Titles curated by Adrienne Parr
79 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 next
1910s
Australian Labor Government 1916 Conscription Referendum Campaign: Referendum Bullets newsreel – 1916
This silent cinema short, presented by Prime Minister Billy Hughes, promotes the 'Yes’ vote for the 1916 conscription referendum.
1920s
Delegates to the Australian Labor Party’s Easter Conference at the Trades Hall Melbourne newsreel – 1928
This is rare footage of key historical figures of the ALP and trade union movement at a 1928 conference at Melbourne Trades Hall.
1930s
Cockatoo Island: Newsreel Film of Dockyard Activities historical – c1939
The largest island in Sydney Harbour became the major shipbuilding and dockyard facility for the Pacific during the Second World War, following the fall of Singapore.
Commonwealth Bank – Willie Wombat: Waste Not Want Not sponsored film – c1939
Willie Wombat was produced by Eric Porter – Australia’s first career animator – to promote the Commonwealth Savings Bank of Australia’s School Banking program.
1940s
Australia Post – Post Office Film sponsored film – 1942
This is a mute, black-and-white film record of the dismantling of the Sydney GPO clock tower to relocate communications equipment during the Second World War.
Visit of Deputy PM Forde to UN Conference home movie – 1945
Four days after arriving home from the conference, Prime Minister John Curtin died and Forde was sworn in for a brief term as prime minister.
ALP Cinema Advertisement: In the Wake of the Storm advertisement – 1946
This cinema ad for the 1946 federal election encourages Australians to stay with the Labor Party, which has successfully led the country through the end of the Second World War.
ALP: Frank Forde, Election 1946 newsreel – 1946
Labor Deputy Prime Minister Frank Forde appeals to his Capricornia electorate to vote for him and Prime Minister Chifley in the September 1946 federal election.
Liberal Party Cinema Advertisement: The Golden Age advertisement – 1946
This Liberal Party cinema advertisement for the 1946 federal election proposes that life for ordinary people under the incumbent Labor government is by no means as good as it should be.
Snowy Hydro - Where Giants Meet sponsored film – 1948
The film spends a lot of time singing the praises of the TD-24 bulldozer, but it’s also interesting as a recruitment tool for genuine high country bushmen.
Liberal Party Cinema Advertisement: The House that You Built advertisement – 1949
This Liberal Party cinema advertisement for the 1949 federal election presents a choice between the 'socialist’ and 'free democratic’ ways of life, as offered by the ALP and Liberal Party respectively.
1950s
Commonwealth Bank – Plan for the Future advertisement – c1950
This ad appeals to its audience to patronise the Commonwealth Bank because it’s the bank they own.
Commonwealth Bank – The School Bank sponsored film – 1951
The bank commissioned this film to replace personal school visits by Bank Liaison Officers, recently cancelled because of postwar labour shortages.
Snowy Hydro – The Snowy Mountains Scheme sponsored film – 1952
Interesting as an early document on the Snowy Hydro scheme, it’s an unabashed celebration of the entire endeavour, depicting it as a model of postwar reconstruction.
Australia Post – Royal Tour sponsored film – 1954
As this program amply illustrates, an excited Australian public turned out in droves to see the Queen in 1954. For the PMG, her visit represented a coming of age.
Snowy Hydro – The Snowy Flows Inland sponsored film – 1954
Most of the Snowy Hydro productions followed the format and style of this film – a conventional instructional documentary complete with authoritative voice-over.
CSIRO – Rabbits in Confined Populations Management Techniques sponsored film – c1955
With exploding rabbit numbers in the 1950s, the Wildlife Survey Section of the CSIRO studied captive rabbit populations to assist and improve control techniques.
Snowy Hydro – Conservation in the Snowy Mountains sponsored film – 1955
This film traces the history of soil erosion in the Snowy Mountains and demonstrates the approach taken by the Snowy Mountains Scheme to counteract the problem.
Australia Post – Olympic Post Script sponsored film – 1956
This film focuses on the telecommunications services set up especially for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. It also has footage of the sporting events that is unlikely to have survived in any other form.
Operation Buffalo – Colour Record sponsored film – 1956
In 1957, Britain’s Prime Minister declared that the Operation Buffalo tests would place Britain on an equal nuclear footing with the USA and the Soviet Union.
Snowy Hydro – Conquest of the Rivers sponsored film – 1957
This is essentially a recruitment film, targeting the types of workers whose adaptability and skills base would well serve the Snowy Hydro scheme’s requirements.
Snowy Hydro – Operation Adaminaby sponsored film – 1958
In an extraordinarily florid finale, reminiscent of wartime propaganda, the film pays tribute to the residents and their noble act in moving the town of Adaminaby.
1960s
Ikara the Weapon Thrower sponsored film – 1963
This black-and-white film, classified 'confidential’ at the time, shows the lead up to the Ikara weapons trials and the trials that began in April 1963.
Jungle Road sponsored film – c1963
While the film is patronising in its approach, it promotes the army’s work as vitally contributing to preparations for Papua New Guinea’s eventual independence.
