FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

Title Details

School in the Mailbox

The education of Australia's outback children by correspondence.
Year : 1946 | Total Duration : 18 Minutes |
Director : Stanley Hawes |
A boy reading a copy of The Outpost (a magazine of the Blackfriars Correspondence School). A group of people are gathered around the mailman as he delivers the mail and school correspondence, by horse and cart. Four children seated around a wireless radio, on an outdoor verandah. Jane Grant, feeding a spring lamb with a bottle. Postman loading sacks into a mail van, outside the Blackfriars Correspondence School.
Staff member at the Blackfriars Correspondence School packing documents into a large envelope to send to a student. Teacher sitting at her desk, holding a toy rabbit. Three children, sitting on a lawn, listening to a wireless radio broadcast from their Correspondence school. Two male teachers looking at correspondence work. A sign reading "Correspondence School Blackfriars" is in the background. Young boy sitting at a table playing with matchsticks.
Young boy sitting on grass, doing schoolwork, while holding onto his dog. His mother feeds a flock of hens in the background.
Pan across suburban rooftops to Dover Heights Home Science High School exterior plus various aged children in playgrounds. School exteriors including Fort Street Public School and cloisters of Sydney University. Interior shot of students and teacher in science lab. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7795 | 50 secs | 1940s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
VS rural landscape, sheep, township, homestead. Good shot children coming out of bush school. Child on horseback, woman hand-feeding chickens in yard, child amongst calves, teenagers launching boat and VS children bottle-feeding and tending lambs. Boy and dog walking towards large house. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7802 | 1 min 25 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Exterior Blackfriars Correspondence School, VS correspondence schools and interiors of teachers working in rows of desks including good shot of older women heads bowed at desks. Office scenes, boy receiving books in mail bag, good shot girl at desk in garden, CUs teachers writing. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7810 | 1 min 13 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Man stacking leaflets on store room shelves in correspondence school. Good shot woman using stencilling machine, CUs sorting boxes and leaflets and school magazine. VS women dispatching letters and parcels with CUs of weighing, stamping, sorting into mail bags. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7824 | 1 min 15 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
VS men picking mailbag up from correspondence school and placing in back of van. Dispatch of large parcels and bags via steam train, TAA plane and CU of propellers. CU map of Australia showing mail routes. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7835 | 49 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Mailman on bicycle delivering mail to rural QLD farm, good CU of postman blowing whistle. Mail plane landing on desert runway in NT , boy receiving mail bag from pilot and walking towards township. Camel train in remote WA carrying mail bags with bearded Aboriginal giving boy the bag. Horse-drawn buggy in rural NSW delivering mail, dog on chain, MS children receiving mail from buggy. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7846 | 1 min 55 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Truck in distance coming down country road. Girl at desk on rural property runs through gate with brother to large mail box to greet truck delivering correspondence . Watch as truck departs over country bridge. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7869 | 48 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Various scenes of mothers helping children with correspondence school lessons: boy tending puppies and girl feeding wombat join mother at desk for lessons using pens and inkwells, VS children sitting at desks doing lessons. Children distracted from lessons by boats on lake, peacock displaying, small lamb tethered to verandah. Mother at door drying tray while checking on child. CU woman's hands ironing as she reads school magazine propped up near ironing board with good shot of old style iron. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7874 | 1 min 28 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Child at desk with CU to him making matchstick figure with button for head , mother joining him bringing glass of milk and helping son with figure. Good segment of boy reading book out loud to mother with CU of text as he reads. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7894 | 1 min 21 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
CU hand writing in book with illustrations, good CU of buttons used as counters, MS older girl writing with pen and inkwells. CU girl with shot to her constructing words on page using cutout letters, MS girl using buttons for counting. CU small boy writing with pencil, girl using pen and inkwell with CU to her running writing in book. CU teacher writing in student's book. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7909 | 1 min 12 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
VS correspondence school teachers at desks in office like environment marking work. CU's of various childrens' drawings. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7918 | 1 min 21 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
CU older correspondence school teacher rewarding child's illustrated work with rabbit rubber stamp. CU teacher packing knitted animal handiwork into box, mother and son turning on wireless radio for correspondence lesson. VS teacher preparing to speak on air, Children gathering around upright radio. Man in studio giving hand signal to other man who begins reciting the poem My Country on air for correspondence lesson. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7933 | 50 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
VS children sitting around radios in rural locations listening to broadcast poem and repeating couplets. Intercut with pan down blossom tree, boy reclining near sea, man leaning on country gate and slow pan from children past rural landscape. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7941 | 1 min 39 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Farmer and son watching sheep running through gate. Man with lamb under arm joins children at outdoor table doing correspondence lessons, children at desk in front of lake, boy joined by mother looking at map of UK. Mother and child reading, VS children looking at newly returned correspondence school work. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7956 | 52 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |
Boy seated at table sealing envelope of school work, CU envelope addressed to correspondence school. Small children handing mail to man in truck on country road then waving goodbye. WS car on dirt road creating dust cloud, children handing mail to man in buggy, pan to country landscape. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 7968 | 56 secs | 1940s | Australia | © NFSA | B&W |