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Clip description
New Adaminaby has been built further up the valley, well away from the flood waters that are slowly drowning the old town. The townsfolk speak with optimism about their future and seem to have accepted their fate with a rare courage. Mrs Norton speaks for her friends and neighbours. She grew up at the old site and lost her husband who was killed building their new petrol station. She too is looking to the future.
Curator’s notes
This remarkable documentary (effectively one of the very first to be made by ABC television) captures the transition from pioneering Australia to the modern world. The documentary is well filmed although the storyline and structure are a little loose. It features a number of interesting techniques. Simply using the woman’s voice-over to tell the story, rather than a narrator or actor, is very effective, and unusual for the time. There are (presumably) acted recreations of the younger woman picking flowers and the young man at the petrol station as the narration recalls the now-dead husband. These images are followed, finally, by the shot of an old woman being taken to her new house.
