Summary

Colour photograph of tradesmen operating a range of equipment in the Machine Shop located in the Engineering Workshops at the Kodak factory complex, Coburg, circa 1963.

Front left, Ken Kelly. Back left, Jack Kealey. To the rear, at centre facing towards the right of the image, is Atie [?]. To the right of him is Ian Jones. At the right and operating the machine behind Ken Kelly is Tom Cuthbert.

The Engineering Division at the Coburg Plant provided a wide range of services to the factory site including design, construction and maintenance of equipment used in the factory (including general plant and specialised equipment peculiar to the photographic industry); operation of the Power House and Silver Recovery departments, as well as general cleaning and gardening of the site.

Approximately 160 tradesmen were spread throughout the construction and maintenance activities, ranging across many trades such as machinists, fitters, carpenters, plumbers, sheet metal workers, electricians and instrument makers.

The range of equipment shown in this photograph of the Machine Shop in Building 12 at the Kodak factory complex in Coburg consisted of lathes, milling machines, grinders and drills used to manufacture items for newly designed equipment and replacement parts for existing production equipment. Much of this plant, along with more modern computerised equipment added in later years, was in use until the factory closed in 2004.

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 a factory interior room with several large pieces of machinery. There are seven tradespeople wearing blue overalls operating the equipment.

Physical Description

Colour photograph printed on medium weight Kodak paper.

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