FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

Title Details

Cavalcade of Australia

Highlights important events in the first 50 years of Federation.
Year : 1951 | Total Duration : 33.5 Minutes | Producer : Stanley Hawes (Supervision)
Commonwealth coat of arms and opening titles. Various shots dignitaries at Federation ceremony with Duke of York laying foundation stone (May 1901). Men in top hats and women toward camera walking down street. Princess Mary (Duchess of York) and Duke (future King George V) getting into carriage. Parade down street. Illustration of Duke in Exhibition Building declaring Parliament open on behalf of King. (1901)
Access No. 104255 | 1 min 42 secs | 1900s | Melbourne, Vic, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Parliament House, Melbourne. Melbourne street with horse drawn carriages and coaches. Looking down city streets of Melbourne with GS crowds looking towards camera and shop with ÒHordern BrothersÓ sign. Most of the men wear boater hats. Stilted pan across outback scene with homestead. Large team of draught horses pulling laden cart through grassland. Steam train toward camera through gorge.
Access No. 104257 | 1 min | 1900s | Melbourne, Vic, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
WS tree falling in forest during logging. Teams of horses pulling line of harvesters across wheat field. Pipe laying through forest of tall trees with men labouring to fill in around pipes. WS pan across coastline of bays and headlands.
Access No. 104264 | 27 secs | 1900s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Lord Kitchener's visit to Australia (Chief of the Interior General's Staff) 1909. Kitchener inspecting small group of soldiers lined up on field. LS houses and steam train in background. Officers on horses. Army band followed by officers on horseback, then foot soldiers in Centennial Park. Four young boys accompany them. Soldiers on horseback (cavalry) 1910. (see also HNL). CU of two newspaper clippings regarding Defence Forces and Australians in Sport.
Access No. 104268 | 49 secs | 1900s | Centennial Park, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
GS men playing Australian Rules football. Pans of women and children in large crowd watching football match. Note women's large hats and long dresses. Crowds milling about and young boy carrying pail looking a bit lost in crowd. High angle pan across river with numerous boats laden with passengers and large crowds gathered on banks. Henley on the Yarra. Several parasols seen.
Access No. 104273 | 39 secs | 1910s | Melbourne, Vic, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
High angle WS over crowds crossing streets, trams and general traffic outside Flinders Street Railway Station, Melbourne. Tram as travelling down George Street, Sydney past GPO, Martin Place, POV passenger. Horse-drawn carriage cross lines in front of tram. Line of people travelling in horse-drawn carriages with others arriving in cars to bush setting where well-dressed people watched Prime Minister Andrew Fisher in top hat and coat lay the foundation stone for Canberra, 1913.
Access No. 104278 | 54 secs | 1910s | Melbourne, Vic, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Laying Foundation Stone for Canberra, 1913. King O'Malley (Minister for Home Affairs). Andrew Fisher (Prime Minister) and Lord Denman (Governor General) in ceremonial dress lays the foundation stone. GS men working on teleprinter machines sending words of speeches. GS grenadier and dignitaries at naming of Canberra ceremony. William (Billy) Hughes (Attorney General). High angle pan across flat plains of future Canberra site.
Access No. 104280 | 46 secs | 1910s | Canberra, ACT, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Royal Australian Naval ship in Sydney Harbour, 1913 as Navy gathers for the first time. 1914, Sir Ronald Munroe Ferguson, in full Governor General uniform on arrival to Australia. Crowds of people accompany him. Good examples of traffic for the time with VS horse drawn vehicles including taxis, cars and trams, buggies and motorcycles with side cars past camera on city streets. Busy traffic over roads full of potholes.
