Blowers

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 2s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Steel blowers at the base of Boiler No. 1 in the boilerhouse at White Bay Power Station. They forced air into the furnace to sustain combustion, and the actuators beside them regulated the airflow. The tubing behind them carried the water that turned to steam as the heat surrounded it. The ducts have been silent since production ceased on Christmas Eve 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.

$100.00 AUD

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

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

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

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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Blowers
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-096
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 2s 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

A bank of blowers at White Bay Power Station sits at the lower level of the boiler house, the heavy industrial fans that supplied combustion air to the boiler burners. Each blower is a riveted-steel volute housing with the drive motor stacked on top, the inlet open to one side and the discharge ducting rising up to the burner level above. The casings are painted in the pale industrial green of the plant, weathered to a darker tone at the seams. Nameplates on the motor housings give the manufacturer specifications. The cabling and ducting around the blowers are still in place; the motor couplings have been disconnected.

Combustion-air blowers were essential plant in a coal-fired power station. The boilers consumed enormous volumes of air at the burner level, with the blowers supplying that air at the pressure and flow rate the firing required. White Bay's blowers ran continuously through every operating shift across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. After closure the blowers were shut down. The motors were disconnected. The casings, the ducting, and the structural mounting remain. They have not run since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Massive steel blowers stand at the base of Boiler No. 1, once forcing air into the furnace to sustain combustion. The actuators beside them controlled the airflow, regulating the precise mix needed to keep the fire burning hot enough to heat the water walls beyond.

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.