Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, view looking west along Gatehouse Road between Building 7, Testing, and Building 3, Emulsion Coating, to the left and Building 2, Emulsion Making, to the right, Kodak factory, Coburg, late 1959.

Electricity Sub-station number 2 supplied the adjacent group of buildings with three phase 400 volt electricity. It provided the ability to switch any of these buildings between either the Coburg City Council Supply, or from the Building 11, Power House, alternators. The main access to this windowless brick extension of Building 7 can be seen on the east face, although there were two emergency fire doors (unsighted) on the north side. Building 3 consisted of a special purpose built multi-storey section with a single-storey west wing. Only the top of the east end of the multi-storey section is visible in this image behind the sub-station, in particular, the external fire escape stairs.

Building 2 also consisted of a special purpose built multi-storey section, with single-storey east and west wings. All emulsion making production operations were carried out in the multi-storey section under safe-light conditions in a largely windowless building. In this image the lift house and other service buildings can be seen on the penthouse level, along with the flyover to Building 3 at the third floor level. The near east wing which housed the chemical store and laboratory had a blank east face with a temporary metal wall which allowed for a planned extension for the addition of a silver nitrate making plant (moved from Abbotsford circa early 1960s). The west wing, which housed the administration offices, can be seen at the far end of the building. Entrances to the offices, laboratory and store and an emergency exit from the multi-storey section are visible along Gatehouse Road.

At this stage of construction, Building 7 was occupied and providing testing support to the production operations in Building 4,Roll Film, and Building 5, Sheet Film. Buildings 2 and 3 were completed externally but were being fitted out internally.

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

The image is of a road running from the foreground of the image into the background between two multi-storey buildings. To the left is a steel framework structure and pipes run across the top of the image. A man is walking along the road in the distance.

Physical Description

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

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