250208_065005_2639 Steam Over Time; Port Kembla, Early Morning (Sat 08 Feb 25)

BlueScope Steel Mill, Port Kembla

The first commercial steel mill in Australia was established in Lithgow in 1905, as I mentioned in my Ironfest 2018 album. It had been established by the company of William Sandford, a Devonshire man (1841-1932) who moved to Sydney in 1883. In 1907 he expanded it to include a blast furnace, but by December of 1907 the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney foreclosed on its loan to him. It was taken over by former Londoner Charles Hoskins (1851 -1926), a friend and fellow shareholder of Sanford's company. (Though they would later fall out spectacularly and would not end their lives as friends.) It was later taken over by his son Sir Cecil Hoskins (1889-1972).

Under Sir Cecil's stewardship, in the late 1920s the plant was moved to Port Kembla where there was a ready supply of coking coal from the Illawarra, and a deep water port to receive and ship materials and products. In 1928, and as part of a capital raising to fund expansion, the company changed its name from G&C Hoskins Ltd to Australian Iron and Steel Pty Ltd (AIS). In 1935, the large Australian mining (and at one time, manufacturing) company BHP bought out all of the ordinary shares of AIS in exchange for BHP stock. In 2002 BHP decided to divest itself of its steel making operations and what was AIS was spun off as BHP Steel, which became BlueScope in November 2003.

So here we are. BlueScope is still producing flat steel products here, at the largest industrial site in Australia. It is 760 ha (1,878 acres) in size.

What we are seeing here is steam, not smoke, and it is emitted at regular intervals. I believe that this is the first stage of steel production where the iron ore (which is a mixture of iron and oxygen; iron oxide in other words) is separated to get at the pure iron.

To do this, coking coal is used. The coking coal is heated to create coke. This is done in the absence of air so that rather than burn, it becomes a hard and porous fuel which has a high carbon content. The company itself uses an analogy of a toaster. The red hot coke is dumped into transfer cars (like railway hoppers) and doused with water to immediately cool it.

The result is a regular and rather spectacular burst of steam which your boy here decided to use a long exposure to capture.

Although it's not as obvious as it may have been had I taken this shot 15 minutes earlier, the warm morning light can still be seen hitting the sheds behind the stack. Sunrise that morning was at 06:24, so about 25 minutes earlier.

Today's shoot stopped me in my tracks a bit in terms of updating my 2025 album, because the area around Port Kembla is a happy hunting ground, photographically speaking. As is so often the way, I either have nothing or, like today, I have 165 shots, most of which would be worthy of a PESO entry. Some will turn up in other albums, but for today? For reasons that I can't put my finger on, I finally decided that this was the one I liked the most.

Taken in: Australia / New South Wales / Port Kembla (show map)

Taken on: February 8, 2025

Tags:

Port Kembla

Illawarra

Flinders Street

Port Kembla Steel Plant

Industrial Steam

Steam Release

Long Exposure

Warm morning light

New South Wales (NSW)

Australia « less

Sets appears in: • The Good, The Bad and the PESO; 2025 Visual Diary

Groups appears in: • Industry • Wollongong more » • Morning Light • OM Digital Solutions OM-5 & OM-5 II « less

Camera: OM Digital Solutions OM-5, f/22.0, 1.6 sec, 40mm (=80mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	OM Digital Solutions OM-5
Lens:	OLYMPUS M.12-40mm F2.8
Aperture:	f/22.0
Exposure Time:	1.6
Focal Length:	40mm (35mm equivalent: 80mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 25.9 (Windows)
Show full info

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