Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip from 1939 shows scenes of the King River Gorge and the Gordon River on Tasmania’s west coast, filmed by documentary maker Frank Hurley as part of a travelogue for the Tasmanian Government Tourist Bureau. Hurley films from a steam train on the Mount Lyell railway and from a boat travelling up the Gordon River. A voice-over narration and music accompany footage of railway bridges, a log train, dramatic landscapes, lush vegetation, the King River and the tranquil waters of the Gordon River.

Educational value points

• Filmmaker Frank Hurley (1885–1962) uses considerable cinematic skills to capture the beauty of the landscape within the limitations of black-and-white film. To convey the drama of the King River Gorge he situates his camera on the freight car of a moving train. He captures the timeless beauty and solitude of the Gordon River with his repeated use of reflections of landscape in the still waters.

• Hurley uses a musical soundtrack and narration to dramatise the landscape. His vocal delivery is laconic but he uses heightened language to create exuberant word pictures. Canyons are ‘awesome’, rivers ‘foaming’ and slopes ‘verduate’ (sic). Orchestral music swells to emphasise the drama of the Gordon River’s rugged scenery and to create a quiet mood of contemplation of its isolation and beauty.

• The scenes of timber logs, the use of the mining railway and the promotion of tourism are presented as evidence of strong economic development in Tasmania. Hydro-electricity was also promoted by the Ogilvie government in the 1930s. The Lake Margaret hydro-electric power plant, the sole supplier to west-coast mining communities, was expanded in 1931 and the timber industry operated without restrictions until 1947.

• The Mount Lyell rack railway seen in this clip was a major engineering feat in the rugged terrain. Pioneers used hand tools to complete the rock cuttings and constructed one iron and 19 timber trestle bridges along its 48-km length. The railway used the Abt rack system to assist haulage up steep sections. With no road link available the railway transported copper concentrates from Queenstown mines to the port at Strahan from 1899 until 1963.

• The clip shows logs aboard a freight wagon and a raft of logs on the Gordon River, testimony to the Tasmanian logging industry, which had started in the 19th century. The logs shown were most likely Huon pine logs since Strahan on Macquarie Harbour was a large milling centre for Huon pine. Expressions of concern for the protection of this valuable but exceptionally slow-growing tree began in the 1860s. Now, 85 per cent of the remaining stands of Huon pine is in protected reserves.

• The Tasmanian Government Tourist Bureau engaged one of Australia’s finest filmmakers to depict the rugged and beautiful landscape of the western coast for this 1939 promotional film – evidence of the importance of tourism to Tasmania at the time. The tourism-minded Ogilvie government (1934–39) engaged photographers and artists to promote Tasmania’s scenic attractions and infrastructure, which had recently been improved for the benefit of tourists.