A000360 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

All key entry types: Awards; Concepts; Corporate Bodies (Organisations); Cultural Artefacts; People; etc

These key entries are listed separately below with other indexes and lists.

 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Corporate Body created 2000-04-27 human Ailie Smith updated 2025-11-05 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/A000360b.htm corporateBody Austral Plate Company AACR2 Austral Laboratory 1884 c. 1907 Start Place Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia End Place Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia Manufacturing Industry The Austral Plate Company also known as the Austral Laboratory) produced dry photographic plates as well as photographic papers in the 1880s. It was established by Thomas Baker in 1884 in his home, Yarra Grange, in Abbotsford, Victoria.

Quote from A. Leggio, 2006, 'A history of Australia's Kodak manufacturing plant', 148:

"Thomas Baker ran a business, which he called the Austral Plate Co, 1884, from his home in Abbotsford. The company manufactured and developed photographic materials and plates. According to legend, Baker, with the aid of his wife Alice and her sister Eleanor, manufactured plates at night which he sold by day (Lowe 1974: p9). By 1885 the Austral Plate Co had a listed outlet at 190 Russell St in
Melbourne, which remained until 1891."

Quotes from 'Technology in Australia, 1788-1988', pp863-864 (online at https://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/842.html):

"The origins of Kodak in Australia reach back to 1884, when a young chemist, Thomas Baker, was the first person in this country to successfully manufacture and market photographic dry plates. He set up a small cottage industry producing his Special Rapid plates at his home in Abbotsford, Victoria. Until about this time photography relied on the very cumbersome and inconvenient wet plate process, which required the plate to be exposed at once and developed while wet."

and:

"The Austral Laboratory produced Austral dry plates which were an improvement on the original Special Rapid plates, as well as on Austral Pearl Bromide paper, which was a matte finish paper, and Austral Printing Cut paper."

 Baker, Thomas (1854 - 1928) Thomas Baker and Company Laboratory (1887 - 1894)

Trove

 'Austral Plate Company', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Austral Plate Company Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Resource: Alamy Alamy 2023 An online commercial image and video service Book: The mechanical eye in Australia: photography 1841-1900 Davies, Alan and Stanbury, Peter The mechanical eye in Australia: photography 1841-1900 Melbourne Oxford University Press 1985 Conference Paper: A history of Australia's Kodak manufacturing plant Leggio, Angeletta A history of Australia's Kodak manufacturing plant Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material 2006 AICCM Symposium 2006, Conservation of Paper, Books and Photographic Materials. Post-prints and Posters. 19-21 April 2006, Wellington, New Zealand 147-158 Resource: Technology in Australia 1788-1988 Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Technology in Australia 1788-1988 Online Melbourne Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre 2000 Kodak Heritage Collection Museums Victoria Kodak Heritage Collection Kodak Heritage Collection "The Kodak Heritage Collection is a unique and extensive collection that documents the history of the photographic industry in Australia through several related companies - Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd,and its predecessors, including the Austral Plate Company, Baker and Rouse Australia Laboratory, and Baker and Rouse Pty Ltd." The Collection: "In November 2004, as photography shifted from the silver halide process to digital imaging technology, Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd ceased manufacturing photographic products in Melbourne. Museum Victoria subsequently acquired thousands [over 7,000] of documents, photographs and objects which trace Kodak Australia's history, and that of its predecessors. Kodak Australasia remains based in Melbourne, where it is now focused on new imaging interests." (Museums Victoria) 7076 items