Historical information

Fives images of the workshop machinery used by the Queensland Industrial Institute for the Blind in the manufacture of various products.
1 - Pitched brooms being made by Stewart Jewell (left) and Jack Dollier (right).
2 - Unknown worker at a basket station making a cane basket, surrounded by finished examples.
3 - Snowy Willis oversees the operation of the machine that bores holes into brush heads.
4 - Unknown worker operating a coir matting machine. There were apparently 10 such machines in use at the time this image was taken.
5 - Snowy Willis checking the bobbins being filled from a giant spool. In the background are empty bobbins stacked against walls and filled bobbins on spool holders.
6 - Roy Anderson checks the wadding on a recently filled mattress, whilst in the background Ellen McDevitt uses a portable sewing table to sew the ends of a filled mattress.

Physical description

6 x B/W photographs of the workshop machinery used by the Queensland Industrial Institute for the Blind

Inscriptions & markings

C2-657: 2, Brush shop - pitch set brooms being made by blind workers
C2-664: Basket shop - some of the various types of baskets made
C2-654: Snowy Willis. Brush shop - a semi automatic brush stock boring machine in operation.
C2-666: Matting shop - one of the ten coir matting looms in use. 1960.
C2-659: Matting shop - bobbin winder and bobbin bank.
C2-655: 15. 2 col wide. Bed shop wadding a fibre mattress. Also showing special sewing machine and movable table used in sewing the mouths of filled mattresses.