Summary

Digital copy of a monochrome photograph depicting the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford, Victoria. This image was taken from Studley Park, it shows the Yarra River in flood in December 1934.

Taken from the northern bank of the Yarra River, the photograph looks across the flooded water to the Kodak factory. To the left, the Kodak Powerhouse with its chimney can be seen. The Powerhouse provided all of the power and refrigeration for the factory. 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. Visible to the right, next to the building submerged in the foreground, is a tank full of water. This tank was used for silver recovery, and usually contained a slurry of silver nitrate.

The Yarra River was prone to flooding, and despite major works designed to manage water flow in the 1920s, the river still experienced a major flood in November 1934. Such floods caused damage to the Kodak factory and potentially washed away into the river some of the materials and chemicals that were used in the manufacturing process.

This image was donated by the family of Ian 'Charlie' Yelland, who worked for Kodak Australasia Emulsion Department for 46 years, retiring in 1978.

This image complements the Kodak Heritage 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

Flooded river with a factory and houses in the background.

Physical Description

Digital file. Original photograph was a monochrome copy, landscape orientation.

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