Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph looking at the west ends of Buildings 3, Emulsion Coating, on the left and Building 4 Roll Film on the right, Kodak factory, Coburg, late 1959.

Building 4 and the west wing of Building 3 were typical of the structural style used in many of the manufacturing buildings throughout the complex. They were single-storey with a low profile, and featured encased steel columns and steel trussed roofs with brick outer walls allowing large open spaced interiors with air-conditioning and other local services installed in the central ceiling space.

At this stage of construction both buildings had been completed externally. Roll Film operations had been transferred from the old Abbotsford factory and production was underway in Building 4. Garden beds, lawns and shrubs had been planted around this building to complete the surrounding environment. Emulsion delivery systems and the Coating Track were being installed in Building 3 and would take another 16 months before the Track would be finally commissioned.

Building 3 featured here consisted of a multi-storey section (ground to third floors plus basement and penthouse levels) the top of which is just visible in the image, and the single storey west wing with skillion roofed sections around the north and south of the multi-storey structure. The south wall of the west wing had windows along its length allowing a daylight working environment for the roll store which occupied the western end, and the plant and equipment surrounding the Coating Track further east. The two loading docks were for incoming uncoated base rolls from overseas and for outgoing coated rolls in special containers (called tiffins) to the finishing departments.

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

This streetscape looking east features the windows and loading docks on the south wall of Building 3 on the left, and the manicured lawns and shrubs surrounding the north side of Building 4 on the right. Building 7 Testing is at the end of the road in the background.

Physical Description

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

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