I absolutely enjoyed this video, especially as I grew up in Balmain and have known this site my entire life. I remember having to regularly hose down the exterior of my house to remove the coal dust, which came from the huge mounds of coal that covered the coal loader at the power house. The scale of this building is not realised from the outside, and this video really brings it home. Much of the coal came by ship from Newcastle and by train from closer collieries. There was another power station at Balmain on the southern side of the Iron Cove Bridge, which provided power to the trams operating between Drummoyne and Ryde. The Ultimo Power Station provided power for the trams and trains on the Pyrmont peninsula and until recently was utilised for the Power House Museum. Great video, Matthew. Well done 👏 👍
Well done Matthew! I've lost count of the years I'd gone past on a bus, driven, or walked past and thought wouldn't it be great if this could be restored and open to the public. Fantastic
The Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo was going to be closed at one stage, but with the change in government, it is being refurbished/updated. Although they have already scaled back on some of the changes. So, political whim allowing, it will reopen. Some of the exhibits will be at Parramatta, so we will have to see what we get.
@daveg2104 You are correct, and I believe that there are enough exhibits currently housed in Castle Hill to provide for both Parramatta and Ultimo. I am hoping that another change in government won't skuttle the Ultimo project because I believe it to be more historically important than Parramatta.
Hi Matthew I have not worked at White Bay, but have worked at its sister stations (Pyrmont, Balmain) and then later Liddell, Bayswater, Vales Point (A and B stations), Munmorah, Eraring, Mt Piper, Wallerawang. Am a Power Station Mechanical Engineer and first worked for The Electricity Commission of New South Wales back in the 80's. At 3.08 where you first walk in those machines are Mills, and are designed to crush coal into a fine powder for the boiler fed from the coal bunker (via feeder) above. (The crushed coal is known as "PF" Pulverised Fuel). At 3.32 the green thing is a condenser and sits underneath its relevant turbine. Its job is to cool the turbines exhausted steam back into water. The condensed water is then treated and put back into the boiler (Thats known as Boiler Feed Water). At 3.56 That multiple disc (insulator) looking thing is not an original fitment or would ever be in a power station like that. At 4.27 You are on /in the Turbine hall which ironically is missing its turbines apart from at 4.38 where you can see one towards the end of the building (The green round thing connected to it closest to the window is the Alternator.) Looks like the turbines are original Parsons. At 5.48 that structure is one of the boilers. They are a stand alone and now are now usually built outside of the building. I also noticed they have stripped a lot of the outer sheathing (refractory) and boiler walls (probably because they would have been full of asbestos, and to give people a view of the inner tubes). At 6.21, Those black things look like feeders that regulate the amount of coal going to the mills below (What you first saw when you walked in). At 8.34, The long shiny things on the stacks look like blanks covering the entry point of where the boilers exhaust (flue gas) entered into them. At 9.13 Looks like the Stations ash dump (hopper), where open carriages would take the heavy ash and dump it (usually at sea) or used to manufacture cement. At 8.37, behind the stacks you can see what looks like an angled covered walkway. That is the coal conveyor feeding coal into the power stations bunkers. To the right of the image is where the trains would have dumped their coal. I recall at Pyrmont I was only very young and Iva Davies band Icehouse filmed the clip for their song 'Crazy" there. Vales Point power station was where Midnight Oil filmed their clip for their song Us Forces. Eraring power station was used for some b grade movie about ninja's attacking a nuclear power station. (Cant recall what the movie was called but I do remember having jeeps lifted up from the loading dock onto the turbine floor). If you think White Bay power station is big, see if you can get a look at either Eraring or Bayswater. They used to do tours years ago.
Yeah, the big insulator is an art work, made out of soft material. One of the artists decided to make something "electricity" related. I did a tour of Eraring when it first opened. Well, it wasn't really a tour, they just let you wander around the turbine hall and look at the control room and a few other places.
On second thought, there may have been a guided or self guided tour. I remember information about pollution control. I also had a guided tour of Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria, and the guide opening up a peep hole into the boiler.
