Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, view angled down and west from the roof of Electricity Sub-Station Number 2 with Building 3 Emulsion Coating directly in front, Building 4 Roll Film to the left and Building 2 Emulsion Making to the right, shows the progress of the building construction, Kodak factory, Coburg, January 1958.

The far section of Building 3 shown here (which eventually housed the coating machine and the roll store) along with Building 4 and that section of Building 2 partially in view, were typical of the structural style used in many of the manufacturing buildings throughout the complex, that is, single-storey, low profile, 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. 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.

The section described above was connected to a special purpose built 4-storey (plus basement and penthouse floors) steel reinforced concrete and brick in-fill structure. The timber formwork shown in the foreground, surrounds the basement floor already poured for the multi-storey section. Steel reinforcing rods for the columns can be seen rising above the formwork and further out in holes which indicate the area covered by the upper floors of this section. This multi-storey building eventually housed all the emulsion delivery systems which fed the coating machine. It was connected to Building 2 Emulsion Making with a flyover at the 3rd floor level.

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

View of a construction site. The partly completed building in the far centre is featured along with the first stages of a steel reinforced concrete structure in the foreground. A completed building can be seen on the far left along with another partly completed building on the far right.

Physical Description

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

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