Australian
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A Big Country – The Prices (1979)

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Do it yourself education content clip 2

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

The Price family has learned to be incredibly self-sufficient. They make their own bread and even cut fence posts from timber on the property. We’re witnessing the pioneer spirit still alive in the second half of the 20th century.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

Another well-crafted example of the role of A Big Country in effectively documenting the end of an era. This film was made before satellite technology and the use of helicopters and other high-tech vehicles to round up wild cattle. It’s maybe the end of the era of big families managing these huge stations, which these days are mostly run by business companies. The director has skillfully brought out Richy Price’s personality – his stoicism and acceptance of the hardships he faces every day, making a living in this demanding environment.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip opens with images of two men, sons of interviewee Richy Price, working on farm machinery on an Australian outback station in 1979. In a voice-over, Richy Price describes his sons’ resourcefulness and discusses the family’s move from tobacco farming to running a cattle station. Richy is then shown being interviewed, discussing his lifestyle, the education of his children and the role of his wife, Ruby.

Educational value points

  • Outback cattle stations are an important feature of rural Australia, particularly Western Australia, the Northern Territory and northern Queensland, some areas of which are too dry to support crops. Cattle on outback stations wander over vast areas as they graze on the sparse native vegetation. The owners of these stations have usually taken out pastoral leases on Crown land, a system through which the Government frees up land for use by farmers, who pay rent in return.
  • This footage shows Richy Price’s matter-of-fact acceptance of the hardships of outback farming and his appreciation of the simple life. His laconic stoicism recalls the Australian archetype of the 'battler’ struggling to prosper in a hostile environment.
  • Richy Price’s description of life on the station provides concrete examples of the domestic resourcefulness and role responsibility required on an outback property in the 1970s. The time involved and the cost of transport are given as the reasons that the Prices baked their own bread, slaughtered their own meat and made and mended their own clothes. The ability to fix machinery was important, as mechanics and spare parts were seldom at hand. Gender roles were clearly defined, as is shown when Richy reminisces that 'Rube looked after the children and I did most of the work outside’.
  • The lifestyle revealed in this interview highlights the remoteness of Australia’s outback. People running stations often live many hundreds of kilometres from their nearest neighbours, and even further from shops, schools, hospitals and services that coast-dwelling Australians take for granted. Although the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air have long serviced remote communities, and communications technology has improved enormously, the daily lives of people on outback stations are still conducted in physical isolation.
  • The clip provides a brief example of A Big Country, which was televised from 1968 to 1991 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (formerly Australian Broadcasting Commission). A Big Country comprised 370 programs spread over 32 series, and brought the lives of ordinary, and extraordinary, Australians from rural areas into the homes of the entire nation. The program was regarded as an Australian institution.