Titles curated by Paul Byrnes
260 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 next
1930s (continued)
Dad and Dave Come to Town feature film – 1938
The question this fish-out-of-water comedy is really asking is whether Australians have the confidence to be modern in the context of the wider world of 1938.
Let George Do It feature film – 1938
Although reliant on the comic sketches Wallace made famous in his vaudeville act, the film is pushed along by the thrilling outdoor action sequences Ken Hall knew how to direct.
Give a Little Credit to your Dad; Lonesome for You, Mother Dear music – 1939
Two songs by then unknown country singer Buddy Williams, recorded in 1939.
Gone to the Dogs feature film – 1939
The second comedy that George Wallace made with Cinesound features a musical interlude with dogs, children, dancing girls and backing singers on bicycles!
Mr Chedworth Steps Out feature film – 1939
Cecil Kellaway was probably the best actor that Ken G Hall ever worked with. He returned from Hollywood to play the titular little man who learns to assert himself.
1940s
Dad Rudd, MP feature film – 1940
Dad Rudd, MP truly signals the end of an era, the last gasp of the cycle of rural comedies featuring yokels and livestock that went back 30 years in Australian cinema.
Forty Thousand Horsemen feature film – 1940
Chauvel introduced a very young and fresh-faced Chips Rafferty, who modelled his performance in part on the comical digger created by Pat Hanna in Diggers (1931).
Majestic Fanfare music – 1943
The original 1943 recording of the ABC’s much loved ‘Majestic Fanfare’, used in various forms since 1952 to introduce news broadcasts.
Jungle Patrol newsreel – 1944
The story of eight Australian soldiers fighting the Japanese on Shaggy Ridge in New Guinea, in 1943.
The Rats of Tobruk feature film – 1944
The Rats of Tobruk may not be Charles Chauvel’s best movie, but it deserves serious consideration as his best movie about war.
The Overlanders feature film – 1946
As the Japanese threaten northern Australia in 1942, a drover takes a mob of prime beef cattle across 2,600 kms of hazardous country to Queensland.
Smithy feature film – 1946
Smithy was Charles 'Bud’ Tingwell’s first film. With characteristic modesty, he later said he won the part as a control tower officer because he supplied his own uniform.
Bush Christmas feature film – 1947
In a rare villainous role, Chips Rafferty plays a horse thief, Long Bill. He is tracked by five kids spending Christmas in the Blue Mountains.
Antarctica 1948 documentary – 1949
A record of the operations of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, November 1947–April 1948.
Eureka Stockade feature film – 1949
In 1854, miners in the Ballarat goldfields take up arms against government troops in a defining moment of Australian history.
Sons of Matthew feature film – 1949
Sons of Matthew is an extremely vivid depiction of the heroic conquest of the land by Australia’s white settlers.
1950s
Bitter Springs feature film – 1950
A family of white farmers fight to take possession of land and water that is home to a well-established Aboriginal clan.
Antarctic Vigil documentary – 1952
One of the first colour films about Australian bases in the sub-Antarctic islands.
Blue Ice documentary – 1954
The story of the 1954 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition to set up the first Australian base on the Antarctic continent.
The Queen in Australia documentary – 1954
The first colour feature made in Australia, documenting the first visit of a reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1954.
Jedda feature film – 1955
Jedda (1955) is probably Charles Chauvel’s best film, as well as his last. It is historic both for being the first colour feature film made in Australia, but more importantly, because it is arguably the first Australian film to take the emotional lives of Aboriginal people seriously.
Smoky Dawson and the Singing Bullet radio – 1955
Smoky Dawson rescues his young friend Billy from two villains in this classic episode of the Smoky Dawson radio show.
Antarctic Voyage documentary – 1956
In 1955, the Danish ship Kista Dan takes a team of Australian scientists south for a year at Mawson, Australia’s new Antarctic research station.
Smiley feature film – 1956
A mischievous boy in a small town tries to reform himself, in order to earn a bicycle.
