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Four Corners – The Kilwa Incident (2005)
The disturbing story of a massacre, its cover-up and a UN investigation and report that implicates an Australian mining company working in the far reaches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This fabulously wealthy country was once the Belgian ... [read more]
Masterpiece Special – Wole Soyinka (1997)
The Nobel Laureate for literature in 1986, Wole Soyinka is in Australia for the 1997 Melbourne Writers’ Festival. He’s talking to Andrea Stretton about his early life in his native Nigeria and the terrible fate of his friend and fellow ... [read more]
A Town To Be Drowned (1958)
This is one of the earliest documentaries made by ABC television. It records the disappearance of the old town of Adaminaby beneath the waters of the Snowy as part of the construction of the Adaminaby Dam for the Snowy ... [read more]
Thrill of the Surf (1949)
This documentary featurette shows typical scenes on Australia’s beaches and features the events and activities of a surfing carnival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. An introductory text situates Australian beach culture amongst the 'sun worshippers’ of 'hot summers’, golden sands and ... [read more]
Liberal Party Cinema Advertisement: The House that You Built (1949)
This is a Liberal Party cinema advertisement for the 1949 federal election. It presents the election as a choice for the electorate between ‘the socialist way of life’ offered by the Labor Party and the ‘free democratic way of life’ ... [read more]
Hewers of Coal (1957)
This documentary about Australian coal miners presents a dramatised history of mining since the early 1900s. It features scenes of the mechanisation and modernisation of the industry in the 1950s as well as the friction between miners and mine owners ... [read more]
Zipper (1998)
The invention of the zipper in the 1920s is revealed as contemporaneous with that of the automobile, jazz and modern art. Images of changing representations of women in art and fashion are used to show women’s changes in sexual demeanour. ... [read more]
Majestic Fanfare (1943)
The original 1943 recording of the ABC’s much loved ‘Majestic Fanfare’, used in various forms since 1952 to introduce news broadcasts. [read more]
Hinkler’s Message to Australia; Incidents of My Flight (1928)
Bert Hinkler was the first Australian aviator to be celebrated by the issue of a gramophone recording. On this recording, he recalls his experience making the first solo flight from England to Australia in 1928, describes key events in the ... [read more]
Has Beans (1998)
While snoozing peacefully, a plump little kidney bean is accosted by two malicious lima beans. Kicking the little bean as if it were a ball, the lima beans amuse themselves with the kidney bean’s pain. The maligned bean complains to ... [read more]
Smiley (1956)
Smiley Greevins (Colin Petersen) is a poor but wily boy, growing up in a small country town. His father (Reg Lye) is a drunken drover; his mother (Margaret Christensen) is a workhorse. Smiley is constantly getting into trouble with his ... [read more]
Willaberta Jack (2007)
Two elders tell the story of Willaberta Jack, set within the context of the ‘wild west’ frontier country of the Northern Territory in the 1920s. A young Aboriginal man, Philomac, deserts his job at Harry Henty’s cattle station after Henty ... [read more]
The Safe House (2006)
In the summer of 1954, Lee Whitmore (voiced as a child by Alycia Debnam-Carey and as an adult by Noni Hazlehurst) and her friends pass the time playing in a make-shift children’s swimming pool in the backyard and gazing out ... [read more]
Age Before Beauty (1980)
Designed to provoke thought and discussion, Age Before Beauty examines the issues around ageing, as it relates to women. The film combines interviews with women (young and old), with observational footage and narration to cover topics like social perceptions of ... [read more]
The Sentimental Bloke (1919)
Bill, AKA 'The Kid’ (Arthur Tauchert), a larrikin from the Sydney dockside suburb of Woolloomooloo, gets a six-month sentence when he’s caught in a two-up game. After he’s released, he falls for Doreen (Lottie Lyell), an upright young woman ... [read more]
On Our Selection (1920)
Murtagh Joseph Rudd (Percy Walshe), known as Dad, and his son Dave (Tal Ordell) finish a bark hut on their newly established ‘selection’ of virgin bush. The rest of the family arrive and get to work, clearing the land by ... [read more]
Dot and the Kangaroo (1977)
Dot, a small child, becomes lost in the Australian bush after she wanders away from her parents’ farm. She falls down a gully and wakes up to find a large female red kangaroo tapping her on the shoulder. With the ... [read more]
Black Harvest (1992)
By late 1989, filmmakers Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly were ready to go back to the PNG highlands to make the third film in the Highlands Trilogy, Black Harvest. This film follows First Contact (1983) and Joe ... [read more]
In the Head the Fire (1966)
Commissioned by the ABC, In The Head the Fire is a musical composition with words for radio. It is written for a speaker, vocal soloists, a choir, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments, a piano, an organ and ... [read more]
First Australians – Episode 2, Her Will to Survive (2008)
This episode covers the period from 1825–60 and explores the history of European settlement in Tasmania through the stories of Truganini and George Augustus Robinson. Colonisation spreads south to Tasmania, along with the settlers’ desire for land occupied by the ... [read more]
