Boiler House Floor

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 21mm · f/8.0 · 1/40 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A large rusted hopper on wheels sits to the right of the boiler house floor at White Bay Power Station in Rozelle, its steel gone deep orange. Sunlight comes through the grimy windows in hard bars, laying shadows across the dusty concrete and three slabs set into the foreground, one edged in faded orange paint. A small dark timber door is set into the brick wall below the windows.

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

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

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

Boiler House Floor at White Bay Power Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Boiler House Floor
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-020
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/40 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 21 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 boiler house floor at White Bay Power Station is the working operator level at the front of the boilers, with the burner platforms, the firing-control panels, and the access stairs to the upper drum-inspection levels rising from the floor. The floor itself is concrete, scuffed and stained from decades of foot traffic and the operating spills of coal dust, lubricants, and condensate. Bolt patterns mark where heavier instrument cabinets stood; some of the cabinets remain, others have been removed. Steel-grating walkways extend from the floor toward the boiler fronts. Daylight comes through the high windows along the perimeter walls.

The boiler house floor was the primary working position for the boiler-watch crew across every operating shift. From this level, operators ran the firing of the boilers in service, responded to the alarm board indicators, and dispatched fitters and electricians to upper-level work. The floor saw heavy foot traffic across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. After closure the floor stopped being walked on for working purposes. The bolt patterns, the cabinet positions, and the staining of the concrete are the record of decades of operation.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Concrete plinths line the boiler house floor where heavy machinery once sat bolted down. One rusted steel hopper remains, its access hatch hanging open, mounted on a low rail cart. Chains drop from overhead gantries into empty space. Blue-white light presses through a wall of steel-framed windows, three storeys tall, catching the grit and dust settled across every surface. Bare brick walls show damp staining and the first push of weeds through mortar joints.

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.