Filmmaker Ken G Hall tells how he was convinced by comedian Bert Bailey to make the feature film, On Our Selection (1932). He discusses the difficulties of production on a very limited budget, and recalls …

Aunt Edna (Barry Humphries) takes Bazza (Barry Crocker) to meet distant upper class relatives, the penniless and pompous Gorts. Sarah Gort (Jenny Tomasin) takes Bazza to a country ball, where he is constantly insulted by …

After a drunken night at a pub in Broken Hill, the three drag artists – Mitzi (Hugo Weaving), Felicia (Guy Pearce) and Bernadette (Terence Stamp) – awake to find their bus defaced with an anti-gay slogan. They …

Priscilla, the bus, has broken down in the desert. An Aboriginal man (Alan Dargin) invites the three drag artists to his nearby camp, where they put on an impromptu show. Everyone joins in, including a …

The 'Popularity Cup’ air race is contested between planes from all around the world, including the crowd favourite from Australia – Bertie the Jet. Broadcaster Ken Howard calls the race from his elevated podium. As the …

Sixteen-year-old Alvin Purple (Graeme Blundell) is chased through the streets by excited schoolgirls on bicycles. He finds refuge in the arms of Mrs Horwood (Jill Forster), wife of his teacher.

In court, Dr Sort (Penne Hackforth-Jones) describes Alvin’s condition – satyromania – 'the male equivalent of nymphomania’. Alvin and girlfriend (Elli Maclure) argue with a disgusted taxi diver (Peter Cummins). Dr Sort’s lawyer (Jon Finlayson …

Each week the closing credits were played over this sequence as Aunty Jack (Grahame Bond), with Thin Arthur (Rory O’Donoghue) in the side car, rode aggressively over the top and into her royal domain …

This newsreel clip from 1926 shows a scene from the film For the Term of His Natural Life in production at the Australasian Films’ Bondi studio, Sydney NSW. A cameraman on a moving platform, or …

Australian troops charge out of the trenches, going 'over the top’ to attack the enemy on the Western Front. Bombs explode nearby.

Air Vice-Marshall Ky and his wife, on their visit to Melbourne, meet Vietnamese students at Victoria’s Government House, before attending a final press conference.

The Chauvels have gained entrance to one of the well-guarded secrets of 1950s Australia: Rum Jungle, a uranium mine said to be the richest in the world.

This clip gives an overview of the setting up of telephone, telegraph and broadcast equipment prior to the commencement of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. The Duke of Edinburgh opens the Games on 22 November …

This clip illustrates the workings of the OTC, telegraph and press offices. This is followed by footage from various athletic events, and of the special post offices, purpose-built to serve the public at the 1956 …

This clip shows the process by which the PMG must meet the needs of the media during Queen Elizabeth II’s 1954 royal tour.

On the sparkling beaches of Australia, where people relax and enjoy the summer, life guards patrol the beaches and remain alert to the dangers of sharks lurking in the shallow beach water.

This clip shows the conditions of those living in low income areas of inner city Sydney. The children living in this environment, according to the narration, ‘start life’s race with a handicap’ placing a …

A young boy is taken to the Police Boys Club. Its aim, according to the narration, is to ‘keep boys off the streets’. It shows the boys working in the gym, boxing, and socialising in …

Christine starts to build her house constructed from recycled materials in idyllic Byron Bay. Her world is shattered when the local council approves a quarry next to her house that will mine for gravel for …

This silent, black-and-white clip paints a harsh picture of life for a family living in a slum area of Melbourne, Victoria, in the 1940s. The dilapidated housing is shelter for a family with many children …

In a lonely, windswept hill camp, far out in the veldt, Captain Hunt (Terence Donovan) instructs Captain Taylor (John Waters) to execute Boer prisoners brought in by Morant (Edward Woodward). When Morant queries the order …

Morant (Edward Woodward) and Handcock (Bryan Brown) march to their executions. Their lawyer, Major Thomas (Jack Thompson) lingers in their makeshift cell – which looks to be a stable – to consider the epitaph that Morant has …

Sapphire miners Johnny (Harry Hopkins) and Mike (Colin Friels) peg a new claim, but newcomer Andy (Dennis Miller) disputes their right to the land. He uses his bulldozer to underline the point.

