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Clip description
This clip begins with Prime Minister Gough Whitlam drawn as a giant airship. He is being held down by a large group of people, including then Labor Party President Bob Hawke, who is holding on by one hand. Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen then launches an arrow at Whitlam, causing the airship to burst and him to fly away.
Curator’s notes
Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Country-Liberal Coalition secured a record anti-Labor vote in the Queensland State election of 7 December 1974. A week later, Australian Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam embarked on a European tour, at a time when he was criticised by the media for travelling overseas too often.
This animated cartoon was created for the nightly ABC current affairs television series This Day Tonight (1967–78). It was devised and finished by animator Peter Nicholson in one day, using a Bolex camera and an animation stand made from an old X-ray machine. Many of these techniques would later come in handy when Nicholson and his brother Michael came to produce Rubbery Figures (1987–88).
