Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.
Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.

Basement Pump

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
21mm · f/8.0 · 10s · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A weathered green pump with an orange motor at the lowest point of the station. Brett had spent five hours in the building that day, guided by Steve, the long-time White Bay security guard, before reaching this corner of the basement.

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
Size
Type
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

Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.Basement Pump at White Bay Power Station, a centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Basement Pump
Series
White Bay Power Station
Catalogue
WBP-008
Process
Giclée
Captured
13 November 2015
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
10s s
ISO
100
Focal length
21 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size
290 × 200 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 basement pump at White Bay Power Station sits on a concrete plinth in one of the below-ground service levels, the cast-iron volute housing mounted with the drive motor stacked on top and the suction and discharge piping running off either side. The pump is the standard centrifugal pattern of mid-twentieth-century industrial plant. The motor casing carries a manufacturer's nameplate with the rating and speed. Cabling enters the motor terminal box from the cable tray above. The pump is bolted to the plinth with heavy anchor bolts. Pipework joins are flanged, sealed with the heavy fibre gasket material that was standard at the time of installation.

White Bay had many pumps in its basement: feedwater pumps moving water from the storage tanks to the boilers, condenser-circulating pumps lifting harbour water through the cooling system, drain pumps, oil pumps, fire-main pressuriser pumps. The pump in this photograph was one of the smaller units in the basement plant. The plant ran continuously across three build phases from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After closure the pumps were shut down. Most of the larger basement plant has been removed during the 1990s decontamination; the smaller pumps and their plinths often remained.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A centrifugal pump sits bolted to a concrete plinth in the basement level of White Bay Power Station. The cast iron casing has turned pale green with oxidation. Beside it, an electric motor holds its original orange paint under a thick layer of grime. Flanged pipe connections jut from the pump housing. The concrete floor is wet in patches, scattered with debris and flakes of fallen render. Behind the machinery, tall concrete walls rise toward the upper levels. Green paint peels from the lower sections. Diffused light enters through frosted windows to the right.

Brett Patman

White Bay Power Station

The series

White Bay Power Station

2015–2018 · 124 photographs

Bricklayers laid 3.7 million bricks at White Bay across three and a quarter years of Phase 1 construction, on Wanngal Country at the western edge of Rozelle. The New South Wales Government Railways ran the build through its own Construction Department. By 3 July 1913, boilers and alternators were running before the buildings that housed them were complete.

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.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM WHITE BAY POWER STATION

123 other prints in this series

All prints
Control Room at White Bay Power Station, a curved control console wraps across the room in a wide arc.
Control Room $100.00
Turbine Hall at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete walls rise three storeys on each side, their surfaces stained.
Turbine Hall $100.00
Glass Curtain at White Bay Power Station, a towering mosaic of glass and steel, where light filters through dust-streaked.
Glass Curtain $100.00
Turbine and Condenser at White Bay Power Station, a steam turbine and its condenser sit on the operating floor of White Bay.
Turbine and Condenser $100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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