Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.
Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.

Breaker Box

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
21mm · f/8.0 · 2s · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Inside White Bay Power Station, a robust breaker box sits dormant. Its grey metal casing shows years of disuse, with switches locked in position. This relic once controlled vital power flows for the industrial heart of Sydney.

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.
See certificate sample →

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In situ

Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.Breaker Box at White Bay Power Station, a timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Breaker Box
Series
White Bay Power Station
Catalogue
WBP-029
Process
Giclée
Captured
13 November 2015
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
2s 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 circuit breaker cabinet at White Bay Power Station stands against the wall of one of the switchgear rooms, the heavy steel enclosure painted pale industrial green, with the operator panel set into the front face. The panel carries the breaker handle at chest height, the rotary disconnect switch beside it, and the indicator lamps that showed circuit status. A hand-painted label above the panel identifies the circuit and the rating. Cabling enters the cabinet through gland fittings at the top; the busbars exit through the back to the equipment behind. The door is heavy steel, hung on a continuous hinge and secured with two locking handles.

Circuit breakers of this kind handled the routine switching of feeders and station-supply circuits across the plant. Operators worked the breakers from the front-panel handles during normal operation, with the cabinets isolated by the rotary disconnect switches for any maintenance work that required the breaker to be opened. White Bay's breaker cabinets ran across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After closure the cabinets were isolated and the doors locked shut. The fittings inside the cabinet in this photograph have stayed in place since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A timber-framed switchboard cabinet sits against bare brick. Behind the glass panel, four porcelain circuit breakers are mounted in a row, their red toggle handles still visible. A brass plate reads 240 VOLTS A.C. The wood is dark, lacquered, heavy. Behind it, white glazed tiles line the lower walls. Conduit runs vertically up exposed brickwork. Steel rods lean in the far corner. Dust films the glass.

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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