This animated colour cinema advertisement for Bushells tea starts with a map of the world and a voice-over that invites the viewer to 'the world of the future’. International travel is shown using fast planes …

Caddie has taken a job in an inner-city hotel, because it pays more than waitressing, but she’s unprepared for the brutal struggle that is the nightly ‘six o’clock swill’. Men crowd the bar …

Caddie (Helen Morse) calls off her relationship with bookmaker Ted (Jack Thompson), after she is warned off by Ted’s steady girlfriend. At the boarding house where she lives, the landlord and his wife (Pat …

This montage of clips from the Menzies Home Movie Collection features footage from Menzies’ wartime tour in 1941, including Tobruk, Palestine, Cairo, Jerusalem, Khartoum and England during the Blitz. It ends with close-ups of the …

Car drivers describe what they gained and what they lost from their car accident.

This is a whimsical item from a newsreel segment that shows the road and pedestrian traffic around the Flinders and Swanston St intersection in Melbourne, as well as a ride on a South Melbourne tram …

Club president Ted Parker (Graham Kennedy) is under pressure to resign, following allegations that he beat up a stripper at a club function. In the committee room, ex-coach Jock Riley (Frank Wilson) and administrator Gerry …

In this 1983 documentary, Australian actors Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown talk enthusiastically about the reviving Australian film industry.

Willie lounges and plays while the other animals, showing foresight, collect and deposit food (or in the case of the dog, signposts) in the bank.

At a bush camp, Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) is at first spooked by the quiet arrival of an Aboriginal man in face paint. Mick (Paul Hogan) introduces Neville (David Gulpilil), a 'real city-boy’, and then …

Brother Francine (Arthur Dignam) berates Tom Allen (Simon Burke) for showering without his swimming trunks. In the common room, the boys relax before their daily mass.

A group of men stand in front of the body of a newly constructed single-decker bus. The bus is pulled along the street by a small tractor while two men walk beside it. The next …

Men are gathered around a rail bus that sits at the depot. An elevated camera captures a rail bus as it pulls out of the depot and travels along the rail tracks out towards the …

Standing in front of his desk, Minister for Trade and Customs, Frank Forde, directly addresses the camera in a speech running over three minutes. The speech makes mention of: a new era in Australian industries …

Members of the NSW Fire Brigade tackle a blaze at a paper mill until the fire is brought under control. The smoking wreckage and the building’s shell is all that remains. As orchestral music …

This clip captures scenes of daily life in the main streets of Footscray, Melbourne, in 1910 and 1911.

The very first Four Corners opens with vox pops in a busy Sydney street, asking people whether a future governor-general should be British or Australian. The reporter is Bob Sanders.

Frank Hurley filmed and photographed one of the first expeditions to the Antarctic in 1913. Mike Gray of the Fox Talbot Museum and Joanna Wright of the Royal Geographical Society comment on the significance of …

Amateur botanist Antonius Moscal says that rafting down the wilderness of the Franklin River reminds him of the definition of God. Moscal says nature reflects God.

Dressed in a dinner suit, Frank Thring – film director and head of Efftee Film Studios – addresses the audience in a speech to camera which introduces the studio’s first all-Australian talking picture program. Thring outlines …

This clip shows members of the Canberra Greek community on their annual picnic at Good Hope just outside of Canberra on 26 December 1949. Friends and relatives sitting in the shade lift their glasses and …

The convict history of the Tasmanian settlement of Port Arthur is explained in this clip, with a voice-over accompanying scenes of the site. Convict history is re-enacted to evoke the past. A couple and a …

Grandad Rudd (Bert Bailey) challenges his neighbour Mr Regan (Les Warton) to a family cricket match, in order to avoid having to pay Regan for some pigs. The Irish Regan accepts, stipulating his own rules …

After a screening of [[Walkabout]] (1971) in a cinema, David is speaking to fans at the cinema. Interviews with Justine Saunders, Gary Foley, Professor Marcia Langton and David Stratton give background information to both Indigenous …

John Gorton had been dropped as prime minister by his own casting vote in 1971. Norman Gunston’s opening question for this interview is whether Gorton was considered by his own party to have been …

The Victoria Police recruiting sergeant (Marshall Crosby) tries to get Tommy Wallace (George Wallace) to give his name, place of birth, age and mother’s name. Each question is misunderstood by the simple Tommy, who …

Mary Townleigh (Shirley Dale) has been found after being briefly lost in the bush. The Hayseeds open their home, and Dad Hayseed (Cecil Kellaway) suggests they stay until she is better. Mr Townleigh (Kenneth Brampton …

This clip shows the Higgins family at Mount Wellington, Hobart, in 1909. It includes scenes of the group enjoying a picnic spread on a hillside, four men making a pot of billy tea, and some …

A fleet of Studebaker sedans along with executives from Shell, Studebaker and Hoyts meet the ‘Talkie Truck’ as it pulls in to Melbourne. The executives shake hands with the sound technicians and engineers. The truck …