Walk Into Paradise feature film – 1956
For the third time with director Lee Robinson, Chips Rafferty played his version of an Australian hero – rugged, self-reliant, resourceful, an unpolished rough diamond.
A Pub With No Beer music – 1957
Slim Dusty’s original recording from 1957 of one of his most famous songs.
Service in the Sun sponsored film – 1957
In 1956, members of the American and Hawaiian surf lifesaving teams demonstrate the latest surfing techniques on Bondi Beach.
The Shiralee feature film – 1957
Arguably there are two major themes in Australian cinema – the problem of the landscape, and the related problem of masculinity – and both are the subject of The Shiralee.
My Country spoken word – 1958
Dorothea Mackellar, aged about 73, reads her most famous poem, 'My Country’.
Smiley Gets a Gun feature film – 1958
A nine-year-old country boy tries to give up mischief in order to win a much-desired rifle.
1960s
The Sundowners feature film – 1960
The Sundowners is remarkable for the number of Australian actors it showcases. Chips Rafferty plays Quinlan, the contractor at an outback shearing station.
Expedition South documentary – 1961
A film record of a year at Mawson, Australia’s largest Antarctic station.
All Quiet on the Surfie-Rocker Front newsreel – 1963
A short newsreel item from 1963, outlining police efforts to curb gang violence between outer suburban ‘rockers’ and surfers at Manly beach.
Australia Today – Antarctic Pioneers documentary – 1963
Photographer Frank Hurley discusses his Antarctic exploits in his last appearance on film.
King of the Surf sponsored film – 1964
In 1964, ten of the world’s best surfers converge on Manly Beach to fight for the title of world champion.
They’re a Weird Mob feature film – 1966
An Italian sports journalist arrives in Australia to find his cousin’s new magazine for migrant Italians has folded. He soon gets a job as a builder’s labourer, learns to talk and drink like an Australian, and falls in love with an Australian girl.
High on a Cool Wave documentary – 1968
A classic Australian surf movie featuring Nat Young, Bob McTavish and Peter Drouyn, from just before the short board revolution in 1968.
2000 Weeks feature film – 1969
2000 Weeks (1969) was one of the first features of the modern era in Australian cinema. Autobiographical and intensely personal, it’s still highly watchable.
You Can’t See ‘Round Corners feature film – 1969
This film, shot at Kapooka camp, contains one of the only depictions in Australian cinema of soldiers training for Vietnam.
1970s
Walkabout feature film – 1970
A 16-year-old English girl and her 8-year-old brother are stranded in the desert, after their father shoots himself. They are rescued by a young tribal Aborigine.
Bonjour Balwyn feature film – 1971
Kevin leaves a job in insurance to start his own magazine. As his debts mount, Kevin’s prospects begin to look brighter in the criminal world.
Stork feature film – 1971
Stork was important in a business sense: its success lead to the formation of Hexagon Productions, which became a major force in film.
Wake in Fright feature film – 1971
A young schoolteacher loses all his money in an outback two-up game, while en route to Sydney. In the next two days he loses a lot more – self-respect, inhibitions, almost his life.
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie feature film – 1972
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie was a hugely popular satire with Australian and British audiences, partly because it conformed so well with each country’s view of the other.
Morning of the Earth feature film – 1972
This successful surfing picture was a visual manifesto for its fans, promoting such counter-culture ideals as living simply and sustainably.
The Office Picnic feature film – 1972
Bored employees in a mindless bureaucracy are barely more than automatons until released by alcohol at the office picnic, during which sexual and generational differences explode.
Alvin Purple feature film – 1973
Alvin Purple was hugely popular, partly because it makes fun of powerful institutions like the courts, the press, marriage and psychiatry.
Crystal Voyager documentary – 1973
George Greenough, who helped revolutionise surfboard design in the 1960s, is inspired by the shape of marlin and other fish.
27A feature film – 1974
Robert McDarra won the 1974 AFI Award for his portrait of an alcoholic imprisoned in a Queensland psychiatric hospital. He died in 1975.
