each meter with the circuit they monitored: generator one, generator two, generator three, the auxiliary buses, the outgoing feeders. The needles sit at the positions they were in when the plant shut down. Some meters read at zero; others were caught mid-scale at the moment of disconnection. The brass has darkened with patina. The panel behind the meters is dark grey, the lettering on the labels still mostly legible.

Ammeters were the operator's continuous visual feed of how much current each circuit was carrying. White Bay's switchboards mounted them in groups, with each meter dedicated to a specific feeder so that operators could see the load distribution across the plant at a glance. The plant ran from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. After closure the meters were left in place on the panels. Heavy switchboard instrumentation of this kind was not worth removing for scrap value. The needles have stayed at their last positions since the plant shut down.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Protection relay panels line the wall in pale green steel, mounted floor to ceiling. Dozens of black Bakelite cases sit in tight rows. Glass-faced metres, knife switches, fuse carriers, pilot lamps. Labels identify generator and transmission protection circuits. Paint peels from the ceiling above, exposing damp plaster. Thin light falls across the panel face, catching dust on every surface.

Brett Patman

The series

White Bay Power Station

124 photographs

White Bay Power Station is a former coal-fired power station on Wanngal Country at Rozelle, at the head of White Bay on Sydney Harbour, built to power Sydney's trams and suburban trains and in service from May 1917 until December 1983. The New South Wales Department of Railways designed it in its own drawing office and began building in June 1912. The turbine hall, boilerhouse, switch house and control room stand on a 38,000 square metre site behind two steel chimney stacks, the main steelwork stamped with British manufacturers' names.

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.