An intertitle invites viewers to 'see for a brief moment’ the sound equipment for talking pictures. Then a Hoyts Talking Pictures Roadshow sound unit truck is seen coming down the street. Two uniformed men open …

Lani (Robyn Loau), the bottle shop girl, stops Mick (Jeremy Sims) as he leaves the pub. They discuss poetry, which is Mick’s hobby. Lani’s brother wants to know who she’s talking to …

Fletcher Christian (Errol Flynn) sends Edward Young (John Warwick) to break out the arms, as his men seize the captain, Lieutenant Bligh (Mayne Lynton) from his bed. In a flash forward, an old fiddler (Victor …

The movie shifts abruptly from dramatised recreation of the mutiny to a travelogue about the Pitcairn Islands, where Charles and Elsa Chauvel explore the legacy of the mutineers. The boat-building skills, Chauvel’s narration tells …

A view from onboard the rack railroad follows the path of the King River Gorge through canyons, waters and forested slopes. Travelling through Tasmania’s west coast by launch down the Gordon River, cinematographer Frank …

Jedda (Ngarla Kunoth), sitting by an open window, gazes out dreamily. Her adoptive mother (Betty Suttor), eventually comes to stand by her side. Jedda tells her of her desire to go walkabout, to be with …

Striking miners travel from Wollongong to Parliament House, Canberra, to protest the retrenchments. The protestors storm the entrance to Parliament House and break the doors in – a first in Australian history.

This clip from a silent Kiwi Shoe Polish cinema advertisement shows boot staff from the Imperial Hotel resigning from their work to join the war. Having all his staff resign, the hotel manager makes a …

The hotel manager of the Imperial Hotel, London, pins a sign on the front window that says 'Boot Boys Wanted’. Two young boys see the sign and lament that they 'can’t polish boots for …

Two young boys are hired to polish boots at the Imperial Hotel, London, after their trial goes surprisingly well. The hotel manager exclaims 'You boys and Kiwi are the goods’! The advertisement ends with a …

This clip includes footage filmed by Damien Parer of Papuan stretcher bearers carrying wounded Australian troops from the 39th Battalion along the Kokoda trail through dense jungle terrain and across a river. The voice-over commentary …

This clip shows students from Scots College on the final leg of their seven day trek through the Owen Stanley Ranges towards Kokoda in Papua New Guinea. They navigate their way across a makeshift log …

A montage of images, including stills and illustrations, shows the first fleet of convicts and their military guards after landing at Sydney Cove in 1788. Under the leadership of Governor Phillip, they begin building a …

Graphics, paintings and voice-over tell the story of why it took 30 years for the settlers of New South Wales to cross the Blue Mountains and gain access to the fabulous pasture lands beyond. It …

Upset by a patient, psychiatrist Dr Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey) attacks a stranger in the street, imagining she heard a remark. The stranger, Pete O’May (Glenn Robbins) seeks refuge in a pub, where he …

Valerie has disappeared. Detective Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) suspects her husband John (Geoffrey Rush) of having an affair with one of her male patients, Patrick Phelan. John and Zat discuss marriage in a moment of truth.

This clip from a silent black-and-white cinema advertisement for Life Savers sweets shows a young woman dive into the surf, only to be rescued by a surf lifesaver. He lies her down and gives her …

The villain tries to steal the formula for Life Savers sweets by convincing Betty to take him to her father’s Life Savers factory where she gives him a guided tour. In the meantime, Cudgy …

In a series of panning shots, the camera films the businesses, workers and daily life in Burwood Road, West Hawthorn. Businesses shown include a farrier, an estate agent, a chemist, a glassware shop and a …

Family friend May Swaisey (Sheila Florance) helps Max’s wife Jessie (Joanne Samuel) and child (Brendan Heath) to escape the Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his gang, but they soon catch up. The scene uses iconic …

Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) has joined the crack horsemen in pursuit of the wild brumbies, but the men baulk at following the mob down a precipitous decline. As Harrison (Kirk Douglas) declares the mob has …

This clip shows the end of the 1896 Melbourne Cup horse race through the onlooking crowd. Newhaven wins.

The family have returned to Maggie’s house for the wake after her brother’s funeral. Uncle Tom (Peter Gwynne) has a heart attack and dies on their sofa in the lounge room just as …

This clip shows joyous celebrations erupting in Sydney streets at the declaration of peace after the Japanese surrender. Footage includes enormous crowds crammed shoulder to shoulder in the city. A tracking shot from a moving …

Bill Heslop (Bill Hunter) entertains a Japanese resort developer (Ken Senga) and his interpreter (Kuni Hashimoto) at a Chinese restaurant. The meal is free, because Bill Heslop has done the owner (Jon-Claire Lee) a favour …

Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) tells younger sister Gertie (Marion Shad) of her desire to escape a life of rural drudgery. Her frustrations increase when she’s sent to drag her father out of the pub.

