Ash Handling Tower Lookup

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 1/30 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The ash handling tower from below, rusted panels and weathered steel open to the sky. Coal combustion left clinker and fine ash as residue; this structure carried that material out of the boilerhouse as part of the coal-to-power cycle. The station burned coal from 1917 to 1983.

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.

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

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

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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Ash Handling Tower Lookup
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-094
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/30 s
ISO: 100
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

Looking up the inside of the ash handling tower at White Bay Power Station, the framework rises through several storeys of structural steel to the upper conveyor level above. The view from the base looks straight up into the tower, with the conveyor housings stacked against one wall, the access stairs switching back through the central well, and the cladding panels visible from the inside as a darker outer envelope. Daylight filters through where panels of the cladding have come away. The structural steel is darkened from decades of ash dust accumulating on every horizontal surface.

The ash handling tower was one of the dirtier working areas at the plant: fine ash dust was carried on the conveyors and the air currents inside the tower, settling on every surface across decades of operation. Operators avoided the tower except for required inspection rounds. The system ran continuously while the plant was firing, from the 1917 opening to the Christmas Eve 1983 closure. After closure the tower was shut down. The dust has had over forty years to settle. The view up into the tower is one of the more vertical perspectives the building offers.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Steel beams and concrete walls stack upward in heavy layers. Riveted girders cross at angles beneath a corrugated iron roof, its panels streaked orange with rust. Translucent skylights puncture the roofline. A winch mechanism sits at the top of the structure, its drum and motor housing seized in place. Flat steel plates, pipe fittings, and diagonal bracing fill the gaps between levels. The light is hard and warm against a clear sky.

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.