Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph of the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford showing the Yarra River in flood, 1934.

Taken from the north bank of the Yarra river, the photograph looks back south east across trees submerged in the water to the Kodak factory in the background. From left, the Kodak Power House with its chimney can be seen. The Power House provided all of the power and refrigeration for the factory. Adjacent to this is the Paper Coating Building, where photographic paper was coated and photographic emulsions were manufactured. The tank visible on the top of the tower of this building contained distilled water which was used in manufacturing. At right front is the Glass Plate Building.

The Yarra River was prone to flooding, and despite major works designed to manage water flow in the 1920s, the river still experienced a major flood in late November 1934. Such floods caused damage to the Kodak factory and potentially washed away into the river some of the materials and chemicals that were used in the manufacturing process.

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 shows a factory surrounded by floodwaters. The photograph was taken from the northern bank of the river and looks across trees submerged in the water to the factory in the background. A tree is partly submerged in the river to the far right in the foreground.

Physical Description

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, printed on light weight paper, landscape format.

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