FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

Title Details

Mutton Bird of Bass Strait

Footage showing various aspects of mutton-birds on islands in Bass Strait including gathering of specimens, tagging of individual birds and birds in and around their nests and burrows.
Year : 1954 |
Low aerial track over mutton-birds on surface of sea. Various WS of coast around Bass Strait with LS to cabin. GS men walking through low scrub. CUs gloved researcher pulling mutton-bird chick out of ground burrow and examining it. VS men preparing boat. GS sign for Flinders Island Airfield. GS plane arriving on runway. GS children coming out of Island school. GS around stores. MS woman holding toddler
Access No. 145199 | 57 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
High angle WS over boat on sea with LS to island group. VS of crew on boat and island views and huts on island POV boat. VS supplies from boat being loaded onto dinghy. VS supplies being unloaded on shore including one man throwing pumpkin to another. GS man erecting timber building frame, GS man whittling sticks and woman laying sticks on frame. VS men collecting mutton-birds in field and placing carcasses on sticks.
Access No. 145200 | 1 min 18 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
VS men rowing dinghy over rough seas to boat moored offshore. VS crates on boat being unloaded and reloaded onto plane. WS plane taking off from island and flying over camera. CUs mutton-birds being pulled from ground burrows, killed and placed on sticks. MS men with birds and sticks across shoulders past camera. High angle WS over islands from hill. VS men walking over rough terrain and CUs to mutton-bird burrows visible between tufts of grass. WS mutton-birds flying in sky at dusk.
Access No. 145201 | 1 min 51 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
CUs Mutton-birds at night spot-lit walking and settling on ground and resting amidst tufts of grass. VS birds coming and going at night under spotlight. VS bird activity with tilt to mutton-birds silhouetted along clifftops in early dawn light. WS wind blowing grasses in field either in dawn light or in night lighting. WS looking across sea between islands in early morning light.
Access No. 145202 | 1 min 53 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
CU gloved researcher picking mutton-bird up from ground with bird pecking at glove. ECU mutton-bird's head in profile. VS pair of men examining mutton-bird's wingspan. ECU webbed foot and leg extended. CUs bird being banded then being placed into burrow. WS men in field. CU to inventory with bird information recorded for one burrow from 1948-1953. ECU to tag with ID number and contact name on it before it is placed on bird's leg. CU bird being tagged and replaced in burrow. GS men in field recording data.
Access No. 145203 | 1 min 32 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
CUs men holding mutton-bird with belly exposed while they examine it closely. CU mutton-bird with egg filmed at night. WS tracks of large flocks of mutton-birds flying over ocean. WS of mutton-birds resting on ocean surface riding swells. Graphic world globe showing migration path of mutton-birds between Australia, USA, Canada and the USSR. VS dead mutton-birds being washed onto shore with CUs of others on sand. GS man walking dog along shore and looking at dead mutton-bird.
Access No. 145204 | 1 min 39 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Zoom out from CU of mutton-bird chick being tagged to pair of men standing in field in waist-deep grass. Pan to patch of low grass with sheep grazing. CU man taking soil samples(?). Tilt up sand to sand dune. Pan across dunes. GS three men in suits standing in long tufts of grass in sand dunes. Various tracks of mutton-birds flying low over ocean.
Access No. 145205 | 1 min 5 secs | 1950s | SA, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |