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End of coal: the long twilight at Yallourn power station

Victoria’s Yallourn coal-fired power station, built in 1970, is scheduled to close in 2028. At 63, sheet metal worker at the station, David Evans, is also nearing the end of his career. In this photo essay, End of Coal, Josie Hess depicts a day in the life of Evans, who has worked in and out of the power industry since he was 17.

End of coal: the long twilight at Yallourn power station
Photo essay by Josie Hess
 

Born in Morwell, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, in 1959, David Evans watched as a new power station was built in the 70s to replace previous Yallourn plants. As a young man, he saw the smoke stacks rise over his home town. He never wanted to work in the power industry, but with the low-socioeconomic status of the Latrobe Valley, the industry offered one of the only stable and good sources of income, even though the work is dirty and dangerous.

The valley, in south-east Victoria, is the centre of the state’s energy industry and home to three major brown coal open-cut mines and three coal-fired power stations.

This photo essay follows Evans through the working day, examining how his life has paralleled that of  Yallourn, and exploring the human cost of power consumption.

With the Andrews government bringing forward the end of coal in Victoria to 2035, Evans and his colleagues know their industry is at the end of its life.

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David Evans [pictured below] arrives at Yallourn Powerstation by 6.30am. Yallourn W was built in the 1970s to replace the previous Yallourn power stations, which had been continuously operating on the site since 1928. Yallourn W is scheduled to be decommissioned by 2028.

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Evans is a sheet metal worker. Originally a plumber by trade, he says he tried to avoid getting a job in the power station for a long time because he found them to be horrible places with no life.  But he has ended up working in the power industry for 30 years because it affords him the best likelihood of a high income and stable work.

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Yallourn is a marvel of engineering. Everywhere you look, a wild new industrial vista emerges from the darkness inside, incuding when you look up.

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The scale is hard to understand unless you walk around. Nothing is meant for humans; everything is huge and there is condensation constantly dripping down from the layers of pipes, powerlines and conveyor belts that are always overhead.

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Evans carries insulation bags back to his trolley. He will use the insulation to wrap around pipes that he then covers with sheets of metal.

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The announcements from the Andrews government about the return to state-owned power and the closing of the rest of the coal industry by 2035 have been received positively by many in the Latrobe Valley. Evans and younger coal workers aren’t yet sure what it means for them. Their specific skills aren’t always transferable to the new renewable power industry, so a transition plan for jobs will be needed.

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Workers take their breaks in brew huts. David likes to make his own sandwiches, rather than eat at the  aptly-named Hard Watt Cafe onsite.

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Yallourn is in a constant state of repair, with scheduled and planned shutdowns a constant feature of the power station’s lifecycle. In 2018 and 2019, the station had 37 outages. Inside the many long dark corridors, signs of decay are visible all around.

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Evans attaches more metal to a pipe after lunch. Of the scale of the job ahead of him, he says you just take it one sheet of metal at a time.

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The tiny window looking down into the abyss of the 14-storey boiler room. This room is normally alight with huge flames, creating the steam that moves the turbines, generating power. Yallourn creates 22 per cent of Victoria’s electricity and 8 per cent of all of Australia’s electricity.

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Evans says that this was a relatively clean day at work. He scrubs his hands with special soap, and has learned to live with the base-level grit under his nails.

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At the end of the workday, Evans pushes his cart back across the floor, past the disabled boiler, which would usually be pumping 40+ degree heat into the area. The return to the light and fresh air feels like stepping into another world. The work is physical.  Well into his 60s, he often spends his days clambering up ladders or squeezing into tight spaces. He says he wants to work while he still can, though he’d like to retire soon.

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Yallourn is protected by rigorous security and safety measures. Evans has been on-site several times when workers have been killed on the job, but says he isn’t worried.

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Evans lives in a small sharehouse in the Latrobe Valley. He was a resident during the 2015 Hazelwood mine fire and thinks that the end of coal is an obvious choice for the nation moving forward, having lived through the consequences of the coal industry.

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Evans sits with his housemate, watching the news. Premier Daniel Andrews is featured speaking about the upcoming election. Evans suggests Andrews is cosplaying in high vis to appeal to the working class.

Evans looks out at the view from his back step of another power station, Loy Yang A and B, which combine to produce 50 per cent of the state’s power. He washes all his uniforms weekly, and hurries to bring everything inside before the storm.

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After a long day at work, Evans enjoys a home-cooked meal and exchanges his dystopian reality for dystopian fiction with an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. 

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