Ash Handling Tower

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 1/200 · ISO 320
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The rusted coal conveyor stretches overhead at White Bay Power Station, and below it the twin silos of the ash handling plant stand weathered and corroded. This was where what was left of the burned coal was handled, the last step in the station's fuel cycle.

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

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

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

Ash Handling Tower at White Bay Power Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Ash Handling Tower
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-120
Process: Giclée
Captured: 24 February 2017
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/200 s
ISO: 320
Focal length: 14 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

The ash handling tower at White Bay Power Station rises beside the boiler house, a steel-framed structure carrying the conveyors and hoppers that moved fly ash and bottom ash from the boilers to the disposal area. The tower is clad in corrugated steel, painted dark, weathered to a near-black tone along the prevailing wind side. Access stairs run up the outside of the tower in switchbacks; the conveyor housings step up the inside face. At the top, the hoppers discharged ash into trucks waiting on the apron below. The cladding has failed in places, exposing the structural steel underneath.

Coal-fired power stations of White Bay's era produced large volumes of ash continuously while operating: fly ash carried by the flue gases through the precipitators and collected at the bag filters, and bottom ash falling out of the firing chambers into the basement hoppers. The handling system moved that ash continuously through every operating shift. White Bay's ash tower handled the residue of successive phases of boiler installation across the plant's working life from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. After closure the system was shut down. The tower has stood since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Two steel hoppers sit elevated on a rusted framework beside the main turbine hall. Their conical bases taper to discharge points several metres above ground level. A coal conveyor bridge extends overhead, its corrugated cladding oxidised to deep orange. The brick wall of the boiler house rises four storeys to the left, glass panes missing or clouded. Rail tracks run beneath the structure, set flush into concrete. Overcast light flattens the colour of everything except the rust.

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.