Summary

Colour photograph of draftsmen at their drawing boards producing designs for plant and equipment used within the Kodak factory, circa 1963.

Far left row: John Brooks at the back desk and Arthur Renwick at front desk. In the middle row: Don Trist at the back desk; in front of Trist is Steve Jablonski and then Ken Ross. In the row to the right: Bob McCullough is at the back desk [foreground]; third from the back is Jose Cano and at the front is Bill Lefel.

The Engineering Division at the Coburg Kodak factory complex in 1965 provided a wide range of services to the Coburg and Interstate sites. These services included design, construction and maintenance of equipment used in the factory, photolabs and offices (including general plant and specialised equipment peculiar to the photographic industry) operation of the Power House, Silver Recovery, Cameras Reels and Sundries Departments, as well as general cleaning and gardening of the site.

Some sixty professional engineers and draftsmen were involved in the preparation of development programs and expenditure budgets for the factory. They were also involved in supporting problem solving and maintenance of production equipment in the factory and photolabs to achieve production targets in Manufacturing and Photofinishing. Prior to 1965 the majority of staff came with mechanical or electrical drafting backgrounds or with certificated trade backgrounds. After 1965 the majority of new staff came with tertiary engineering qualifications.

The Drafting Section shown in this photograph was located in the Engineering Building 12A at the Coburg factory complex. It consisted of layout tables, drafting boards, desks and other general office equipment used to produce plans for newly designed equipment and replacement parts for existing production equipment. Much of this equipment, along with more modern computerised equipment added in later years, was in use up until about 2000.

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 three rows of drafting tables running diagonally across the image with people seated and working at the tables. Adjacent to the tables at the centre of the image are several tables with plans and equipment. The room features strip fluorescent lighting and linoleum flooring.

Physical Description

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

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