Summary

Colour photographic proof of shop and employees' amenities area in the Amenities Building 9 at the Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd factory complex, Coburg, circa 1964. It is a non-colour corrected print for assessment, not the final print.

This is a view of the south-west corner of the basement floor of Amenities Building 9 at the Coburg site. Staff are walking down stairs, standing around talking, and one staff member is seated reading a paper. In the centre background, staff are at the counter of the employees' shop.

Building 9 housed a range of staff amenities for the entire Coburg factory complex. This steel framed and brick building was completed before 1959 to service the rapidly rising staff numbers that were moving from the old Abbotsford site. On the ground floor of Building 9, there was the Canteen Services Centre which provided a range of food from complete hot meals to sandwiches. The centre served food at regular lunch and dinner times in the canteen and provided meals to the factory for shift workers. It also provided for special occasions and visitor events.

As well as the Centre, this floor had a large open space room with parquetry dance floor and small stage. It was normally set up with chairs and tables as the Canteen, a senior staff dining room, a visitors dining room, a small convenience shop and washroom facilities. The entire east wall was plate glass with retractable curtains and doors which gave a bright and pleasant environment for social gathering.

On the basement level, there was an employees' shop of company products at discounted prices, a small cinema room, a branch of the NAB, Camera Club rooms, washroom facilities, and later a credit union office. This floor also had a large open space with vinyl tiles on concrete and the east wall had plate glass doors and windows.

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

Photograph features two men walking down a flight of stairs to the right and nearby two women are standing and talking. To the left a woman is seated and reading a paper. In the centre background, two women are at a counter of a shop. The open internal area has a linoleum patterned floor, internal brick work, strip fluorescent lighting and indoor plants.

Physical Description

Colour photograph printed on medium weight Kodak paper, landscape format.

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