Australian Labor Government 1916 Conscription Referendum Campaign: Referendum Bullets (1916)
This is a silent cinema short presented by the then Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, promoting the ‘Yes’ vote for the 1916 conscription referendum. [read more]
More Anzacs (1916)
Billy Hughes’ words, appealing to the general public for a ‘yes’ vote in the 1916 referendum on conscription, are superimposed on First World War images. The typical silent film format of title card followed by image (which begins the film) ... [read more]
The issue of conscription (1962)
In this excerpt from an interview with Dr Daniel Mannix, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Mannix describes the circumstances in which he advocated against conscription during the First World War. [read more]
Billy and Percy (1974)
This dramatised documentary is based on the diaries of Percy Deane, who became the private secretary of Prime Minister WM Hughes during one of the most controversial and exciting periods of Australian history. It was during the First World War ... [read more]
Australians at War – The Thin Khaki Line (2002)
During the Second World War, the outlook for Australia in 1942 was grim. When the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbour, only a ragtag group of conscripts was still at home in Australia. The AIF was overseas in ... [read more]
Super 8 Soldiers (1991)
In the 1960s a group of Australian conscripts took 8 mm cameras to Vietnam. Super 8 Soldiers intercuts that footage with interviews with the men and their families in the early 1990s. The Vietnam veterans reflect on the war, the ... [read more]
ALP: Federal Election 1966 (1966)
This is from a collection of the Australian Labor Party’s television advertisements for the 1966 federal election. It consists of ten ads – five each of five minutes duration and five each of 30 seconds duration. The longer advertisements were ... [read more]
Viewpoint (1965)
A woman (June Salter) who lost her husband in the Second World War worries that she will lose her son in Vietnam, after the introduction of conscription. [read more]
An honourable man (1974)
Prime Minister Billy Hughes (Martin Vaughan) and his secretary, Percy Deane (Harold Hopkins), are playing golf to unwind from the stresses of parliament. The conscription referendum has just been lost by Hughes. His golf ball disappears into the rough. Angry ... [read more]
‘Click, bang, dead’ (1988)
Phil Goddard (Nicholas Eadie) has been called up and is being trained for the war in Indo China. Meanwhile, the politicians are still pretending there are no American troops in Vietnam and that Australian conscripts will not become front line ... [read more]
‘Punch a postie’ (1991)
Vietnam veterans Rowan Marsh and Peter Stainthorpe recollect the anti-Vietnam demonstrations with ambivalence. They explain that when unions put a go-slow on mail delivery to soldiers in Vietnam as part of the protest, that was too much and the 'punch ... [read more]
Vietnam (1988)
This epic story of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War is told through the history of a middle class family, the Goddards, whose son Phillip (Nicholas Eadie) is conscripted to fight in the war and whose father, Douglas (Barry Otto), ... [read more]
The war is the news (1988)
The slowly disintegrating Goddard family are watching the news. They are painfully aware that their son, Phil (Nicholas Eadie) is in Vietnam as a conscript. The evening news shows the terrible and soon to become iconic photo of the South ... [read more]
The Odd Angry Shot (1979)
After his 21st birthday, Bill (John Jarratt) goes to fight in Vietnam, as part of the Australian forces. He’s in the Special Air Services, elite professional soldiers who look down on the ‘nashos’, the conscripted troops. Bill’s best mate is ... [read more]
Australasian Gazette – Returned Anzacs (c1917)
This segment from an Australasian Gazette newsreel shows returned Anzac soldiers marching through Melbourne as part of the First World War 'Fill-the-Gap’ recruitment drive. [read more]
Interview with Archbishop Mannix (1962)
Dr Daniel Mannix was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne from 1913 until his death in 1963. He was a man of considerable influence in Australian public life, not only in the religious field but also in social and political ... [read more]
Cartoons of the Moment – The Economy in Germany (c1915)
Cartoons of the Moment is an animated satirical segment created by Australian cartoonist Harry Julius during the First World War for the Australasian Gazette newsreel. In this edition from approximately 1914, Julius comments on the economic decline in Germany and ... [read more]
Cartoons of the Moment – Australia’s Prime Minister Delights the Empire (c1915)
In this edition of Cartoons of the Moment, cartoonist Harry Julius comments on the war in Europe and Australian Prime Minister Hughes’s policy of restrictions on trade with Germany. [read more]
The Mavis Bramston Show – Series 2 Episode 1 (1965)
This is the first episode for 1965 of The Mavis Bramston Show, a weekly sketch and variety series featuring topical satire, sketches and songs. [read more]
Cartoons of the Moment – Miss Australasia (c1915)
Cartoons of the Moment was an animated segment by Harry Julius that appeared in wartime editions of the Australasian Gazette newsreel. This edition comments on First World War-related events in Australia and Europe. In the first of three sketches, women ... [read more]