Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph taken angled down and west from the roof of Electricity Sub-station #2, with Building 3 Emulsion Coating directly in front, Building 4 Roll Film to the left and Building 2 Emulsion Making to the right. Image of buildings construction, Kodak factory, Coburg, April 1958.

The far section of Building 3 shown here (which eventually housed the coating machine and the roll store) along with Building 4, and the section of Building 2 partially in view, were typical of the structural style used in many of the manufacturing buildings throughout the complex. They were single-storey, low profile, with steel columns and steel trussed roofs. They had brick outer walls allowing 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, non-load-bearing, and could easily be altered to match changes to manufacturing requirements. In this view the roof of Building 3 appears to have been completed with timber purlins and corrugated aluminium sheeting.

The section of Building 3 in the image was connected to a special purpose built 4-storey (plus basement and penthouse floors) steel reinforced concrete and brick walled structure. In this view the concrete ground floor appears to have been completed above a previously poured basement. The forming of steel reinforced columns is underway rising to the first floor level. 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

Image angled west and downward on the construction site from the roof of Electricity Sub-station #2. 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. Several building workers can be seen building concrete formwork around column reinforcing rods, while an aluminium roofing contractor's truck is parked in the foreground.

Physical Description

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

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