Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip shows fictional expatriate Noel (David Turnbull) in Melbourne with his friend Will (Mark McManus). Will has collected Noel, who now lives in London, from the airport and as they travel through the streets of Melbourne, stopping to take a look at Noel’s childhood home, which is being demolished, Noel talks about the provincialism and mediocrity of Australia. He says that most Australian writers and painters have gone to London, and dismisses Will’s suggestion that if they returned home ‘we’d have a very distinguished society’.

Educational value points

• In describing Australia as provincial and mediocre Noel demonstrates an attitude that was dubbed the ‘Australian cultural cringe’ by literary critic AA Phillips in the journal Meanjin in 1950, referring to a belief among Australians at the time that Australia was culturally inferior to the ‘great cultural metropolises’ such as London and New York. The writer PR Stephensen had already denounced this attitude as early as 1936 in his Foundations of a Culture of Australia.

• Like the fictional Noel in the clip, a number of Australian artists, writers and musicians left for London and the USA in the 1960s and 70s. They included satirist Barry Humphries, entertainer Rolf Harris, painters Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd, art critic Robert Hughes, feminist and academic Germaine Greer and writer Clive James. James has been quoted as referring to Australia as a mysterious triangle in the southern oceans where talent disappears without trace.

• Will’s claim that the return of expatriate artists and writers would make Australia ‘a very distinguished society’ can be read as a clarion call by director Tim Burstall. It implies that if creative people remained in Australia they could shape or contribute to a sense of national identity, so that the country would no longer be seen as ‘a nation without a mind’.

• Noel views the demolition of his childhood home, a Victorian terrace house, which he imagines will be replaced by a ‘dreadful concrete box’, as confirmation of his belief that Australia has no sense of the past or of heritage but rather is a repository of the vulgar and mediocre. However, the demolition is also a sign that the Australia that Noel grew up in did not remain static, and therefore could be read as a metaphor for a country not afraid to embrace change.

• Through Will and Noel’s discussion, director Tim Burstall mounts an argument in defence of Australia and makes a case for Australians with creative or intellectual sensibilities to remain in Australia and contribute to the cultural life of the nation. To this end Noel, the expatriate, is depicted as pompous, smug and condescending, in contrast to Will, who has chosen to remain and who is shown to be a more likeable character despite his reticence.

• The film 2000 Weeks was the first feature film of director Tim Burstall (1927–2004), who was passionate about the Australian film industry, contributing much to the debate about Australian film culture. He taught himself filmmaking by making short films, including The Prize (1960), which won a bronze medal at the Venice Film Festival in 1960. His feature films include Alvin Purple (1973), Petersen (1974), Eliza Fraser (1976) and Kangaroo (1987).

This clip starts approximately 20 minutes into the feature.

Will has picked up Noel from the airport.
Noel It’s a weird sensation, seeing Melbourne again. One of my recurrent nightmares in London was the thought of waking up and finding myself back in the old home town. Hey, Will, turn down here. I want to have a look at the old place.

They park and get out at the site of a half-demolished house.
Noel Just imagine what they’ll put up in its place. Some dreadful concrete box. That’s Australia for you.
Will Oh, come on. It’s not as bad as all that.
Noel Perhaps I have a somewhat jaundiced view, Will. I always associate it with the things I tried to escape from when I left: the hideous provincial attitude of everyone, the awful mediocrity. To me, Australia’s always seemed a nation without a mind.

They wander into the shell of the house.
Will Them’s hard words, Noel. You’re speaking of the woman I love.
Noel You tub-thumping old nationalist. Honestly though, Will, it beats me why you haven’t made the break. You’d have a much freer hand on Fleet Street than working for that dreadful Melbourne rag. You still cherish the idea of writing the great Australian novel. The GAN, as we used to call it. This used to be my room when I was a kid. Where I scratched out my first poem ever.
Will You know, I still have some regrets from my blighted literary career.
Noel Really?
Will Is that so strange?
Noel I must say I haven’t the slightest pang. I wouldn’t want to write a novel. And even if I did, Australia would be the last place I’d want to write about. Nothing’s ever happened here. Nothing.

Back in the car, driving through Melbourne.
Will You think London’s a good place?
Noel Course it is. Most of your writers and painters are there already. They only come back here for reasons of plunder, to clean up some money. Make a commando raid on the territory, as it were.

Will parks the car.
Will No, seriously, though, Noel. If all our writers and painters did come back, we’d have a very distinguished society.
Noel (scoffs) Oh, you amuse me, Will. Haven’t you got over trying to save the world or save Australia or whatever? I haven’t heard that kind of high-minded waffle for years!
Noel climbs out of the car and shuts the door. He leans into the window.
Will I’m sorry, is that what it seems? Just high-minded waffle?
Noel Forgive me. I’ve just become a bit hard-boiled about questions like that. Seems to me, though, to make sense of one’s life, you’ve got to work with what’s possible. Now, if I were interested in getting somewhere with writing, as you say you are, I wouldn’t stay here – I’d be off to London.