Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip from 1932 shows a re-creation of the New South Wales Fire Brigade fighting a large fire and then returning home. The firefighters train their hoses high. They are filmed from different vantage points within the burning shell of the building. Music swells as the firemen, seemingly unaffected by the smoke, leave the fire site. The fire trucks drive through the streets to the sound of sirens. One fireman gets a hero’s welcome from his wife and son.

Educational value points

• The equipment and methods of firefighting depicted in this clip would breach safety regulations today. They reveal the poor protection afforded to firefighters at the time. The firefighters’ woollen uniforms gave them some protection from heat and cinders but did not offer the thermal resistance of modern synthetic fabrics. They had no masks, gloves or breathing equipment, and their brass helmets were cumbersome, unlike today’s lightweight impact-resistant helmets.

• Frank Hurley (1885–1962) uses re-creation and dramatic action to create a narrative. The fire scenes were staged in the ruins of a paper mill in Lane Cove, Sydney, that had burned down in 1928. Hurley sequences the shots to suggest a job well done and the subsequent tiredness of the firefighters when they return to base. Actors play the roles of a wife and son anxiously awaiting one firefighter’s return. The wife’s exclamation of relief at his return signals the danger of his job.

• The clip demonstrates less concern for realism than for portraying Sydney firefighters as heroic figures. They are filmed standing in a row within a ruin pointing their hoses high above the fire for visual effect rather than to show how a fire is actually fought. They nonchalantly walk through the smoke and display no ill effects. The reunion of the fireman with his family is staged to achieve maximum melodramatic effect.

• Frank Hurley was one of Australia’s greatest cinematographers, and this clip shows his exceptional skill. Various camera vantage points dramatically frame the firefighters among billowing smoke and flames. The close-up of the two men struggling to control the nozzle of the hose conveys the intensity of their concentration. Streaming light and the movement of the smoke create dramatic footage of the aftermath of the fire.

• The clip, through the action, language and the demeanour of the characters, demonstrates attitudes to the roles of men and women that were common at the time. While the man is depicted as a hero undertaking difficult and dangerous work, the woman is depicted as a mother and wife waiting anxiously at home for the return of her husband, then smoothing the cushions behind his head. Commenting on the size of the fire he says: ‘Yes, my dear, it was a big job’.

This clip starts approximately 30 minutes into the documentary.

Fire fighters tackle a blaze at a paper mill until the fire is brought under control. They pull out their hoses and head back to base in their engines.

A mother and son stand in the living room.
Son Mummy, they’re coming.
Fire siren sounds. Wife and son look out the window.
Wife Look, there’s Daddy. There’s Daddy! He’s safe.
Fire siren sounds.
The firefighter enters the house and sits down with his wife and son.
Tomlinson Hi, laddy.
Son Dad.
Wife Was it a big fire?
Tomlinson Yes, my dear, it was a big job.
Wife Anyone hurt?
Tomlinson Everybody alright now.