Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, taken from the balcony of Building 9, Amenities, view of the main Elizabeth Street Carpark and Building 11, Power House, Kodak factory, Coburg, circa 1961.

The Power House cooling towers are visible in the background, as well as the chimney stack and boiler hall. Employee's vehicles are parked in the Main Carpark in the foreground. The office/amenities block, south annexe and top windows of the machine hall are also visible.

When completed, Building 11 consisted of an integrated machinery hall with its north & south annexes, boiler hall, evaporative water cooling towers, a 62 metre brick chimney stack, oil bunkers, tank farm and office/amenities block. This fully integrated Power House provided the most efficient use of electricity and fuel oil (and later natural gas) to match the variable load of the factory.

Stage 1 of construction (including the machinery hall and annexes) provided sufficient capacity of equipment to accommodate the initial factory start-up period (1958-60). Stage 2 of construction included the boiler hall, chimney stack, additional two cooling towers, the installation of two refractory boilers and associated steam driven equipment.

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 after the manufacturing plant at Coburg had closed down the year before.

Description of Content

Image features a car park, fenced off by a chain link fence, in the foreground . Vehicles parked include Holdens, Austins, Zephyrs and Volkswagens. The building in the background features three water cooling towers on an elevated platform and a tall chimney stack. In the distance to the right is a multi-storey building.

Physical Description

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

More Information