Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white silent clip shows the procession that was part of celebrations to commemorate the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 19 March 1932. The footage was shot from within the crowd by Melburnian Leslie Francis Farey as part of a home movie. It opens with shots of Farey’s family making a roadside stop on the Princes Highway at the Victoria–New South Wales border on their way to the opening. It then cuts to the parade, which is led by a group of Bridge workers and features floats that highlight significant events in the history of NSW. Part of the large crowd, which gathered for the opening, can be seen in the rear of the shots.

Educational value points

• The clip shows an aspect of the official opening ceremony of the Bridge on 19 March 1932. A large parade crossed the Bridge after it had been officially opened by the Premier of NSW, Jack Lang. The parade featured marching groups and floats that highlighted significant events in the nation’s history, such as Captain James Cook’s landing at Botany Bay in 1770 and the arrival of the First Fleet. Indigenous Australians, Bridge workers, the armed forces, schoolchildren and lifesavers marched ahead of the floats.

• The Bridge opening created great public interest. Crowds estimated at between 300,000 and 1 million people watched the celebrations, either from the Bridge or from the Harbour foreshore, with ambulance officers treating 2,500 people who fainted in the heat. As Lang was about to officially declare the Bridge open, Captain Francis de Groot rode up on a horse and slashed the ribbon with a sword. De Groot, a member of the right-wing New Guard, felt that a member of British royalty and not a Labor premier should officiate. The ribbon was retied and Lang went ahead to open the Bridge.

• Many events were organised to celebrate the opening of the Bridge. In addition to the procession shown in the clip, a flotilla of ships and boats passed down Sydney Harbour and under the Bridge. The Royal Australian Air Force also gave an aerial display. After the official opening there was a 21-gun salute and the public was permitted to walk across the Bridge. The evening featured a fireworks display, as well as formal balls and dinners. In the lead-up to the opening, sporting competitions were held, including sailing races, athletics, tennis and cricket matches.

• The Sydney Harbour Bridge was seen as having national significance. Built during the Great Depression, the Bridge became a symbol of hope for Australians because it suggested that a return to prosperity was possible. The Bridge was seen as a great engineering feat and the various phases of its construction were reported extensively in the media, providing a welcome distraction from economic woes. Songs were composed about the Bridge and souvenir booklets and three postage stamps were issued to mark its opening.

• A hundred Bridge workers led the opening procession. The project provided sought-after employment during the Great Depression, with 1,400 men employed each year on the construction over an eight-year period. However, industrial safety standards were inadequate and 16 men died during construction, most as a result of falling from the Bridge. Several men were also injured while making some of the 6 million hand-driven rivets used on the Bridge. Deafness experienced by many of the workers in later years was blamed on the constant hammering of metal during construction.

• The clip shows Indigenous Australians taking part in the procession. A group of Indigenous men was selected to march across the Bridge wearing war paint and kangaroo skins and carrying spears and boomerangs. The Captain Cook float also featured an Indigenous Australian warrior brandishing a spear.

• The float that represented Australia and its future featured the figurehead of a woman steering a boat. From Federation in 1901 the nation was commonly represented as a young and pure woman.

• Leslie Farey shot this home movie footage using 16 mm film. Amateur filmmaking such as this took off after the 16 mm camera was introduced in 1923 as a relatively inexpensive alternative to the conventional 35 mm film format. In this period the camera was still priced beyond the reach of most people and therefore the home movie footage we are able to see dating from this period generally comes from fairly privileged sources. These sources offer a record of the lifestyles, cultures and traditions of Australians, and significant events in the nation’s history.