While staying with her well-to-do grandmother, Sybylla (Judy Davis) has a crisis about her looks. Her Aunt Helen (Wendy Hughes) tells her to stop looking in mirrors and tries to make her more feminine. Suitor …

Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) has waited two years for Sybylla (Judy Davis) to agree to marry. As drought grips the land again, he comes for an answer, but Sybylla explains why she cannot.

Warren Brown takes us into the vaults of the NFSA to find out why the 1919 silent movie The Sentimental Bloke is regarded as one of the greatest Australian films.

A beautifully photographed montage of Sydney’s architecture, streets, people and modes of transport that is rapidly edited to orchestrated music.

A close-up of a ‘modern stud’ sheep is shown to be the product of a ‘century’s breeding’. Sheep are hand-shorn by manual clippers; a flock of sheep at shearing season is shown; sheering sheds …

Scenes of wheat harvesting are accompanied by commentary full of metaphors of nation-building based on ‘harvesting the benefits of a great past’. As the commentary builds to a patriotic climax, the music from _Pomp and …

Film editor Geoff (Bryan Brown) makes a political joke, and a statement, by tampering with a newsreel to make fun of the newly-elected Prime Minister, Mr Menzies. His conservative boss, AG Marwood (Don Crosby), is …

Cameraman Len Maguire (Bill Hunter) and assistant Chris (Chris Haywood) rush ahead of the entrants in the round Australia Redex Trials to capture footage. They set up at a dangerous corner to wait for the …

This piece of documentary footage, taken on Mawson’s Antarctic expedition between 1911 and 1913, shows Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis and Dr Xavier Mertz setting up their tent. Another shot shows them lying in their reindeer …

The whole family joins a desperate battle to save the fencing around the crops, to no avail. Youngest son Joe (Arthur Wilson) thinks the fire is a splendid sight. Dad (Percy Walshe) sees it as …

Dave (Tal Ordell) dances with glee after he receives a letter from his new sweetheart Lily White (Carmen Coleman). Joe, the youngest Rudd (Arthur Wilson) thinks he’s gone mad. The Rudd women crowd around …

Between Townsville and Mount Isa the roads become more rugged and difficult to negotiate as the cars’ suspension and shock absorbers are pushed to their limits. The action is shot from a number of positions …

‘Gelignite’ Jack Murray and his navigator and co-driver Bill Murray cross the finish line first at the Sydney Showground to loud cheers. At the State Theatre in Sydney, the Redex managing director and president of …

After their picnic lunch, school friends Miranda (Anne Lambert), Marion (Jane Vallis) and Irma (Karen Robson) ask permission from their French mistress Mademoiselle de Portiers (Helen Morse) to go for a walk around the base …

Mr Pym (John Meillon) sees an unexpected and unwanted visitor as he struggles with a bogged wagon – his former protégé Pete Palmer (Rod Taylor), now his chief rival. Disgruntled piano player Lou (Garry McDonald) decides …

Pym (John Meillon) entertains a small-town audience with his hilarious version of a song-and-dance man. Larry (Harold Hopkins) lights a lime pellet that will produce 'limelight’ for projection. Freddie (John Ewart) accompanies the images with …

A woman in the butchers can only afford to buy cheap meat; a young boy doesn’t have enough money for a chocolate; a woman is outraged by the cost of vegetables from the grocer …

An elderly pensioner is another victim of inflated prices. While his ‘hands helped to build this country’, he lives in a run-down house and has to save his cigarette butts because tobacco is too expensive …

With the aid of cartoons, an argument is made which illustrates the chain of supply for manufacture and the associated costs. Manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer each take their own profits before passing on the inflated …

Debbie (Nell Schofield) and Sue (Jad Capelja) have been accepted by the surfie chicks. They are invited to ‘the paddock’ after school, where Tracey (Sandy Paul) introduces Debbie to a boy she says likes her …

Marion (Margaret Dare) fumes with indignation about being told she’s useless by Dick Drake, her father’s overseer (Victor Jory). Her Aunt Abbie (Rita Pauncefort), aware of the smouldering attraction between the two, suggests …

In a series of takes and retakes, an unidentified man stands in front of a curtain and addresses the camera. He outlines his association’s vision for the wealth of the nation through the ‘abolition …

