Historical information

The first four photographs were most likely taken in the 1960 and the fifth in the 1970s at the Army Survey Regiment, Fortuna, Bendigo. As there are no annotations with the photos, the exact dates, locations and names of personnel are unknown. SGT Bob Scaddan appears in the fifth photo taken in the 1970s Photos .1P and .2P. could have been taken in Lithographic Squadron’s retouching room and Photos .3P, .4P and .5P. were probably taken in Cartographic Squadron’s Correcting Section, located in the Attic. Retouching mainly entailed the application of liquid opaque (Plumtree), commonly known as “duff” to cover blemishes such as scratches and spots on film negatives before photographic exposure. Retouching technicians also used specialised techniques such as “needling” to repair faults on the emulsion of map reproduction material. The technician in photo .4P is needling a hydrographic feature on a drainage negative, with a zoom transfer scope projecting a scaled projected aerial photograph as a positional reference.

Physical description

This is a set of five photographs of technicians retouching reproduction material at the Army Survey Regiment, Bendigo. The photographs were printed on photographic paper and are part of the Army Survey Regiment’s Collection. The photographs were scanned at 300 dpi.
.1) - Photo, black & white, c1960s. unidentified personnel in Lithographic Squadron.
.2) - Photo, black & white, c1960s. unidentified personnel in Lithographic Squadron.
.3) - Photo, black & white, c1960s. unidentified personnel in Cartographic Squadron Attic.
.4) - Photo, black & white, c1960s. unidentified personnel in Cartographic Squadron Attic.
.5) - Photo, black & white, c1970s. SGT Bob Scaddan in Cartographic Squadron.

Inscriptions & markings

.1P to .3P, .5P - annotated “Retouching”