Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Ross Smith’s Flight from London to Australia (1919)

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The Middle East education content clip 2

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

At street level in Gaza, the buildings have been reduced to rubble as a result of the First World War. Aerial shots of the snaking Jordan River follow its flow into the Sea of Galilee. The team stops at Ramadi battlefield west of Baghdad for a quick refuelling.

Curator’s notes

The opening shots on the streets of Gaza were probably filmed by Hurley during his time in the Middle East during the First World War where he was stationed as a war cameraman. The remaining shots in this clip would have been filmed by Keith Smith, one of the copilots who made the flight from England to Australia. Hurley obviously felt when editing the film that Smith’s aerial shots missed out on details and significant parts of the journey. Hurley inserted a number of shots which appear in the finished film that were either shot at an earlier time or which were still photographs.