PHOTOGRAPHER Brett Patman has captured a haunting series of images from inside the cavernous buildings of the decommissioned Wangi Wangi power station.
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Rumours have long circulated about what would become of the site, which is for sale.
A $300-million plan to transform the power station into 11 storeys of shops, apartments, a cinema and restaurant were shelved last year when the man who developed the plan, Ian McDonald, passed away.
Now Mr McDonald’s family company has the site for sale.
Mr Patman’s photographs from inside the power station’s 12,000-square-metre building give locals a feel for the scale of the structure.
“When I did this shoot there was this strange sense of stillness,” Mr Patman said.
“It’s hard to describe but I shoot lots of abandoned buildings and this feeling exists in all of them, big or small.
“I’ve worked as a fitter and turner in places like this myself, so I tend to look at a building like this as if I’m looking into the past when it was still operating and wonder what it would have been like to work here.”
Mr Patman said it was exhilerating to be in the building, despite its sad decline
“It’s disappointing to see that people treat places like this the way they do, but that’s the reality of abandoned buildings. They are inevitably going to be destroyed and that’s part of why I try to capture what remains before they are too far gone or demolished by neglect.”
He said it was an “amazingly impressive building” which, with good vision and financial backing, could be turned into something very useful and valuable for the community.
Next Monday night, Lake Macquarie Council’s city strategy committee will meet to discuss the outcome of the public exhibition of the council’s planning proposal and area plan for the heritage-listed site.
The site is zoned part mixed use and part medium density residential.
- See more images at Brett Patman’s website, lostcollective.com