Workshop Storage

Storage space in the workshop at White Bay Power Station is an area along the rear wall fitted with heavy-duty steel shelving carrying bulk plant materials. The lower shelves hold steel bar stock in assorted diameters standing in a vertical rack, the tags still attached to the bar ends giving the material specification and heat batch number. Above the bar rack, shelves carry boxes of standard fasteners sorted by thread form and size, each box labelled in permanent marker. Sheet metal sections are stacked flat on a wide shelf. Above the sheet metal, coils of copper tube in assorted diameters sit in a tilted rack to keep them from unrolling. The shelving uprights are bolted to the concrete floor and the rear wall.

Workshop stores at White Bay Power Station held the raw materials and consumables for the mechanical maintenance programme. Bar stock for machining replacement shafts, pins, and valve stems; sheet metal for fabricated components; copper tube for instrumentation and oil system lines; and fasteners for assembly work were all maintained in the workshop stores to avoid delays when repair work was underway. White Bay's 8 Babcock and Wilcox boilers and the Parsons turbine plant were high-maintenance items, and the workshop stores were replenished on a regular cycle. The station ran from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After the shutdown the workshop stores were included in the 1990s decontamination assessment. Material left in the stores remained in place through to the heritage listing in April 1999.