Summary

Colour photograph of former Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd factory buildings in Abbotsford showing street scene with cars parked.

Part of a collection of research material and artefacts assembled by former Kodak Australasia employee Nigel Beale while he was writing Kodak's company history in the 1980s.

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, educational, defence, scientific and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

Description of Content

A street scene with a large brick building on the far left side, cars parked along the street on both sides, and several brick buildings along the far side of the street - a white building in the right foreground, a wooden paling fence leading to a two storey red brick and bluestone building in the background with two garages and other buildings beyond. A sign for Bates Cocoa hangs on the wall of the two storey red brick building on the right.

Physical Description

A colour landscape format photograph printed on Kodak photo paper.

Significance

This item, showing the site of the former Kodak factory in Abbotsford, enhances our understanding of the changing nature of the photographic manufacturing in Melbourne, and also traces the changes in industrial sites in inner Melbourne over the twentieth century. This is an important theme for Melbourne, where de-industrialisation has changed the shape and culture of the city in a multitude of ways since the decline of local industry in the late-twentieth century. That Kodak staff took this photograph of its former premises twenty years after it relocated, shows that the company was also interested in its heritage.

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