Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This black-and-white silent clip shows Central Square (now called Railway Square) in Sydney in the late 1920s. A continuous stream of trams is seen arriving and departing from the station with crowds of people getting on and off or walking to or from the railway station. Automobiles and buses can also be seen. The camera is perched in a position overlooking the square and pans slowly across the scene. A couple of people notice the camera and stop to stare at it including two paperboys. The trams have open-door carriages and many people get on and off while the trams are in motion.

Educational value points

• The rapid arrival and departure of many trams in this clip gives an indication of the effectiveness of Sydney’s tramway system at the end of the 1920s. This was the largest terminus for the biggest tram network in the southern hemisphere, serving a population of more than 1 million people. Trams moved in and out of the terminus, quickly transporting large numbers of people. By 1928 the tram network had reached its maximum extent, with over 1,500 trams.

• The ‘O’ class single- and double-car trams, popularly known as ‘toast racks’ because of their appearance, dominate the clip. Their appearance derives from the equally spaced vertical divisions between the bench seats. The open door design allowed passengers to alight and depart from the moving trams. There was no central aisle, allowing a single car to carry 128 passengers, 80 in seats. It also facilitated rapid exit from a crowded tram.

• Central Square in 1928 was the retail heart of Sydney as well as accommodating Central Railway Station and the city’s busiest tram terminus. It contained two Marcus Clark and Co department stores, a post office and a number of hotels, which serviced thousands of people arriving by train from rural New South Wales and interstate. The Square began to decline in importance as the city’s underground rail loop came into operation between 1926 and 1932.

• Few people in Sydney would have seen filmmaking in the street, as is obvious from the people who notice the camera in its high vantage point and stop to stare, including two paperboys seemingly transfixed by the sight. Movie cameras were a comparative novelty in the 1920s as few films were made in Australia. Even though going to see films was a popular Australian pastime, the vast majority were made in Hollywood.

• This sequence shows two long panning shots first to the left and then to the right with no change of viewpoint or use of editing, close-ups or other devices. This method gives the sense of an unfolding scene from a high vantage point, creating the feeling that we are viewing the scene ourselves.

• While it is trams that dominate this scene, the 1920s saw a major growth in the use of motorised transport in NSW. Registered motor vehicles increased from 33,000 to 127,000 between 1921 and 1926. Buses began competing with trains and trams to carry people and delivery vans and trucks became more common. Private motorcars, however, were expensive and most people still travelled by train or tram.