Australian
Screen

an NFSA website


Australasian Gazette – HMAS Brisbane Launched at Cockatoo Island (1915)

Synopsis

This segment from an Australasian Gazette newsreel shows the launch of the HMAS Brisbane naval ship by Mrs Fisher, wife of the then Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, on 30 September 1915, from the dockyard of Cockatoo Island.

Curator’s notes

Newsreels were an integral part of cinema programming in Australia before the advent of television in 1956. Issued on a weekly basis, newsreels enabled people to further engage with local and national political stories and events.