Historical information

These 10 photographs were most likely taken in the 1990s in Lithographic Squadron at the Army Survey Regiment, Fortuna, Bendigo. In photos .1P to .2P the technicians are applying a UV-sensitive pigmented dye emulating one of the print colours to a white opaque polyester sheet mounted on a rotating table in a whirler. The coated sheet was dried before placement in a vacuum light frame beneath a stud registered map negative. They were then exposed to a carbon arc lamp. For more photos and details on the process, see item 6059.5P. In photos .3P to .5P the technician is preparing a orthophotomap film positive. Photo .6P is the rear view of the tri-linear film punch. In photos .7P and .8P the technician is operating a heavy-duty guillotine to trim bulk printed map stock. Cartographers normally provided trim marks to specified map dimensions as guidance to the printer. The trimming stage, like all the other printing processes required high levels of accuracy. These guillotines were extremely powerful to cut through bulk quantities of printed maps. For more photos and details on this process, see item 6069.6P. In photo .9P the technician is operating a daylight film contacting frame. In photo .10P LT Ian Stoddart is taking a well-earned break.

Physical description

This is a set of 10 photographs of lithographic technicians undertaking tasks at the Army Survey Regiment, Bendigo c1990s. Photos .1P to .7P and .9P to .11P are on 35mm negative film and scanned at 96 dpi. Photo .8P is printed on photographic paper and scanned at 300 dpi. They are part of the Army Survey Regiment’s Collection.
.1) and .2) - Photo, black & white, c1990s, unidentified printer technician and SPR Janet Murray using the map proof whirler.
.3) to .5) - Colour, c1990s, Mick ‘Buddha’ Ellis preparing an orthophotomap film positive.
.6) - Photo, Colour, c1990s, rear view of tri-linear film punch.
.7) & .8) - Photo, Colour, c1990s, unidentified technician operating a heavy-duty guillotine.
.9) - Photo, Colour, c1990s, printer technician SPR Shona Hastie operating a daylight film contacting frame.
.10) - Photo, Colour, c1990s, LT Ian Stoddart taking a well-earned break.

Inscriptions & markings

.1P to .10P– no annotation