Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.
Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.

Turbine Hall Basement Northern End

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

Decommissioned pumps on concrete plinths at the northern end of the Turbine Hall basement at White Bay Power Station. The perspective down the length of the hall underscores the scale. Units 6 to 9 were decommissioned and removed in 1975, before the station's final shutdown on Christmas Day 1983.

Edition
Open edition

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A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD
Size
Type
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In situ

Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.Turbine Hall Basement Northern End at White Bay Power Station, concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Turbine Hall Basement Northern End
Series
White Bay Power Station
Catalogue
WBP-078
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

At the northern end of the turbine hall basement at White Bay Power Station the structure shows its age in the materials and construction techniques. The brickwork here is the original 1910s coursework, the mortar joints wide by later standards and the brick faces carrying the patina of a hundred years in a damp industrial space. Concrete pours visible in the floor level variations where later works filled in around the original footings. Valve platforms of welded steel angle are fixed to the wall with expansion bolts, the bolt caps rusted to the concrete below. The pipework on this section of wall is the original flanged steel, the flanges spaced wide for the earlier pipe specification.

The northern section of the turbine hall basement reflects the first phase of White Bay Power Station's construction. The NSW Government Railways commenced work in June 1912 and brought the first plant on line in July 1913, with the station formally operational in May 1917. The original A Station section of the turbine hall was the core of the plant, housing the early Dick Kerr and Willans and Robinson alternators rated at 8.7 MW continuous before the Parsons turbines were introduced from the 1920s onward. By the time the B Station expansion began in 1923 the northern basement structures were already a decade old. The station ran until Christmas Day 1983 and was heritage listed in April 1999.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Concrete plinths rise from the dirt floor at the northern end of White Bay Power Station's turbine hall basement. Heavy pump assemblies sit bolted to each plinth, their green and grey casings thick with rust and mineral staining. Red-painted steel staircases climb toward the upper levels. Clerestory windows line the hall's eastern wall, flooding the space with diffused light. The ceiling structure stretches two storeys above. Grit and debris cover every surface.

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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