Summary

Black and white, silver gelatin photograph of staff dressed in war-time costume as part of a war re-enactment at the Diggers Stall at the garden fete held at the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford, Victoria, Saturday 1 March 1941.

The fete was a Kodak Comforts Fund event. A sign at the front of the sandbags at left says 'Hell-Fire Corner'.

The man standing with one hand on a wheel and the other hand ringing a bell, at the back of the group, and who is dressed wearing a pith helmet and white shirt, is Mr Harry Clarke Senior, who, along with his wife, was a Kodak employee. Originally he worked in silver recovery at the factory but later worked as a gardener. His wife Gladys Clarke managed the Kodak Director's Dining Room, and with their son Harry Junior they all lived on-site at the Abbotsford factory in the 'Yarra Grange' cottage.

The Abbotsford factory was initially the site of the Austral Plate Company, created by Thomas Baker, a pharmaceutical chemist, in 1884. After Baker went into partnership with accountant, John Rouse, to develop the photographic manufacturing company, Baker and Rouse Pty Ltd, they proposed a merger with Eastman Kodak in 1907. In 1908, Australian Kodak Limited was formed and evolved to become what is known today as Kodak Australasia. The Abbotsford site remained the base for the operations of Kodak Australasia until the late 1950s.

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

In the foreground of the image is a stall with four men wearing military style helmets and two women wearing nurses' uniforms. The stall is a small enclosure labelled 'No. 8' and features sandbags surrounding it. A sign on the top of the stall says 'Menin Gate' which was the site of a well-known military battle in Ypres, Belgium during WWI, and another unknown place. Two of the men are manning fake machine guns and canons, while one man is calling out, possibly to an audience, and the other is standing next to a game wheel spinner. The two women in nursing outfits are standing to the front of the group. In the distance is another stall featuring a 'Peters Ice Cream' sign and three men and two women are dressed in casual clothes.

Physical Description

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

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