Boiler Wall Access

Provenance

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

Within White Bay Power Station, a weathered access point penetrates the colossal boiler wall. Decades of disuse are evident in the layers of rust and grime coating the silent industrial machinery.

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.

See certificate sample →

Shipping Free shipping over $250. Ships worldwide, rates calculated at checkout.

Returns Damaged in transit? We replace it. Full policy →

Ships within 10 business days · signed & numbered

In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Boiler Wall Access
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-027
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1s 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

An access door in the side wall of Boiler No. 1 at White Bay Power Station opens onto the interior of the firing chamber. The door is heavy cast iron, the kind that swung open against a steel-and-asbestos seal when the boiler was offline and was clamped shut with a heavy bolted ring when the boiler was in service. The door is open in the photograph, with the door clamps swung aside. Beyond the door, the inside of the boiler is visible: the refractory lining of the firing chamber, the water-wall tubes around the inner face, the burner ports. The lining has the texture and colour of decades of high-temperature firing baked into the surface.

Wall access doors on cross-drum boilers like the original A Station units at White Bay gave the boilermakers and fitters access to the firing chamber for routine inspection and repair between operating campaigns. The doors were opened only when the boiler was offline and cool enough to enter. The boiler in this photograph (No. 1) ran continuously across the working life of A Station from 1917 onwards. After the plant closed on Christmas Day 1983, the firing chambers were cleaned out one last time. The access door has stayed in its current position since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Steel access ladders and handrails climb the face of Boiler No. 1, fixed against a dense wall of tubes and header pipes. Below, steel grating runs along the base of the boiler front. A heavy riveted column rises from a concrete plinth at centre. Grit and debris cover the floor. Light enters through high windows in the brick wall beyond, falling across chain-link barriers and a small red danger sign still bolted to a railing.

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.