Access No. 104285 | 31 secs | 1910s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
CU 1914 Newspaper clipping headed ÒDeclaration of WarÓ with the official proclamation. 1914 Light Horse Brigade troops on parade ground. Men marching through streets, some in uniforms. WS warship at sea. Australian soldiers in Egypt. Good WS of diggers climbing across huge Sphinx in desert. Two Australian soldiers on camel with one taking slouch hat off to camera. VS large guns on ship firing. Ship at sea firing large guns (1915) WWI
Access No. 104289 | 34 secs | 1910s | Australia; Egypt | © NFSA | B&W |
1915. Shells landing on coastline of Gallipoli. GS ships at sea. High angle shot of three solders as they run across rugged terrain. MS machine gun firing and GS soldier in bushes firing rifle. British officer in trench amongst soldiers placing periscope over sand bagging to look across field of war. GS military encampment on side of hill and line of soldiers toward camera and officer walking along trench, leaving Gallipoli. Looking along shoreline of Anzac Cove. WWI
Access No. 104297 | 20 secs | 1910s | Gallipoli, Turkey | © NFSA | B&W |
1915. Bottle being smashed on bow at launching of HMAS Brisbane. CU ship down slips. Large bucket of molten metal at Newcastle BHP steel works. Exterior steel works. GS molten metal running along gutter in ground. High angle shot over troops of Australian Light Horse Brigade across desert and CU of hands feeding bullets into machine gun. WS troops with bayonets charging across sand on foot in Turkey.
Access No. 104307 | 33 secs | 1910s | Cockatoo Island, Sydney, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Australian mounted troops out of ruin in Palestinian desert. MS cavalry officer Harry Chauvel. High shot over soldiers gathered around podium in Damascus, Theatre of War. Large shell exploding throwing tons of earth in the air. Australian soldiers past camera. Horse drawn supplies past camera near battlefield with sign in background reading ÔAll Prisoners This Way'. High shot over soldiers in trench and grainy footage of soldiers struggling over trench. LS soldiers running across battle field silhouetted against sky. WWI
Access No. 104316 | 34 secs | 1910s | Palestine | © NFSA | B&W |
1916. WS Australian soldiers marching past large ghostly ruins of city buildings in background. Group of Australian soldiers gathered around Prime Minister William (Billy) Hughes. Billy Hughes towards camera as he walks between lines of soldiers followed by other dignitaries. WS group of people gathered around Prime Minister Hughes. Nurse assisting him in holding a baby from the crowd. WWI
Access No. 104325 | 20 secs | 1910s | France | © NFSA | B&W |
1916 / 1917. Troops marching past officers taking salute. MS large crowd of men at recruitment rally. MS woman selling posy of flowers for mens' button holes at recruitment rally and placing posy in buttonhole of buyer. 1918. Group of Australian soldiers in yard behind building in France shaking out their blankets and checking their kits, laughing and smiling. WWI
Access No. 104329 | 20 secs | 1910s | © NFSA | B&W |
1918. Presentation of military medal (KCB) by King George V to General Sir John Monash. WWI Troops moving alongside railway line with ruins of buildings in background. Grainy footage of Australian soldiers firing large gun, troops in trench and troops charging forward out of trenches. WS German parachute on fire falling from sky trailing black smoke. WWI
Access No. 104333 | 29 secs | 1910s | Flanders | © NFSA | B&W |
1918. End of WW1. Road through battle field. Lone soldier on crutches limping along road toward camera. Australian soldiers jokingly putting fellow soldier into barrel of large cannon. Group of Australian soldiers in uniform playing two up. 1919 Victory parades in London and Australia. Soldiers smiling and waving to camera.
Access No. 104338 | 36 secs | 1910s | London, UK; Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Archival footage from 1920 of people on very crowded beach, sitting in deck chairs and bathing in shallow water. Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor) in Australia shaking hands with various men. Tractor dragging device clearing scrub and trees. Line of tractors pulling ploughs through bare fields. Shadow of cameraman using hand cranked camera in foreground. Travelling WS of windblown crops ready for harvest.
Access No. 104345 | 42 secs | 1920s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Soldier settlers. Large digging scoop dumping earth in back of open train carriages. Steam engine pulling long line of open coal trucks past camera. Large automated grabber working outside steel mill. WS electrical power station and high angle shot over line of electrical generators. High angle shot over group walking amidst racks of shoes in shoe manufacturing plant. High angle pan over rows of women working at sewing machines in clothing manufacturing factory.
Access No. 104351 | 39 secs | 1920s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
GS men working in tyre manufacturing factory. Tilt down building under construction in city. Street scenes and cars in background parked outside GPO building Martin Place, Sydney. High shot over line of trams outside Circular Quay, Sydney with crowds of pedestrians crossing back and forth. Slow pan across area of Sydney Harbour with ferry, wharves and dredgers in shot.
Access No. 104358 | 34 secs | 1920s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
1923. Men working on construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge. VS of arch under construction. MS chief designer John Bradfield checking the locking of the arch on the Bridge in 1930. Looking down over model of Hume Weir, and GS start of construction. WS Murray River before construction of Hume Weir with LS to person walking in foreground.
Access No. 104365 | 45 secs | 1920s, 1930s, | Sydney, NSW, SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
WS pan of fields of prickly pear and GS of large plant. Slow pan across scientists testing specimens in boxes of for biological control. CUs of prickly pear with cactoblastus damage. Pan across field of dead prickly pear plants. Pan across field of crop growing. (see also HNL 1026)
Access No. 104371 | 30 secs | 1930s | Qld, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
1919 shots biplane Vickers Vimy across screen - Ross and Keith Smith flew from Australia to England in 24 days.. 1924 LS Small Fairey sea plane coming in to land after flying around Australia. RAAF officers Stanley Goble and Ivor McIntyre being carried on the shoulders of a group of men. 1928 LS to planes flying in distance and biplane Avro Avian landing on air field with men running forward to greet plane.
Access No. 104376 | 49 secs | 1910s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Bert Hinkler, who flew first solo flight from England to Australia in 1928, walking across airfield accompanied by crowd and mounted police. 1928 air to air of small biplane Southern Cross in flight and coming in to land after flight across Pacific Ocean from California. High shots over huge crowd at airport to welcome Charles Kingsford Smith (Smith), Ulm and Americans Litchfield and McWilliam.
Access No. 104380 | 32 secs | 1920s | Darwin, NT, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Small early commercial biplane air flight coming into land. Man at tin shed at airfield ushering guests inside. MS group seated at table having afternoon tea. Note womens' cloche hats. WS ambulance officers carrying stretcher from plane to Victorian Civil Ambulance Service van on airstrip. GS man in white coat ushering people into small aircraft (AAS). GS man putting on leather flying hood. MS passengers on aircraft reading newspapers. Aerials over countryside and river POV biplane with wing of aircraft in right of shot.
Access No. 104388 | 41 secs | 1920s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
1928. New Guinea Administration. Group of Australians (in pith helmets) and local New Guineans walking through trees. Large group of villagers gathered around Australian District officer. Local people walking through line of thatched huts in village. Group of local people using crow bars to dig in village.
Access No. 104401 | 26 secs | 1920s | Papua New Guinea | © National Library of Australia and NFSA | B&W |
1924. VS of British Royal Navy Fleet in Sydney Harbour during visit. WS battleship. High angle shot over British marines and sailors marching through streets of Sydney. GS large milling crowds. 1925 visit of American Fleet in Sydney Harbour. High angle shots as American sailors march through streets. Pan across large crowd gathered on footpath waving American flags and Union Jacks. Young women dancing with visiting American sailors on shore with amusement park building in background.
Access No. 104413 | 45 secs | 1920s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Good 1920's Scenes. People dancing in ballroom. Woman in fashion parade in sequinned dress and ornate headwear. Family scenes with lounge room interiors and GS two men listening to radio. Women working on switchboard, backs to camera. High shot over man and two women seated around small table in hotel smoking. MS people dining in restaurant. Life savers marching toward camera during surf carnival. Good MS of young men and women in swimming costumes sitting together on beach singing.
