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Driving the cable (1988)
Historical footage shows the operation of Melbourne’s cable trams with voice-over explaining in detail how they were propelled by underground cable driven by steam boilers. The cable was in continuous rotation up to 18 hours a day. [read more]
Democracy in action (2006)
Standing in the House of Representatives Chamber in Old Parliament House, actor Michael Caton provides the context for early newsreels in Australia. This is followed by a Paramount Gazette newsreel from 1929 that shows ex-Prime Minister Stanley Bruce leaving Parliament ... [read more]
Hurley’s composites (2004)
Photographer Frank Hurley achieved some of his greatest wartime photographs by combining several photos into one. Stephen Burton of the Australian War Memorial shows how it is done. Australia’s official wartime historian, Charles Bean, was outraged. He branded the photographs ... [read more]
Official opening of Old Parliament House (1927)
This shows the Duke of York officially opening Parliament House in 1927, which is now Old Parliament House, in Canberra. A statue of King George V is then unveiled in the foyer and the senators leave for the first ever ... [read more]
Refugee Studies Centre (2002)
Hoi Trinh is an Australian-Vietnamese lawyer. Oxford University has accepted him into one of the few academic courses dealing with refugees in the world. The clip shows Hoi in class with his teachers Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill and Professor Andrew Shacknove. [read more]
Signing oath of allegiance (1901)
This clip shows Sydney’s Archbishop, William Smith, welcoming Lord Hopetoun and Prime Minister Edmund Barton, and dignitaries to the swearing in of Australia’s first federal cabinet and for the reading of the Proclamation of the Constitution at Centennial Park, Sydney ... [read more]
Better than watching (2005)
A map shows the path of the Finke Desert Race, starting in Alice Springs to the community of Finke 229 kilometres away. The racers stop for the night, then do the return ride the next day. Bernard Singer, Jamie Nyaningu ... [read more]
Dame Nellie Melba (c1920)
This black-and-white silent story from an Australasian Gazette newsreel shows opera soprano Dame Nellie Melba accompanied by John Lemmone, Lady Pamela Vestey as a child and others, walking along the deck of the passenger liner RMS Niagara, which has ... [read more]
Into battle (1964)
Damien Parer’s first taste of battle was with the British infantry in the Middle East. He quickly learned that if he wanted to get the shots that best showed men in action, then he needed to be up there on ... [read more]
Siege at Glenrowan hotel (1906)
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 the burning hotel to save ... [read more]
City Traffic in Variable Moods (c1920)
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. It ends with a comedic ... [read more]
‘Housebreaking’ (1948)
With his sister Molly outside keeping watch, John breaks into a house through an unlocked window. The boy emerges and the pair walks briskly away, but they are seen by a boy watching from the apartment block above. Once safely ... [read more]
Sydney Harbour and Bridge scenes (c1932)
This home movie clip, shot by the Archibald family, is taken from on board a boat in Sydney Harbour. It shows various steamships and boats on Sydney Harbour as well as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, soon after it was completed ... [read more]
A family tragedy (1988)
Valerie Doyle grew up in Wittenoom. She shows reporter Paul Barry her family album from those times. Asbestos-related diseases have ravaged her family. They lived and married and had children in Wittenoom and never once were warned of any of ... [read more]
The Liberal with a Labor face (1975)
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 a great bloke or a dill. ... [read more]
Hitler’s fifth columnists (1941)
This clip opens with type scrolling over a background screen declaring that Australia is at war and threatened by a ruthless enemy. The enemies, according to the newsreel, are ‘agents of Germany’ or ‘Hitler’s 5th columnists’ who attempt to undermine ... [read more]
Manufacture of khaki (c1916)
This brief fragment with intertitles shows part of the process of manufacturing khaki cloth including sewing, cutting, folding and the finished rolls of khaki. A woman works beside a large machine which produces large sheets of khaki cloth. She re-threads ... [read more]
Birthday party (c1932)
This clip, shot by the Archibald family, shows a little girl’s birthday party in the early 1930s. Girls, all dressed in white dresses and with bobbed hair, play 'Ring-a-ring o’ roses’ and 'Oranges and lemons’ before they sit down to ... [read more]
Serving the troops (c1919)
This clip shows a range of assistance and relief activities that the Red Cross undertook around the First World War including: preparing linen; serving tea and biscuits to troops; providing relief to convalescing soldiers; and packing and loading supply bundles. [read more]
Wheat harvesting (1899)
This silent actuality footage was taken by the official photographer of the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Frederick Charles Wills, and his assistant Henry William Mobsby in 1899. It shows a horse-drawn Buckeye brand reaper and binder harvesting a wheat crop ... [read more]