The Bruce McCullough Collection

In 1961, Mr Bruce McCullough was indentured by Rodd (Australia) as an apprentice at 39 Greeves Street. He steadily rose through the ranks to become the Manufacturing Manager and Director of Rodd NZ Ltd.

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As Bruce remembers: ‘As part of my engineering apprenticeship I worked on developing the efficiency and product range of seamless ring-making machinery in 1963, while completing my tool and die-making training in the jewellery division. When Brian Goldberg and I were being trained as junior supervisors, I supervised the production of the carat gold ring blanks used in the rolling process of this specialised equipment to produce seamless wedding rings ready for polishing. I had a production staff of one! The specialised equipment also included small high-precision turning lathes and milling machines, located in a small secure room on the second floor of 2A. I also worked on developing jigs and fixtures for these machines. These machines used diamond tipped cutting tools that achieved a brilliant finish on the product.’

In 1969, Bruce took a series of photographs of the St Kilda Rodd Factory to create a connection between the Australian and New Zealand factories. These rare and valuable images of the Rodd Factory in action – from Barkly Street to Greeves Street – are presented in the gallery below.

Images © 2017 Bruce McCullough. All rights reserved. The images below must not be stored, reproduced, published or displayed without the written consent of the copyright holder.