Turbine Front End

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

The end of a Parsons turbine in the turbine hall at White Bay Power Station, its faded green paint and rusted metal showing years without maintenance. The PARSONS name is still fixed to the housing. The floor around it is largely clear, with sunlight coming through the tall windows and throwing long shadows across it.

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

Turbine Front End at White Bay Power Station, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Turbine Front End at White Bay Power Station, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Turbine Front End at White Bay Power Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Turbine Front End
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-072
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: 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

A Parsons steam turbine sits at floor level in the turbine hall at White Bay Power Station. Pale green paint flakes from the casing in wide patches, exposing rust beneath. The cast nameplate reads PARSONS in raised serif letters across the front plate. Bolted flanges, valve wheels, and copper pipework cluster across the front face of the unit. A concrete plinth carries the weight. The turbine is locked in place, anchored to the floor it was bolted to when first installed. Daylight from the turbine-hall windows falls flat across the casing. There is no movement and no audible hum in the room.

White Bay was built by the NSW Government Railways and Tramways from 1912 onwards and ran from 1917 until Christmas Eve 1983, supplying traction current to Sydney's tram and train networks across more than six decades. Parsons turbines were installed at White Bay from 1928 onwards, and the boilers were coal-fired, with coal unloaded directly from the wharf. The station was built out across further phases completed in 1928, 1953 and 1958. The turbine in this photograph was one of the units that drove Sydney's transport for decades. It has not turned since the plant closed.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A Parsons steam turbine sits at floor level inside the turbine hall at White Bay Power Station. Pale green paint flakes from the casing in wide patches, exposing rust beneath. The cast nameplate reads PARSONS in raised serif letters across the front plate. Bolted flanges, valve wheels, and copper piping cluster around the turbine's end. Light enters through tall steel-framed windows on the eastern wall, falling across the concrete floor and the machine's curved bulk.

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.