Pump House Equipment

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 1/8 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A long row of cast-iron pumps in the pump house, frames tinged with rust. The pumps moved circulating water from White Bay through the condenser system and back to the harbour. The station drew on the harbour continuously throughout its 66-year operational life.

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.

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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

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

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

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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Pump House Equipment
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-109
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 1/8 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 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

Equipment in the pump house at White Bay Power Station sits across a large open bay, the centrifugal pumps and motor drives arranged in rows on concrete plinths. Each pump unit carries a steel nameplate with the manufacturer's rating, the head, and the flow capacity. Suction and discharge pipework runs off either side of the volutes and connects to the main plant headers above. The pump motors are enclosed industrial pattern with external cooling fins. Cable trays overhead feed the terminal boxes. Several of the plinths are empty where pumps were removed during the 1990s decontamination; the bolt-hole patterns are still visible in the concrete.

The pump house served the seawater cooling circuit at White Bay Power Station. Harbour water was drawn in through the intake on the eastern side of the plant and circulated through the condenser shells to remove heat from the steam cycle. The pump house ran continuously across the station's operational life from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. Cooling-water pumps of this type ran at high flow rates and low head, sized to keep the condensers flooded at all times. After closure the pump house was progressively stripped during the 1990s decontamination. The surviving equipment is the residue of a plant that moved millions of litres of harbour water per hour.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A narrow service corridor runs between a row of heavy cast-iron pumps and a wall-mounted instrument panel. The pumps sit on raised concrete plinths, their flanged valve assemblies thick with verdigris and rust. Opposite, analogue gauges are bolted to a steel plate pocked with corrosion. The dials sit still. Grit covers the concrete floor. Overhead, steel cable trays and pipework run the full length of the corridor. Pale light enters from the far end.

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.