Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip shows the way the Shell Touring Service assisted motorists in 1950s Australia. A series of short scenes is staged to illustrate the difficulties motorists could encounter. The nature of the assistance offered at a Shell Touring Service centre is illustrated in a number of scenes. The clip closes with several shots of maps of Australia that indicate the extensive network of information for motorists in the Shell touring service office in each state.

Educational value points

• This clip from the Shell promotional film Let’s Go depicts an international company in the 1950s building a relationship with the Australian public in order to gain its patronage and build its business. Shell launched its Touring Service in Australia in the late 1940s and developed a wide range of promotional services in Australia in the post-Second World War years, including an extensive film library, a mobile film unit and a film production unit.

• The clip reveals the sophisticated use of the medium of film by the Australian Shell Film Unit in a promotional film for one of its services. The clip uses a cleverly constructed story-line, effective staging and framing of shots as well as an informative soundtrack to showcase its service.

• The clip provides an important cultural and social record of the beginning of the mass motoring age in 1950s Australia. A number of factors contributed to the dramatic growth in car ownership and the popularity of driving at the time. Starting with the lifting of petrol rationing in 1950, other factors included the post-War economic boom, the Federal Government’s encouragement of motor manufacturing in Australia and extensive road building.

• Maps of Australia produced by the Shell Company and shown in the clip were part of the service Shell offered. Shell’s first maps were produced in the 1920s. Often the work of volunteers, they served as both road and aviation maps. Shell continued to publish maps until the 1970s and now offers a sophisticated mapping service to the public over the internet.

• The clip was produced in 1956 at a time when the Australian car-manufacturing industry was booming. It sought to utilise skills gained during wartime to provide employment to returned servicemen and new immigrants. In return for tariff protection, car manufacturers were encouraged to submit plans for the development of the industry. The first Australian Holden car was produced in 1948.

• The clip is designed to appeal to a new type of car owner. Through the 1950s car prices fell as mass-production techniques developed in Australia. Car ownership grew rapidly as a result of post-War economic recovery and the introduction of hire purchase. Car registrations increased 131 per cent in the 1950s.

• Let’s Go was directed by John Heyer (1916–2001), a pioneer of Australian documentary making. It was released shortly after his most famous production for Shell, The Back of Beyond (1954), which won the Venice Film Festival’s Grand Prix Assoluto and was for a time the most viewed Australian film by international audiences. A key figure in the founding of the Australian National Film Board, he set up the Australian Shell Film Unit in 1948.