Summary

Colour photograph of the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford, Victoria, 1960-1965.

This photograph features the Kodachrome building on Southhampton Crescent in Abbotsford. A 1961, yellow EJ Holden panel van painted in the Kodak colours and logo, is parked in the front of the building. Two other cars are also parked nearby. Trees are in the foreground, and pipes can be seen between buildings. These carried distilled water, chilled water, steam (the large lagged pipe) and brine (which was used to set the emulsion) to manufacturing buildings.

Kodachrome processing started in the Kodak factory at Abbotsford in 1936. This was after Dr Neil Lewis and Mr Jonathon Monteith visited Kodak in Rochester to establish the requirements for setting up the facility. A new four storey building to be known as the "Kodachrome Building" was built for £300,000. Mr Stan Hawkins was the manager of the new department and remained so until the 1960s. 35mm slide, 16mm and 8mm movie films, as well as duplicates of motion picture films were processed at the facility.

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 site. This photograph features a building with several cars parked nearby, including a yellow 1961 EJ Holden panel van painted in Kodak colours and logo. Trees are in the foreground, and pipes can be seen between the buildings.

Physical Description

Colour photograph, printed on medium weight Kodak paper, landscape format with a white border.

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