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Clip description
Shipbuilders work at the Whyalla shipyards for Australia’s war effort. A woman shakes out a broom over a veranda with the ship visible to the left. Men walk through the streets to or from work. A pastor addresses the gathered workers where the finished ship awaits launch. He is filmed against the backdrop of a cloudy sky.
Curator’s notes
Although the soundtrack to this film no longer survives, this clip conveys a strong sense of patriotism and pride in hard work through its imagery. The pastor and many of the workers are filmed from a low angle, giving the impression of height and aligning their shipbuilding efforts with the 'gigantic things’ that the opening title of the film says the nation will achieve. Chauvel ennobles the workers, filming them backlit by late afternoon sunlight and in beautifully lit and carefully staged close-ups. In all his wartime documentaries for the DOI, workers on the domestic frontline are never lost in the great machinery of war but presented as vital parts. In what looks more like a sequence from a 1930s MGM feature film than a documentary, the priest delivers his service against a backdrop of picturesque clouds. For other examples of Christianity featuring in Commonwealth propaganda during the Second World War, see Kokoda Front Line! (1942) and Give Us This Day (1943).
