Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, Building 13, Paper Finishing, Kodak factory, Coburg, July 1960

View looking north along the road between Building 13, to the left, and Building 12, Engineering Workshops (unsighted), to the right.

This streetscape features the east face of Building 13. It shows the windows and entrance to the administration offices in the foreground and a loading dock at the far north end. The loading dock was used mainly for the outgoing finished product. 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 main floor when required where they were slit and chopped into sheet or customer roll size product. They were 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

Image of a single storey building. In the foreground is an unpaved road that runs along the front of the building. The building is in the mid-ground. From the left end of the building to the middle section, there is a line of windows. A strip of grass runs along the length of the building.

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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