Cement, William Cope

“It was just a mile from the Commonwealth Portland Cement works to the Portland railway station in New South Wales, Australia. But for such a short stretch of otherwise ordinary industrial railway line, there was surprising drama. Small steam locomotives hauled their heavy wagons out of their foreboding setting in the works, struggled up a steep hill, passed under one road, then across another, finally crossing a field in a sweeping curve to reach the station. Here, the wagons would be picked up by a goods train on the government railway for transportation to Sydney and empties picked up for return to the works. “

In this book, William Cope captures this small journey in photographs. His introduction sets the railway line in the larger context of the history of the cement works and, beyond that, the difficult history of cement as a quintessentially modern product.

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William Cope visited Portland a number of times in 1973-1976 to capture the pictures in this book.

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Book Specifications:

• 48 pages; 26 images

• Perfect Bound

• 8 x 8 inches

• ISBN: 978-1-7355008-7-4

• Second Edition

• All images © William Cope

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First Edition:

• OUT OF PRINT

• 42 pages; 22 images

• Perfect Bound

• 8 x 8 inches

• ISBN: 978-1-7355008-7-4

• Limited Edition of 100; numbered and signed

• All images © William Cope

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