Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph of the Kodak Australasia factory site in Abbotsford, Victoria, circa 1940s.

The photograph features four women staff members sitting on the lawn surrounded by garden beds and mature trees in front of the Yarra Grange house. The tennis courts are visible to the left in the background. This area was close to the canteen and staff took their breaks here.

Yarra Grange was originally the home of Thomas Baker. In 1884 he established the Austral Plate Company on this site, where he made photographic plates.This company was later owned by Thomas Baker and John Rouse in 1894, under the partnership name Baker and Rouse. In the first decade of the 20th century the company and factory site was bought and operated by Kodak. In the late 1950s Kodak moved from Abbotsford to a new factory site at Coburg on the northern outskirts of Melbourne.

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

The photograph features four women sitting on a lawn, surrounded by garden beds and mature trees. There are tennis courts to the left in the background.

Physical Description

Black and white gelatin photograph, printed on light weight paper, landscape format with a white border.

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