Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, looking south-east from vacant land north of Building 13, Paper Finishing, Kodak factory, Coburg, July 1960

This view features the north and west faces of Building 13. The full height structural columns with brick infill walls shows the extent of the basement area under the main floor. The north end wall of the ground floor was clad in metal allowing for possible future expansion. On the west wall, the entrance to the basement from the roadway can be seen, alongside two fire escapes from the ground floor, and another loading dock close to the south end of the building.

Emulsion coated master rolls from either the Coating Department or from overseas containers were delivered to and stored in the basement. The master rolls were lifted to the ground floor when required where they were slit and chopped into sheet or customer roll size product and then packed into the familiar yellow boxes ready for despatch to the distribution centre. At this stage, while the building had been completed, equipment was being set up internally ready for the commencement of production operations in the following months.

Building 13 was typical of the structural style used in many of the manufacturing buildings throughout the complex. It was single-storey, low profile, with encased steel columns, steel trussed roofs and brick outer walls that allowed large open spaced interiors. Air-conditioning and other local services were installed in the central ceiling space. This meant that any internal walls and divisions were light weight and non-load-bearing and could easily be altered to match changes to manufacturing requirements. With this building, the slope of the land also allowed for a basement covering about half of the floor area at the north end. This space was used for the storage of emulsion coated rolls ready for the operations above.

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

Corner view of hanger style brick building. In the foreground is an area of excavated land that slopes down from the building. A road leading to the building is visible from the left side of the print. A loading dock door is open in the building. Along the right side of the building there are two fire escapes. Two workers are close to the second fire escape, near the right edge of the print.

Physical Description

Black and white silver gelatin photograph printed on light weight paper with holes punched along the left edge, landscape format.

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