...spasmodically, depicting an unmistakable British community living on the fringe of the continent.
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From the turn of the century, newsreels had existed but only spasmodically,
depicting an unmistakable British community living on the fringe of the continent.
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They captured the moment of federation in 1901, social events and action, but all without sound.
Then in 1927, a revolution in the cinema.
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The talkies.
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The first human sounds of the newsreel were cries of despair,
the Great Depression which had engulfed the world.
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In Australia, this arrival of sound with pictures brought the voice of austerity and desperation.
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Australia is facing today a grave financial crisis in its history.
Two causes are open to us.
On the one side, is default, dishonor and great distress.
On the other side, sacrifice with security.
Pensioners, wage earners, salary, those receiving salary, all been reduced.
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It has made from pure beeswax and serpentine.
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One life was barely endurable.
For those lucky enough to have the price of a ticket,
the pictures were a welcome escape from the emptiness of the everyday.
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It was in this decade Australians became obsessed with images of power, speed, technology and its advancement.
Aviation filled the screens and audiences could share with the privileged few,
the excitement of early commercial flight.
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But with flight came the need for risky experimentation in air safety.
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The weekly news regularly brought desirable glimpses of the risque.
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And the military experimented in the field.
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And certain events became newsreel institutions.
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The Melbourne Cup had the effect of galvanizing the nation.
It provided a single focus.
And while it was a holiday for most,
for the competing news company's movie tone and its archrival cinny sound,
it was a day of frenzy in covering every aspect of the meat.
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It was the one event of the year where there was no margin for error,
either human or mechanical.
In using nine cameras, movie tone guarded against this.
And throughout Australia audiences expected to see the footage that night.
When the horse race concluded, the race to get the footage to the cinemas began.
Every year movie tone beat its rivals by developing the film in flight on the way to Sydney,
where it was dried and cut on arrival.
Movie tone had it on the screens by seven o'clock.
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During the war, special flights took the footage to the front lines
where for the troops it was eagerly awaited news from home.
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While Melbourne had its cup, Sydney had the harbour.
Pleasure for the fortunate, for others less romantic.
A source of work where the languid pace of life belied the pace of a rapidly changing city.
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By the mid-1920s, Sydney's primitive transport link across the harbour was overworked.
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The punts were carrying such a huge number of cars
that to go to work was often a frustrating series of delays.
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The solution was the colossus of the southern hemisphere.
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While the bridge united the city, it would also divide the community.
Long before the engineers drew the plan, over the labourer turned the sod,
the people of Sydney dreamed about, worked for, and fought over
the bridge which is about to be made available to them.
Lang had incensed the royalists by choosing to open the bridge himself
instead of the British Governor General.
Francis de Groot, leader of the right-wing New Guard, charged forward
and cut the ribbon declaring the bridge open in the name of decent citizens,
a decision that would lead to one of the most famous newsreel scoops.
As he was led off to jail, the footage was raced off to the cinemas
where it created such a volatile reaction, the Lang government had it removed.
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The uniqueness of the newsreel was that it could blend the factual with the entertaining.
Audiences came to expect and savour items that were unusual.
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