FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

Title Details

Journey of a Nation

Master documentary filmmaker John Heyer has transformed this film about the standardisation of rail gauges into a heroic poem to the nation.
Year : 1947 | Total Duration : 11 Minutes | Producer : John Heyer
Director : John Heyer |
WS rural house. Good shots woman taking washing off line propped by stick. Washing flapping in the wind. Young boy collecting firewood, running along edge of dam and windmill. Shadow of moving train on ground, VS steam train passing by and boy running through countryside to watch. VS ships ÒEnglish PrinceÓ, "Brisbane Star" being tied to wharf. Waves rolling against coastline seen from sea, tanker at sea. VS molten pig iron and steel, worker shielding face with gloves, shovelling metal into furnace. VS Sydney streets, buildings, pedestrians. Boy on property retrieving mail from mailbox in tree. VS post office sorting room, sorting bags, letters on conveyor table. Tilted track of telegraph wires between poles. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 125573 | 2 mins 55 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Train carriage, dozing passengers, train lines and wheels coming to halt, porter calling, passengers disembark to change trains for new gauge. Passengers on train platform. Sheep being released from cages of goods train, men transporting goods and produce between trains. Coal emptying from scoop. Elephant out of train carriage, horse. Elephant pulling cage containing lions. Light turning off in house. Men in NES hard hats. Re-enactment of steam train moving equipment during the WWII at night, soldiers tranferring loads between trains. Model map of Australia with trains demonstrating the broken gauges of railway tracks. Drover on horseback in outback lighting cigarette. Cattle with drovers. Sheep being herded over paddock. Drought stricken country, cracked earth, dust, dead trees, skeletons. Lambs roaming carcasses. Greenhouses, vegetables being harvested. Newspaper headlines, crowded railway station, passengers boarding trains, departing station. Explosion near railway track. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 125581 | 5 mins 12 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Western Europe post World War 2 reparations including men laying rail tracks, arrival of freight and locomotive engines at French dockyard and the freight transport of army tanks. High shot over train winding through Australian bush. Tanks rolling. Passengers and luggage on platform. Sheep from rail truck. CUs man drawing with compass, slide rule standard and rail gauge plan. WS surveyors walking over sand dune. Explosion of rocks. VS trees being chopped and logged, men laying sleepers. Rail workshop with men preparing engine train for gauge change. VS steam train towards and past camera. Workers laying track, smoking, watching trains. Young boy watching train as it passes workers. Horses in paddock. WS train passing grazing cows and countryside. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 125590 | 2 mins 33 secs | 1940s | France; Australia | © NFSA | B&W |