Operation Blowdown sponsored film – 1963
This is the official film of Operation Blowdown, the classified project that aimed to replicate the effects of a nuclear explosion on a tropical rainforest environment.
Snowy Hydro – Sound and Safe sponsored film – 1963
Produced in 1963, this safety film focuses on 'drill and blast’ tunnelling on the Snowy Mountains Scheme in an effort to save lives and prevent injury.
Snowy Hydro - Where Men and Mountains Meet sponsored film – 1963
This film is a fascinating depiction of the national ideal of postwar masculinity, looking at the spectrum of workers involved in the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
Snowy Hydro – Safety on the Snowy Scheme sponsored film – 1964
The culture of the all-male workplace was one where risk taking and daring were highly valued, an environment intensified by the experiences of two world wars.
Terrain in South East Asia sponsored film – 1964
Produced in-house by Army Public Relations, this was a restricted-access training film for Australian troops placed in South-East Asian postings.
Snowy Hydro – The Jindabyne Story sponsored film – c1965
Although the film talks about the potential loss of the history of the region, the prevailing sense is that the new town of Jindabyne will do very well.
ALP: Federal Election 1966 advertisement – 1966
These Australian Labor Party television advertisements are for the 1966 federal election and broach issues ranging from education and health care to resource development, conscription and the Vietnam War.
Australia Post – This is the Mail sponsored film – 1966
When the $6 million Redfern Mail Exchange in Sydney was opened in 1965, it was hailed as the largest mechanised mail centre in the Southern Hemisphere.
Australian Visit television program – 1967
Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations were timed to coincide with the five-day visit of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam and his wife in 1967.
Holt – Film Re-enactment of the Circumstances Surrounding the Disappearance of the PM sponsored film – 1967
This unedited footage shot by Victorian Police re-creates the unexplained disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt from a Victorian beach in December 1967.
Snowy Hydro – Gardens of the Snowy Mountains sponsored film – 1967
This Snowy Hydro film encourages visitors to the area to take a wider look around, but also counters any criticism of the vastly expanded settlement of the region.
Snowy Hydro – The Construction of Geehi Dam sponsored film – 1967
This film is a fairly technical description of the construction of Geehi Dam in the Snowy Mountains Scheme, located in a remote area of Kosciuszko National Park.
Terrain Study of Phuoc Tuy Province South Vietnam sponsored film – 1967
Many of the places named in this formerly restricted army training film have become pilgrimage tour destinations for veterans of the Vietnam War.
Weapons Research Establishment Project WRESAT sponsored film – 1967
On 29 November 1967, Australia became only the fourth country – after the USA, Soviet Union and France – to launch its own satellite from its own territory.
Snowy Hydro - Snowy 69 sponsored film – 1969
This 1969 film makes a concerted effort to explain the many facets of the Snowy Hydro scheme to the public, including how the system was being built.
Snowy Hydro – The Snowy–Murray Development sponsored film – 1969
There’s no exciting dramatic structure here, but to watch it is to gain an insight into the size and complexity of such a large-scale civil engineering venture.
1970s
Australia Post – Onward Speed sponsored film – 1970
Fred Schepisi wrote and directed Onward Speed as a sponsored film for Australia Post. It humorously instructs its target audience of executives, secretaries and mailroom staff in the efficient management of business mail.
Australia Post – Post Office Speeds the Mail sponsored film – 1970
With the 1971 changeover from pushbike to motorcycle for mail delivery, Australia Post purchased a fleet of customised motorbikes from Honda.
ALP: It’s Time advertisement – 1972
This TV commercial for the 1972 Whitlam election campaign targeted elusive Labor voters – women and young people – with a catchy song and starry singers.
Whitlam – Visit to Bendigo and Eaglehawk historical – 1973
Gough Whitlam, the first Labor Prime Minister in 23 years, visits Bendigo and Eaglehaw in Victoria to lend support to the party’s campaign for the May 1973 state elections.
Australia Post – Standard Letters advertisement – 1974
This ad was made at a time when postage of a standard letter within Australia was only ten cents.
Metric Motoring advertisement – 1974
This is one of the two television advertisements produced to facilitate the change to metric on Australian roads in July 1974.
Snowy Hydro - The Best of the Years sponsored film – 1974
This 1974 documentary examines the multicultural workforce and its achievement in building one of the world’s largest hydroelectric schemes to that date.
Whitlam – Visit to the Philippines historical – 1974
In 1974, prime minister Gough Whitlam visited Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Singapore and the Philippines with the aim of strengthening cooperation in aid, trade, investment and culture.
Australia Post – Changing Times advertisement – 1975
This black-and-white commercial informs the public of the split of the Postmaster-General’s Department into two independent Commissions. It offers a neat little history, using stills from Australia Post’s archive.
Letters From Poland short film – 1978
While the plight of migrant women was a pillar issue for 1970s and 1980s Australian feminism, this film’s approach to the issue is very much focused on the individual.
