Control Room Switches

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

Knife switches and isolator levers crowd the control desk at White Bay Power Station. Danger tags hang loose. Gauges on the rear panels are labelled Pyrmont, Leichhardt, and Strathfield Export.

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: Control Room Switches
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-039
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 section of switches on one of the control room panels at White Bay Power Station sits in close-up across the front face of a switchboard, the bakelite handles in their last operating positions. Each switch is a heavy rotary handle in a brass-bezelled escutcheon, with hand-painted lettering above the handle identifying the circuit. The brass has darkened with patina. The panel behind the switches is matte-finished steel, the painted background close to black. Some of the handles are in the up position, others down; the pattern reflects the operating state of the plant at the moment the last shift shut down.

The switches at White Bay's control room operated the plant's working machinery: generator field excitation, breaker operations, motor controls, station-supply selection. Operators worked these switches continuously across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After closure the switches were left in their last positions. The bakelite handles, the brass escutcheons, and the hand-painted lettering have stayed where they were. The pattern of positions in this photograph records the final shift's operating choices.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Rows of heavy-duty knife switches line the pale green control desk, each set in its own labelled plate. Black bakelite handles sit at various angles. A single red lockout guard stands out among them. Faded danger tags hang from several switches, their handwritten warnings still legible. On the wall behind, analogue metres and dials are arranged in grids. Labels read "Pyrmont 785" and "Strathfield Export." Loose paperwork curls at the desk's edge.

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.