Fossil Fuels & the Climate Crisis

Dystopian Burn

Dystopian take on an old gasworks

Warming up - another bulk carrier entering Newcastle harbour - the world's largest coal port

A coal bulk carrier sitting high in the water during its entry to the world's largest coal port in Newcastle, NSW. Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of thermal coal which is one of the major contributor's to the world's worsening climate crisis.

Coal-fired power

Transmission lines leading from Eraring power station on an un-seasonally hot autumn day.

An aerial view of Origin Energy's Eraring power station on the shores of Lake Macquarie, NSW. The plant is now Australia's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, burning 5.2 million tonnes of coal per year from five local mines and releasing nearly 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.

Origin Energy's Eraring power station on the shores of Lake Macquarie, NSW is now Australia's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, burning 5.2 million tonnes of coal per year from five local mines and releasing nearly 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.

Industrial vista

Eraring Power Station on a stormy afternoon on the NSW Central Coast. Owned by Origin Energy, Eraring is Australia's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, burning 5.2 million tonnes of coal per year from five local mines and releasing nearly 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.

Eraring power station on the shores of Lake Macquarie.

Industrial sunset

Vales Point power station on the NSW Central Coast illuminated by the setting sun.

Coal versus the future: part of a photographic project I am developing on the world's fossil fuel addiction and existential crisis of climate change. This image is Vales Point power station on the NSW Central Coast.

Coal versus the future: part of a photographic project I am developing on the world's fossil fuel addiction and existential crisis of climate change. This image is of Vales Point power station on the NSW Central Coast during a vivid autumn sunset.

Vales Point power station in Lake Macquarie on a late autumn evening

Coal fired relic

Wangi power station on the NSW Central Coast, is a heritage-listed relic of a bygone era of coal-fired power. The power station operated between 1956 and 1986 and the 12,000 square metre building was once the largest power station in New South Wales.

Detail of one of the bucket wheel conveyors at Newcastle's Carrington Coal Terminal, one of the two coal terminals that make Newcastle the world's largest export coal port.

The full scale of the bucket wheel conveyors at Newcastle's Carrington Coal Terminal can be seen in this shot.

Mountains of coal in the afternoon sun at Carrington Coal Terminal, waiting to be loaded onto ships for export to overseas coal fired power stations.

Coal view

Aerial panorama of one of the massive lines of thermal coal at Newcastle's Kooragang Island ready to be conveyed to ships for export to foreign coal-fired power stations. To give you some idea of scale, each hill of coal is about 100 feet high!

Big wheel keeps on turning...

Another image of one of Kooragang Coal Terminal's massive bucket wheel excavators supplying coal mined in the nearby Hunter Valley to ships bound fro Japan, China and other export markets where it will be burned to produce elecricity and contribute to the world's escalating climate crisis.

Coal wheel...

A massive bucket wheel excavator lit up in the afternoon light at the Kooragang Coal Terminal, in Newcastle NSW. This terminal has a capacity of 120 million tonnes of coal per year and is a central part of the Hunter Valley Coal Chain making Newcastle the largest export coal terminal in the world. This facility has become a target of climate change protestors who have chained themselves to railway tracks and conveyors to bring worldwide attention to coal's role in climate change and the expansion of Australian coal exports.

The size of the massive bucket-wheel excavators and conveyors at Newcastle's Kooragang Coal Terminal are hard to capture in a single shot.

A coal loader glowing in the afternoon sun at Newcastle's Kooragang Island Coal Terminal.

Kooragang sunset

Silhouette of a coal loader at Newcastle's Kooragang Island Coal Terminal.

Loading up...

Coal ships docked at Newcastle's Kooragang Island being loaded with thermal coal for export to be burned to produce electricity. Thermal coal is one of the largest contributor's to the world's global warming crisis.

Industrial dinosaur...

Wallerawang Power Station, a coal-fired power station located in the Central Tablelands region of NSW, began operations in the late 1950s. It was decommissioned by its owner Energy Australia in 2014 due to reduced energy demand, lack of access to competitively priced coal and the power station’s high operating costs. The plant is due to be demolished.

Shutdown...

The now decommissioned Wallerawang Power Station, near Portland, NSW. An ageing relic of our coal-fired electricity system.