Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.
Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.

Reactor Room

Provenance

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

The reactor room corridor, a repeating row of empty housings stretching into the dim distance. Each held a high-voltage reactor, part of the electrical distribution system that directed power from the generators to the tram and rail network. The equipment was removed during the 1990s.

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 →

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

Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.Reactor Room at White Bay Power Station, reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Reactor Room
Series
White Bay Power Station
Catalogue
WBP-110
Process
Giclée
Captured
27 May 2016
Camera
NIKON D810
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/9.0
Shutter
8s s
ISO
100
Focal length
14 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

The reactor room at White Bay Power Station holds a row of oil-immersed current-limiting reactors in steel tank housings, each unit mounted on a concrete plinth with the oil-fill cap and drain valve visible on the side. The tanks are painted dark grey, the same industrial finish as the switchgear in the adjacent switch house. Porcelain insulators are fitted to the terminals at the top of each tank. Copper buswork connects the units to the busbar runs running overhead. The room has a concrete floor with oil-containment kerbing around the plinth bases. The ceiling carries cable trays and steel conduit runs.

Current-limiting reactors at White Bay Power Station were used to control fault current on the high-voltage busbars. The switch house reactors were part of the protective system that kept the station's output stable as the load on the tram and rail network varied through the day. White Bay supplied Sydney's tram and suburban rail network from 1917 and transitioned to supplying the wider NSW electricity grid after 1958. The switch house and its associated equipment dated across the A, B, and C Station build phases completed between 1912 and 1948. After the Christmas Day 1983 shutdown the switch house was left in place. The station was heritage listed in April 1999.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Reinforced concrete bays line both sides of a long corridor deep inside White Bay Power Station. The vertical ribs repeat in strict formation, each panel identical, receding toward a wash of grey light at the far end. Industrial pendant fittings hang from the low ceiling. The concrete floor is gritty with dust and fine debris. The air feels close, mineral, cold.

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

Read the full story

Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

You're subscribed.