Warrigal (Tommy Lewis) is confronted with the reality of losing his 'brother’ Captain Starlight (Sam Neill) as the gang makes plans to escape to America. Meanwhile, the troopers are perfecting a killing machine to ambush …

Hando (Russell Crowe) drinks milk after a wild all-night party. His friend (Stephen Hall) has to return to his naval base. Hando gives him a Nazi salute as he goes. Hando explains his belief in …

An intertitle describing Magnetic Island – only six miles from Townsville – introduces sepia-tinted images of passengers on board the daily service from Townsville. Another title card explaining Magnetic Island’s beaches and picturesque thatched roofed bungalows …

This clip begins with a montage of people on the streets of postwar Japan. The narrator explains that the American Allied occupation forces are transforming Japan from a ‘military dictatorship’ into a democracy. The next …

The children are all trying to make it up to their father (Leonard Teale) after the dinner disaster, but unfortunately Bunty (Mark Shields-Brown) and Baby (Tania Falla) just make it worse. It’s all too …

Buster (Rebecca Smart) the city kid has been kitted out for her new life in the bush and her father (Bryan Brown) is setting a cracking pace as they walk to his next farm job …

This clip shows the first two minutes of the travelogue Skyway Express. It was produced in the late 1940s for exhibition in the cinema. It shows the start of a passenger plane journey to London …

Mr McBride (Frank Bradley) takes Monty (Frank Leighton) to Mascot to meet the ‘flying parson’ (Eric Colman). Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, playing himself, offers to take them for a joyride over Sydney.

As the shearing reaches full speed at Waratah Station, the overseer Fletcher (Les Warton) tells Clive Sherrington (John Warwick) to deliver a package from the car when he goes to see Morgan. He jokes that …

While his father takes a catch of fish to sell in town, Mike (Greg Rowe) discovers some illegal hunters shooting birds. An Aboriginal stranger, Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil), drives them away with a warning shot …

Mike (Greg Rowe) is overjoyed when Mr Percival, his pet pelican, returns after being set free.

Mike (Greg Rowe) and his father (Peter Cummins) go to warn Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil) that trouble is brewing. Bill is not supposed to be living on a state reserve, and the ranger wants to …

This fragment from The Story of the Kelly Gang shows Constable Fitzpatrick visiting the homestead of Kate Kelly. Fitzpatrick attempts to kiss Kate Kelly and in the scuffle Ned Kelly shoots Fitzpatrick in the wrist …

This clip shows the troopers outside the Glenrowan hotel. Joe Byrne is shot. Steve and Dan shoot each other rather than be caught. The police set fire to the hotel and Father Gibney runs into …

This clip shows a re-enactment of the bushranger Ned Kelly being shot and captured by police. It has severe nitrate damage.

(Elizabeth Taggart-Speers)

Foley (Jack Thompson) discovers he has competition from an unknown, Arthur Black (Peter Cummins). Shearing contractor Tim King (Max Cullen) gives Jim the learner (Graham Smith) a second chance.

After months of work, broke and hung over, the union shearers make their feelings plain as strikebreakers arrive to work for reduced wages.

From an elevated position above Central Square (now Railway Square) in Sydney, the camera films the bustle of the streets at rush hour where people transfer from trams to trains and suburban trams to take …

As the men prepare for a big lunch of magpie-geese, cooked in the canoes on the swamp, the narrator (David Gulpilil) returns to the climax of the old story. Ridjimiraril (Crusoe Kurddal) and his brother …

A drunken Anglo-Australian (Keith Petersen) abuses an Italian migrant family on a Sydney ferry. Nino Culotta (Walter Chiari) watches in discomfort.

Nino Culotta (Walter Chiari) comes to meet Harry Kelly (Chips Rafferty), father of Kay (Clare Dunne), the woman he wants to marry. Harry is a successful building contractor, who thinks his daughter can do better.

After failing several times to kill the horse, Hops Warton (Lynton Moore), an Australian criminal working for an international syndicate, promises to shoot the horse during the Melbourne Cup. Tommy (Frank Leighton) rushes to thwart …

This clip features a crowd of people near the footbridge at Footscray’s railway station.

Danny (Noah Taylor) gets a dunking from classmates for writing secret love poetry; Trevor (Ben Mendelsohn) rescues him and wins favour from his love interest, Freya (Loene Carmen).

In their secret place on the hill, Danny (Noah Taylor) offers to hypnotise Freya (Loene Carmen) to help her stop smoking – but he has something else on his mind as well.

He’s alone, she’s alone, everyone’s alone at the mid-year dance, a cheerless gathering for all concerned. Danny (Noah Taylor) makes a statement with his outfit, a little bit Marlon Brando, a little …