Access No. 104421 | 46 secs | 1920s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
VS cricketers playing Test Cricket. Gregory bowling, Sutcliffe and others. Men standing in cricket stand talking. Old time cricket players Tom Garrett, Jack Blackham, Warwick Armstrong. 1928. Don Bradman walking onto field, slow motion batting. 1930 ÔPrime Minister Speaks on Return.' James Scullin speaks about his Australian welcome on return from England.
Access No. 104430 | 59 secs | 1920s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
The Depression. Tilt down from chimney to abandoned brick works below. WS along Sydney Harbour Bridge. General Francis De Groote on horseback at Sydney Harbour Bridge Opening. High shot over herd of cattle being herded along top of ridge. Flock of sheep through long, dry grass and stockmen on horseback. VS wool action with tilts to auctioneers at bench. Anxious bidding by group of men sitting in tiers at auction.
Access No. 104435 | 45 secs | 1930s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Tilt up to sling of goods being loaded onto ship.1934. Various shots of Charles Scott and Campbell Black after winning the Melbourne Centenary Air Race (London to Melbourne). One of them gives speech at podium on field. 1934 Duke of Gloucester despatches first plane on passenger air service to Britain. Mail bags being loaded into biplane. Pilot Leicester Brain.
Access No. 104442 | 41 secs | 1930s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
1931 British Houses of Parliament, Westminster. MS Big Ben and clock tower. Very foggy. WS Parliament House, Canberra. Prime Minister Joseph Lyons in Parliamentary meeting talking about troubled times and the Commonwealth's role in world peace. Robert Menzies and Earle Page beside him. MS Japanese flag flying and WS Japanese cavalry.1935. Huge Italian crowds gathered in front of building in Italy with Mussolini saluting on balcony. High shot over sea of heads gathered together.
Access No. 104446 | 47 secs | 1930s | London, England, Italy, Canberra, ACT,Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Ground to air shot of military planes flying overhead. High shot over German soldiers marching past. High angle looking down military parade of soldiers and equipment. Naval battleship in Sydney Harbour with Harbour Bridge in background. Group of sailor standing to attention on bow.1939. Looking down on bow of naval ship with coffin of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons on board. WS shell exploding.
Access No. 104453 | 11 secs | 1930s | Europe; Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Prime Minister Robert Menzies speaking ÒWe can't be beatenÓ on stage. 1939. WS over spectators heads of soldiers marching in streets. GS children waving flags at march. 1940. Sixth Division tanks past camera training in dunes. Clouds of sand. Troop of Australian soldiers marching down English road. MS King George V in military uniform. WWII
Access No. 104458 | 26 secs | 1940s | Australia; UK | © NFSA | B&W |
1941. CU sign ÒA Capuzzo Bardia Tobruch. VS Libyan desert warfare. Heavy artillery, soldiers roaming with rifles, canons fired. 1941. General Blamey in uniform smiling to camera. High shot over 6th Division military vehicles moving among hills of Greece near Yugoslav border. Ground to air German aircraft overhead. High angle WS over valley with shells exploding. WS burning wreck of plane. Soldiers carrying wounded man on stretcher down gangplank of boat. Pan over large group of soldiers gathered on wharf at Alexandria. WWII
Access No. 104465 | 57 secs | 1940s | Libya | © NFSA | B&W |
GS General Rommel. War action with German military stuka plane, diving toward ground, ship in harbour being shelled. Various shots of soldiers behind sand bags with guns and shooting mortars in Tobruk. Australian soldier with one arm seated behind field headquarters table answering phone with cigarette hanging out of his mouth. VS of RAAF airmen arriving at airport on truck then getting into fighter planes. Planes along runway POV back of plane. WWII
Access No. 104474 | 34 secs | 1940s | Tobruk, Libya | © NFSA | B&W |
CU road sign ÒFrontiere Libano SyrienneÓ bewteen Syria and Lebanon. Group of military officers seated around small table outside dugout. Tilt to line of soldiers walking up snow covered slope. 1941. Ship being bombed in Pearl Harbour. Prime Minister John Curtin talking to camera (no sound) 1941 Tank in jungle, 8th Division soldier lying on ground in foreground. Soldiers in jungle. WWII
Access No. 104481 | 29 secs | 1940s | Syria | © NFSA | B&W |
1942. House exploding. Troops in streets of Singapore. Newspaper headline ÒJapan Attacks SingaporeÓ. Tilt to aeroplane formation flying overhead. WS bombing of Darwin. GS American troops down gangplank of ship into Australia. Australian troops marching through streets (6th and 7th Divisions) on return to Australia. Men laying corrugated iron roof on long building and soldiers fortifying beach area with barbed wire. VS heavy earth moving equipment.
