Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white silent clip shows actuality footage of pedestrians, traffic, shopfronts and street entertainment taken in the main streets of Footscray, Melbourne, in 1971. Footage shot at street level and one high-angle shot show traffic, pedestrians and shopfronts at intersections. A flashing neon sign suspended over a street advertises furniture. A series of scenes includes a street closed to traffic with a crowd of mostly women and children walking around. Children climb off and on a Ferris wheel and a woman with a microphone promotes a baby competition.

Educational value points

• The clip shows aspects of everyday life in the commercial area of Footscray, a working-class suburb in Melbourne’s inner west, in 1971. The traffic passing by the camera includes Holden cars, a Volkswagen and a suburban passenger bus. The film of a street closed to traffic shows what appears to be a festival with a Ferris wheel, and mothers with their smartly dressed children gather around a more glamorous woman spruiking for a baby competition.

• The people in the clip appear to be largely of European origin. In the 1970s one-third of Footscray’s population comprised people born overseas. A wave of migrants arrived in the 1950s and 1960s from war-torn Europe, predominantly from Italy and Greece, attracted by the promise of employment and affordable housing. In the latter part of the 1970s others arrived from Asia and the Middle East, including many refugees from the Vietnam War.

• Street-wear fashion for men, women and children in the 1970s is seen in the clip, revealing a higher degree of formality for dressing in public than is observed today. All the women are dressed in skirts, the younger women wearing miniskirts, or dresses. Many men are in suits, some in shirts and ties, and few are casually dressed. Children are smartly dressed with a clear differentiation between girls’ and boys’ attire.

• The camera’s position at intersections shows new commercial buildings probably built during the post-Second World War recovery period when industry boomed in Footscray and migrant workers flocked to take factory jobs and live in Footscray. The buildings shown housed businesses such as Coles, Wittner Shoes and Woolworths, and contrast with the 19th-century shopfronts also seen in the clip.

• The clip shows actuality footage of ordinary Melburnians as they go about their everyday lives seemingly unaware of the camera. It would appear that the camera is no novelty to the passers-by as none of them gives it a second glance. Film had become part of the everyday life of most Melburnians since the advent of television in 1956, although the Australian film industry remained in decline until its 1970s renaissance.