I absolutely enjoyed this video, especially as I grew up in Balmain and have known this site my entire life. I remember having to regularly hose down the exterior of my house to remove the coal dust, which came from the huge mounds of coal that covered the coal loader at the power house. The scale of this building is not realised from the outside, and this video really brings it home. Much of the coal came by ship from Newcastle and by train from closer collieries. There was another power station at Balmain on the southern side of the Iron Cove Bridge, which provided power to the trams operating between Drummoyne and Ryde. The Ultimo Power Station provided power for the trams and trains on the Pyrmont peninsula and until recently was utilised for the Power House Museum. Great video, Matthew. Well done 👏 👍
Well done Matthew! I've lost count of the years I'd gone past on a bus, driven, or walked past and thought wouldn't it be great if this could be restored and open to the public. Fantastic
The Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo was going to be closed at one stage, but with the change in government, it is being refurbished/updated. Although they have already scaled back on some of the changes. So, political whim allowing, it will reopen. Some of the exhibits will be at Parramatta, so we will have to see what we get.
@daveg2104 You are correct, and I believe that there are enough exhibits currently housed in Castle Hill to provide for both Parramatta and Ultimo. I am hoping that another change in government won't skuttle the Ultimo project because I believe it to be more historically important than Parramatta.
@@aussiejohn5835 Yeah, a lot of stuff in storage.
Hi Matthew
I have not worked at White Bay, but have worked at its sister stations (Pyrmont, Balmain) and then later Liddell, Bayswater, Vales Point (A and B stations), Munmorah, Eraring, Mt Piper, Wallerawang. Am a Power Station Mechanical Engineer and first worked for The Electricity Commission of New South Wales back in the 80's.
At 3.08 where you first walk in those machines are Mills, and are designed to crush coal into a fine powder for the boiler fed from the coal bunker (via feeder) above. (The crushed coal is known as "PF" Pulverised Fuel).
At 3.32 the green thing is a condenser and sits underneath its relevant turbine. Its job is to cool the turbines exhausted steam back into water. The condensed water is then treated and put back into the boiler (Thats known as Boiler Feed Water).
At 3.56 That multiple disc (insulator) looking thing is not an original fitment or would ever be in a power station like that.
At 4.27 You are on /in the Turbine hall which ironically is missing its turbines apart from at 4.38 where you can see one towards the end of the building (The green round thing connected to it closest to the window is the Alternator.) Looks like the turbines are original Parsons.
At 5.48 that structure is one of the boilers. They are a stand alone and now are now usually built outside of the building. I also noticed they have stripped a lot of the outer sheathing (refractory) and boiler walls (probably because they would have been full of asbestos, and to give people a view of the inner tubes).
At 6.21, Those black things look like feeders that regulate the amount of coal going to the mills below (What you first saw when you walked in).
At 8.34, The long shiny things on the stacks look like blanks covering the entry point of where the boilers exhaust (flue gas) entered into them.
At 9.13 Looks like the Stations ash dump (hopper), where open carriages would take the heavy ash and dump it (usually at sea) or used to manufacture cement. At 8.37, behind the stacks you can see what looks like an angled covered walkway. That is the coal conveyor feeding coal into the power stations bunkers. To the right of the image is where the trains would have dumped their coal.
I recall at Pyrmont I was only very young and Iva Davies band Icehouse filmed the clip for their song 'Crazy" there. Vales Point power station was where Midnight Oil filmed their clip for their song Us Forces. Eraring power station was used for some b grade movie about ninja's attacking a nuclear power station. (Cant recall what the movie was called but I do remember having jeeps lifted up from the loading dock onto the turbine floor).
If you think White Bay power station is big, see if you can get a look at either Eraring or Bayswater. They used to do tours years ago.
Yeah, the big insulator is an art work, made out of soft material. One of the artists decided to make something "electricity" related. I did a tour of Eraring when it first opened. Well, it wasn't really a tour, they just let you wander around the turbine hall and look at the control room and a few other places.
On second thought, there may have been a guided or self guided tour. I remember information about pollution control. I also had a guided tour of Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria, and the guide opening up a peep hole into the boiler.
This is really interesting to hear! Thanks for stopping by and giving us all of this information! I really appreciate it!
Great vid mate, awesome to see the old Leopards and inside the power station
Great overview Matthew. You have given me an idea for an outing with my artistic 14 y.o. granddaughter. Happy Easter!
I also went.
Excellent video
Amazing video!
Question: When did you film this?
I filmed it on 2 seperate days last week.
👍👍👍