Access No. 104488 | 39 secs | 1940s | Singapore; Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
GS woman driving tractor for women's Land Army. MS women working in munitions factory. Man working on engine, and man at lathe in factory. VS cars and CU Ration Identity Card. Soldiers climbing muddy hill toward camera on Kokoda Trail. Australian troops of the 39th Militia battalion around compound in New Guinea and tracks past lines of Australian soldiers. AIF reinforcements filing past camera. Military plane Ôbiscuit bomber' flying low over field dropping supplies. WWII
Access No. 104505 | 54 secs | 1940s | Papua New Guinea, | © NFSA | B&W |
American Pacific fleet and Royal Australian Naval ships at sea. Battle of Coral Sea. VS flak aircraft over sea and attack of Japanese supply ships. GS guns firing from ship. Battle of the Bismarck Sea and shots POV bomber planes. Air to air of military planes in flight. MS US paratroops and men of the 7th division jumping from plane with shadows from parachutes seen on ground. WWII
Access No. 104511 | 40 secs | 1940s | Pacific Ocean | © NFSA | B&W |
VS ninth Division returning from el Alamein in various ships and landing craft and barges landing on beaches. Australian troops through shallow water toward jungle. High pan across rubble and bombed building in New Guinea. Australian troops walking towards camera along road with mountain range in background. Tilt down to lines of Australian troops entering bow area of troop carrying ship. laden boats with troops toward camera. WS coastline with LS to naval ships firing guns. WWII
Access No. 104518 | 36 secs | 1940s | Lae, Papua New Guinea | © NFSA | B&W |
15 August 1945. WS mushroom cloud of atomic explosion. End of war with tilt down ticker-tape to waving crowds on streets. VJ Day. VS crowds and high angle tilt up enormous numbers packing out street in Sydney. Armistice. Prime Minister Ben Chifley speaking (no sound). VS of Department of Social Services Rehabilitation Service Centre office. Man with crutches sitting waiting. WII
Access No. 104527 | 33 secs | 1940s | Hiroshima, Japan | © NFSA | B&W |
Man working manufacturing vacuum cleaners. CU loom weaving carpet. Lines of migrant men disembarking ship during Australia's Migration Scheme. 1944. MS signpost with pointers to international destinations. High shot over Dr Evatt with Chifley next to him making speech at desk re ANZAC Pact (mute). 1946. High shot over United Nations Security Council meeting. WS Parliament House, Canberra. Interiors with Menzies strolling in corridor to deliver Jubilee message to camera.
Access No. 104532 | 1 min 9 secs | 1940s | Australia | © Filmworld | B&W |
Pan over Canberra with slow parade. VS of events, dignitaries and GS William Morris Hughes. Troop inspections and marches. Parade of floats down street watched by crowds. MS children waving flags, elderly women and High shot over stadium.
Access No. 104538 | 2 mins 46 secs | 1940s | Canberra, ACT, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |