Summary

Colour photograph of the north-west corner of the canteen on the ground floor of Building 9, Amenities, at the Kodak factory complex, Coburg, circa 1963.

Staff can be seen seated at tables at their meal break with a small convenience shop to the left and the main meal service counter in the centre background. A stage can be seen to the right in the background.

Building 9 housed a range of staff amenities for the entire Coburg factory complex. This steel framed and brick building was completed before 1959 to service the rapidly rising staff numbers that were moving from the old Abbotsford site. On the ground floor of Building 9, there was the Canteen Services Centre which provided a range of food from complete hot meals to sandwiches. The centre served food at regular lunch and dinner times in the canteen and provided meals to the factory for shift workers. It also provided for special occasions and visitor events. As well as the Centre, this floor had a large open space room with parquetry dance floor and small stage. It was normally set up with chairs and tables as the Canteen, a senior staff dining room, a visitors dining room, a small convenience shop and washroom facilities. The entire east wall was plate glass with retractable curtains and doors which gave a bright and pleasant environment for social gathering.

On the basement level, there was an employees' shop of company products at discounted prices, a small cinema room, a branch of the NAB, Camera Club rooms, washroom facilities, and later a credit union office. This floor also had a large open space with vinyl tiles on concrete and the east wall had plate glass doors and windows.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

Photograph of canteen area where men and women are seated at tables at their meal break. To the left in the foreground is a small shop and next to this is a meal service counter in the centre background. A stage can be seen to the right in the background.

Physical Description

Colour photograph printed on medium weight Kodak paper, landscape format.

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