Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph of the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford, Victoria, circa 1940.

The photograph looks across the Yarra River to the Kodak factory from Studley Park. In the centre of the image is the Kodak Powerhouse with its chimney. This building provided all of the power and refrigeration for the factory. The shorter chimney was the original Powerhouse chimney, which was removed by 1955. The building with the water tank on top is part of the Powerhouse. Adjacent to this is the Paper Coating Building, where photographic paper was coated and photographic emulsions were manufactured. The tank visible on the top of the tower of this building contained distilled water which was used in manufacturing.

The building closest to the trees in the foreground was used to manufacture silver nitrate for photographic products by dissolving silver in concentrated nitric acid. The tank just visible next to this building was used in the silver recovery process. Behind this are the maintenance workshops. The tall building at the rear left, is the Number 6 Film Coating Building, where film products were made, and where the 'finishing' process and distribution took place. The tall building at the far right is the Kodachrome Building, which was constructed in 1936. Film was processed and paper prints were made here, and the research lab was also housed here. The smaller building in front of this is the new (not the original) Glass Plate Building, where glass plates were made.

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, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

In the foreground of the image is a tree to the left and a grass slope leading to the tops of trees or shrubs. In the mid-ground is a group of factory buildings. In the centre of the image are two chimneys. To the right of this is a tower with a water tank. To the rear is a multi-storey building.

Physical Description

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

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