Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.
Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.

Fire Extinguisher

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
21mm · f/8.0 · 1.6s · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A vintage fire extinguisher mounted in the Switch House, hose curling to the floor. The reinforced concrete housings behind it held high-voltage switching gear, directing electricity through the station's distribution circuits. The Switch House was part of the B Station expansion of 1923 to 1928.

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.
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In situ

Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.Fire Extinguisher at White Bay Power Station, a red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Fire Extinguisher
Series
White Bay Power Station
Catalogue
WBP-048
Process
Giclée
Captured
13 November 2015
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
1.6s 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 wall-mounted fire extinguisher at White Bay Power Station sits in one of the corridors of the plant, the cylindrical brass-bodied unit hanging from a wall bracket at chest height. The brass has darkened with patina; the painted lettering on the side of the cylinder identifies the contents and the date of last service. A red-painted operating handle is fitted at the top of the cylinder, with the safety pin still in place. A length of rubber hose hangs from the side connection. The wall behind the extinguisher is painted in the standard institutional cream of the plant, scuffed at the level a passing trolley would clip.

Fire extinguishers of this kind were the standard wall-mounted equipment in industrial buildings of White Bay's era, with a unit at every change of corridor and at every workshop entrance. The extinguishers were regularly serviced by a contractor and the service tag on the side recorded each inspection. White Bay's extinguishers ran across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After closure the service stopped. The cylinder in this photograph still has its safety pin in place and its hose attached, suggesting that nobody has discharged it in the four decades since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A red Quell fire extinguisher stands on a grime-covered brick floor, its rubber hose disconnected and curled flat against the ground. Behind it, reinforced concrete housings run in a long colonnade toward the far end of the hall. Steel bolts and diamond-shaped mounting plates hold the panels together. Light enters through rows of louvre windows on the right, casting pale grey across every surface. Dust and debris sit undisturbed between the columns.

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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