Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows two members of the Longreach Town Band playing their instruments in the butcher’s shop of the small town of Longreach, Queensland, where they work. The popular community band has been well established in Longreach for many years and plays at many local events. The band members explain that, although they have been practising over a period of months in preparation for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit, they have been told that a military band is being flown in for the event to replace them. The two band members carry on work in the butcher’s, as they express their disappointment and recount their experience of playing for the Queen in 1970.

Educational value points

• The rural Australian town of Longreach, featured in the clip, is located in central Queensland on the Thomson River, 1,205 km north-west of Brisbane. The region is known for its prosperous wool and beef industries. Since the development of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the Outback Heritage Centre, Longreach has become a tourism hub, with other new attractions including the Qantas Founders Outback Museum and the Powerhouse Museum.

• The town was the site of early commercial flights in Australia and the first purpose-built landing field and hangar for the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (Qantas) was constructed there. Qantas was founded in Winton in 1921 but moved to Longreach soon after, in 1922, and registered as a passenger and mail carrier. The hangar where Qantas built some of its first passenger aircraft is now part of the Qantas Founders Outback Museum at Longreach Airport.

• The clip shows an aspect of the Queen of England’s visit to Australia in 1988 for the bicentennial of British settlement. The Queen’s tour included a visit to Longreach to open the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the Outback Heritage Centre.

• Regarded as the region’s kick-start to tourism, the Hall of Fame has become one of the longer lasting cultural investments made during the bicentenary. The Stockman’s Hall of Fame is a unique tribute to Australia’s outback heroes and includes a wide variety of traditional artefacts, electronic displays, photographs, films and stories of bush life.

• As highlighted by the clip, there is a great deal of bureaucracy surrounding events that involve people held in high public esteem, such as the Queen. The Longreach Town Band had played for the Queen in 1970, but was replaced by a military band that was especially flown in for her bicentennial visit in 1988. In spite of their disappointment, the Town Band continues to be an integral part of the community and plays at many local events.

• The documentary The Queen Goes West was jointly funded by the Australian Bicentennial Authority and the Australian Film Commission. Originally, the filmmakers aimed to explore Australia’s changing relationship with the monarchy, but the scope of the project changed when the Australian Bicentennial Authority withdrew its half of the funding immediately prior to commencing production. As a result of the cut in the budget, the film focused on the rural town of Longreach as the community prepared for a visit from the Queen.

• Film techniques such as choice of setting, voice-over, music and selection of shots present an image of a rural Australian town and its people. The two men playing their brass instruments among the meat in the butcher’s shop and the wryly affectionate voice-over contribute to the clip’s laconic humour. The shot of the main street with a small number of cars, the few shops and the bikes strewn on the footpath convey the town’s smallness.

• The Queen Goes West is an early documentary by Australian filmmakers Christine Olsen and Curtis Levy. They have made a number of documentaries and feature films together, and have worked with each other on other projects. Of recent acclaim was Rabbit-Proof Fence (2001), written and produced by Christine Olsen and The President versus David Hicks (2004), cowritten, codirected and produced by Curtis Levy.

This clip starts approximately 25 minutes into the documentary.

We see two men in a butchers shop with there uniforms. They are playing When The Saints Go Marching In, one man is on a trombone and one a trumpet. We see shots of people on the street outside the butcher shop.

Narrator The Longreach Town Band has been around as long as people can remember. Anzac Days, Christmas carols, race meetings, you name it – if it’s happening in Longreach, the band’s going to be there. But not next Friday.

We see three men working in a butcher’s shop. One of the men is standing at a bench in the middle of the shop as the others are preparing meat for the store.

Narrator They’ve been practising for months for the big day, but now they’ve been told that they’re not good enough to play for the Queen. They’re flying in a military band instead.

Butcher Everyone’s been looking forward to this, all the band members have, because we’ve played at everything around the place. They’ve not only played for the Queen before, they’ve played for Deputy Prime Ministers, they’ve played for Governor-Generals, they’ve played for the lot over the years. The band, the Longreach Band is 92 years old.

Butcher 2 In 1970 she came out. Still good enough to play for her then.

Butcher 3 Yeah, she did.

Butcher We even got a wave off the Duke at that time.

Butcher 2 Got a what?

Butcher We even got a wave off the Duke.

Butcher 2 Got a what, a wave?

Butcher A wave, yeah. Apparently his favourite tune is Greensleeves and we found out and we played that for him, and he gave us the nod as he was walking past. When we played Greensleeves.