Vent Fans

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 21mm · f/8.0 · 3s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The vent fans on their concrete mounts above the alternator air chamber, blades still and dust-coated. They worked with dampers to cool the station's turbo-alternators. Dick Kerr and Co. of Preston, England supplied the earliest alternators; they entered service here in 1917.

Edition

Open edition

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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

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Vent Fans
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-088
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 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

Ventilation fans at White Bay Power Station are large-diameter axial-flow units mounted in steel housings set into the wall openings of the boilerhouse and turbine hall. Each fan housing is a rolled-steel cylinder with flanged ends bolted to the wall frame. The fan blades are aerofoil section, the pitch fixed at the design angle. The drive motor sits in the centre hub of the fan, connected to the blade assembly by a short shaft. On the exterior face of the housing a steel grille is fitted over the air outlet to prevent access to the rotating blades. Several of the fans are seized in place, the blade tips touching the housing where the impeller has dropped on its bearings. The steel housing shows surface rust across the exterior.

Forced ventilation was essential at White Bay Power Station. The boilerhouse generated substantial heat from the eight Babcock and Wilcox boilers running at 205 psi and 588 degrees Fahrenheit, and the turbine hall added the heat radiated from the Parsons turbine casings. Without mechanical ventilation the working conditions in both halls would have made sustained operation extremely difficult. White Bay ran from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983 with the plant staffed around the clock throughout that period. After the Christmas Day 1983 shutdown the ventilation fans were progressively decommissioned. Most of the fan drives were removed during the 1990s decontamination, but the housings and blades remained in many of the wall openings. Heritage listing followed in April 1999.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Two Sirocco centrifugal fans sit bolted to concrete plinths, their cast-iron housings oxidised to a deep copper tone. The brand name is cast into each base in raised lettering. Behind them, stencilled valve instructions read "OPEN" on the concrete wall. To the left, a large green condenser unit dominates the space, its riveted casing streaked with corrosion. Red pipe railings and steel I-beams cross overhead. Grit covers the floor. The air smells like cold metal and damp concrete.

Brett Patman

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.