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Treasures of Katoomba (1936)

Synopsis

A treasure hunt awarding £500 at Katoomba provides the narrative bookend for this short dramatised film promoting tourism in the Blue Mountains region. Made by Frank Hurley for Cinesound and sponsored by the Blue Mountains City Council, the film begins with lovers Jack (Harry Cantor) and Jill (Margaret Jackson) setting off from Sydney to Katoomba in search of the prize. Once at the Blue Mountains, other sightseers and sun worshippers join in the hunt as do two ‘honest men’ (Harry Drake and Jim Collins), who plant the prize. As the gathered crowd searches amongst the beauty of the mountains, Frank Hurley’s narration points out the natural treasures of Katoomba and its surrounds. Finally, it is Jack and Jill who stumble across the cheque – enough for them to celebrate their marriage in style, perhaps amongst the valleys and waters of the Blue Mountains.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

Treasures of Katoomba is a charming film typical of the travelogues Hurley made during the 1930s and 1940s, including Jewel of the Pacific (1932, about Lord Howe Island), Oasis (1938, about South Australia) and Isle of Many Waters (1939, about Tasmania). He also photographed the sprawling celebration of Australia’s nationhood, A Nation is Built (1938), for the New South Wales Government to coincide with Sydney’s sesquicentenary.

Hurley made his name as a cameraman and photographer when he accompanied expeditions to the Antarctic with Douglas Mawson in 1913 and then Ernest Shackelton. The resulting documentaries, Home of the Blizzard (1913) and Endurance (1933), remain landmarks of documentary filmmaking in extreme conditions.

Hurley’s sense of adventure, as well as his eye for landscape composition, is evident in Treasures of Katoomba. He uses the travelogue format combined with the fictional treasure hunt as a narrative device to explore the natural treasures of the Blue mountains. This melding of styles is a little odd in parts (see the yodelling hikers in clip one) but certainly works to promote the region as an attractive destination for tourists of all types. Hurley worked closely with local photographer Harry Phillips, known for his photographs of cloud formations (see clip two). Hurley also stunningly captures panoramas of the Megalong and Jameson Valleys and the rock formations of the Three Sisters and Orphan’s Rock.