Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

A Town To Be Drowned (1958)

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The end of an era

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

Clip description

This is the end for old Adaminaby. Some of the residents have already moved their homes to the new site on trucks, others have simply taken what they could and moved on.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

This is history in action. A town is about to be drowned which adds a sense of great sadness and tension to this clip. The camerawork is excellent. It’s the earliest days of documentary filmmaking for the ABC and the storyline occasionally loses its way. However the visuals are so extraordinary that these unique pictures make up for the rather slow and meandering narrative line.