Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Lang Hancock describing how he discovered iron ore in the Hamersley Range of Western Australia as he retraces his route by air. The film begins with a shot of Hancock in his four-wheel drive watching a freight train carrying iron ore rattle past. Hancock’s audio interview is then played over a re-enactment of him flying his plane over the Turner River of the Pilbara region, where he first discovered iron ore in 1952.

Educational value points

• The clip re-enacts Lang Hancock’s historic flight with his wife Hope from the Pilbara to Perth on 22 November 1952 during which he discovered a globally significant body of iron ore 8 km long and more than 1 km wide. Storms had forced him to fly lower than usual over the headwaters of the Turner River, which led to his discovery. Mining and production commenced in 1966 at the Mount Tom Price Mine.

• Lang Hancock (1909–92) lobbied successfully for the Australian Government to overturn its ban on iron and steel exports and for the WA Government to allow the staking of iron ore claims. With these goals achieved by 1961, he brought in mining giant Rio Tinto to develop the Mount Tom Price Mine.

• Hancock’s knowledge of prospecting and geology enabled him to recognise the signs of iron ore in the rock formations that he flew over. The Hamersley Range gorges have distinctive horizontal bedding layers of banded iron ore. The late afternoon sun highlighted the distinctive red colour of the ore, and Hancock recognised the rusty colour as oxidised iron. Hancock was nicknamed ‘the flying prospector’ for his aerial prospecting with his naked eye.

• Filmmaker Tom Haydon combines stunning images and a well-crafted script by journalist Richard Oxenburgh to grab the audience’s attention, as seen in the opening of the clip. The narration cleverly uses the train carriages as a symbol for Hancock’s wealth, and hooks the audience by slowly revealing the driver’s identity to be Lang Hancock. The storytelling moves quickly, with the next filmed sequence being the re-telling of Hancock’s famous discovery.

• The film features superb cinematography shots of the Pilbara region. The sequence of the plane flying is created by cutting together footage taken from several different camera set-ups. The sequence includes a shot taken from the ground watching the plane take off; a shot taken from the wing of the flying plane; shots taken from a second plane filming Hancock’s plane; and shots from inside a cockpit, presumably inside the second plane.