Battery Charger

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 21mm · f/8.0 · 1.3s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A battery charging board on a marble panel, hand-painted schematics still readable across the surface. Marble was used throughout the station's electrical installations for its insulating properties. This board managed the charging circuit for the station's auxiliary battery backup system.

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 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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Battery Charger
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-009
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1.3s 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 battery charger at White Bay Power Station sits in the battery room, the steel-cased unit mounted at chest height on the wall above the battery bank. The charger is a heavy industrial unit with the input contactors, the rectifier section, and the output meters all built into the same enclosure. A faceplate carries the manufacturer's specifications, the rating in volts and amperes, and the load circuit identification. Indicator lamps along the lower edge of the faceplate sit dark, the charger long since disconnected from supply. Cabling runs from the charger down to the battery terminals below in heavy gauge.

White Bay's emergency lighting, control circuits, and protective relays all ran on battery-backed DC supply, with the battery banks in the battery room kept on float charge from chargers like this one. The system ensured that the plant's protection equipment stayed operational through any disturbance on the AC supply. The charger ran continuously across the plant's working life from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After closure, the battery system was de-energised. The charger was disconnected from supply. The unit has stayed mounted on the wall where it was first installed.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A battery charging board mounted on a grey steel panel against white-tiled walls. Three copper-housed metres sit in a row: amperes, battery volts, amperes. White hand-painted schematics trace the circuit paths between A and B battery banks, down through operating bus and parallel bus lines to a rectifier. Copper knife switches stand exposed in rows, their blades oxidised to brown. A small red tag in the upper corner reads "Not In Service."

Brett Patman

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.