Australian
Screen

Clip description

Will Brown (Guy Hastings) has joined up. He realises it is time to put away the things of his sporting youth. He picks up his rifle and heads off to training camp. He learns how to march, shoot and dig trenches. He also learns the realities of army food.

Curator’s notes

This is almost the beginning of the film. The acting of Guy Hastings is quite naturalistic for the time, save perhaps for the moment when he looks out the window with alarm – as if to tell us he realises things are happening on his doorstep, and he’s on full alert. Will is clearly proud of his new uniform, and his rifle. The whole sequence is about a boy becoming a man, putting away childish things and learning how to fight.

The army camp scenes are perhaps the most valuable to an audience now, because they show us a real camp at the early stages of the war. These scenes were filmed at Liverpool camp, which was then the largest in NSW. It was located south of Newbridge Road, along Moorebank Avenue. There were also camps at Casula, Warwick Farm Racecourse and Holsworthy. The Casula and Liverpool camps became notorious in February 1916 because the soldiers there rioted over various grievances. They attacked hotels in Liverpool, then boarded trains into the city, where police opened fire on the rioters, wounding several soldiers and killing one, Private EW Keafe of the 6th Light Horse. This riot was one of the reasons that led to the extension of six o’clock closing for all NSW hotels (see Caddie, 1976). These scenes were probably filmed about nine months before the riots, and they stress the order and discipline in the training regime. Most of the men we see here would soon be sent overseas to fight.