The Stawell Gift: Staging the Golden Jubilee Carnival (1927)
Synopsis
This footage shows the Golden Jubilee of the Stawell Gift foot race, announced in the intertitles as, ‘the greatest professional footrunning meeting in the world’. Crowds of over 30,000 attend the Easter weekend Carnival in Stawell, Victoria. Events include the 1-mile and 2-mile races, the hurdles, and the feature event – the 130-yard (120-metre) sprint.
Curator’s notes
The Stawell Gift – run on a grass track – began as an athletics competition between miners in the Victorian goldfields. It has been held in the small Victorian town since 1878. This footage, covering the 50th anniversary celebrations at Stawell’s Central Park, shows the popularity of the event for both competitors and spectators. Thirty thousand spectators came to watch the weekend event of 1927, in a town that today houses just over 6000 permanent residents.
This footage was produced by Herschells Films, a Melbourne-based production company which had been in short film production since 1912. One of the highlights of this archival material is that it captures the inaugural winner of the 130-yard handicap footrace in 1878, WJ Millard. Millard ran off a three-yard handicap and finished in twelve and three-quarter seconds. He is seen in clip three congratulating the Golden Jubilee winner, TJ Miles.
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