Search results
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Seeing the Sights in Paris
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A party of young women show a group of smartly dressed British, Australian, American and New Zealand soldiers the sights of Paris. Insignia on the women’s clothing suggests they are from the Red Cross. In this excerpt, the group walk along a concourse toward the Eiffel Tower. A pan around the party of sightseers shows a smiling, cheerful group. Later on, the group is in front of the Hôtel de Ville, before all climbing into a truck.
When the Armistice was signed in November 1918, there were 56,000 New Zealanders overseas or at sea. Demobilisation was a carefully planned manoeuvre with most troops and nurses returning home during 1919 – though the last New Zealanders did not return home until 1921. Troops were anxious to leave and so, to counter rising tension as soldiers waited to hear when they could go home, activities such as the Inter-Allied Games and sightseeing parties were designed to keep the men occupied.
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Three cheers for the Prince!
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A camera positioned opposite Australia House on The Strand in London, captures Australian troops on parade for Anzac Day, 1919. The vast number of Australian troops is some indication of the scale of Australia's contribution to the war effort.
The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) stands on the raised platform, taking the salute. With him are Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig to the right and HRH Prince Albert (later King George VI) further back, next to Lieutenant General Sir William R Birdwood (left). Also featured on the stand are Billy Hughes (Prime Minister of Australia); Andrew Fisher (Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom); Sir Thomas McKenzie (New Zealand High Commissioner to the United Kingdom); Sir Joseph Cook and Senator Pearce (the Australian Minister for Defence).
The parade ends with Australian and New Zealand troops and British citizens pushing forward and mobbing the Prince of Wales with three cheers!
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Military Olympics
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This film shows the opening march-past of athletes in the Inter-Allied Games held on the outskirts of Paris from 22 June to 6 July 1919. Watch for the cameramen on the left of the frame.
Competitive events were put on in 22 sports, with 1,500 men from 19 countries competing. Look out for the New Zealanders with their distinctive silver fern – and team coach Sergeant EJ Benjamin carries the New Zealand flag.
With a team of 300 competitors, the United States dominated and placed first in 19 of the 22 events. The French, Australians and Canadians all entered sizeable teams. New Zealand contributed five athletes in track and field and an eight, four and single sculler in the rowing. One athlete represented for Guatemala.
New Zealand did well, coming third in the overall rankings in the track and field (United States 92 points, France 12 points, New Zealand 6 points, Australia 5 points). The New Zealand rowing team also did exceptionally well with Darcy Hadfield winning the international single sculls and the fours and eights both gaining third place.
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Investing in Australia’s future
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‘Patriotism must not die because the war is over’, exhorts a father to his son in this clip, reminding his family that peace also brings a responsibility to the nation.
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Peace Day Parade
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A Peace Day Parade at Woonona in New South Wales on 19 July 1919, claimed to be the best procession in the state outside of Sydney.
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The Australian Red Cross in action
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Nurses from the Australian Red Cross serve tea and refreshments to returned soldiers, including those injured and in convalescence.
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Civilian clothing for returned soldiers
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Towards the end of the war the Australian Red Cross focused on helping integrate returned service personnel into work and society. This clip shows women at the Red Cross making and sorting clothes for returned soldiers.
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Occupational Therapy
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Returned Australian soldiers in convalescence are shown to be in good spirits as they hand-craft objects from wooden materials.
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The Treaty of Versailles
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The Paris Peace Conference, also known as the Versailles Peace Conference, saw representatives of the victorious Allied powers meeting to set peace terms for the defeated Central powers after the end of the First World War.
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White Heather Bride
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With the First World War now over, newsreels could focus on happier events.
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Peace Loan Procession
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At the end of the First World War, Australia was in desperate need of funds. To combat this, federal Parliament announced the first Peace Loan campaign on 30 July 1919.
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The Wizard of the Wire sells peace bonds
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The Australian Government used innovative methods to encourage people to buy peace bonds, to help recover the cost of the war. In this clip, Colleano & Sole Bros Circus zoo animals join the promotional campaign.
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Jellicoe Tours the Empire
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John Jellicoe was appointed commander of the British Grand Fleet the day war broke out with Germany in 1914. This clip shows him embarking on a tour of Dominion countries including India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
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Invested at Buckingham Palace
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London – 3 May 1919 – crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace in London for an investiture by his Majesty King George V. Among the nurses and soldiers receiving awards and honours is a smartly dressed New Zealand officer in his lemon squeezer hat.
On the dais are Queen Mary and members of the royal household. In front stand Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig and his Generals – Plumer and Sir William Birdwood. Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for War, stands proudly in morning suit and top hat.
After the ceremony, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) Depot Band march past, followed by the New Zealand Parade Commander. Behind them are the New Zealand Field Artillery – note the infantry with their rifles and bayonets. Next, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) march past. Mounted officers of the AIF and the Australian Light Horse trot by, and the crowd cheers and waves, then the AIF band march past – they are marching easy – and are followed by the Australian infantry.
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The Ruins of Cambrai
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French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and Field Marshal Douglas Haig of the British Army inspect the ruins of the French city of Cambrai in this clip from the Australasian Gazette newsreel.
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Clemenceau’s dark days
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Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, inspecting French troops during the ‘dark days’ of war in 1918, the year before the assassination attempt. It’s interesting to see among the troops, soldiers from France’s colonies in Africa.
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Peace Loan - Watch for the Aeroplane
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In addition to the loss of life, wars cost money. Government campaigns encouraged Australians to support the war effort by purchasing war bonds which would be repaid with interest. After the war ended these became ‘Peace Loans’ to recover the cost of the war, including assisting returned service personnel to settle back into civilian life.
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The Blue Boys
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The impact of wounds, gas, disease and post-traumatic stress or shellshock, meant many returned war veterans would spend a long time in hospital for years after the war – sometimes well into the 1920s.
In the era before antibiotics, people could spend many months recovering from injuries and illness. Dedicated veterans’ hospitals were set up throughout Australia and New Zealand during the war.
In a 1957 radio interview, two New Zealanders, Frank Broad and Alan Kernohan – who were in the King George V Hospital in Rotorua – remembered the restrictions placed on the recovering soldiers.
Throughout the British Empire, men who were able to get out of bed, were known as “Blue Boys” because of their “hospital blues” – a uniform worn by the convalescing soldiers. This marked them out and was supposed to prevent the invalids sneaking off to local hotels for a drink, as civilians were prohibited from supplying alcohol to the men in blue… but there were ways around this, as the men recall.
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The Aussie and the Mademoiselle from Armentières
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Pat Hanna's 1930 recording of the iconic World War One song Mademoiselle from Armentières continued the tradition of adapting the words of this famous song to reflect the different experiences of soldiers during the war. Hanna himself served with the Otago Regiment from New Zealand.
Recorded in Australia on the Vocalion label, this version (with lyrics by Hanna), tells the story of an Australian “Digger” who falls for the French mademoiselle, only to leave her heartbroken when he is killed at Bullecourt (1917) in Northern France. It was a popular number performed as part of Hanna’s “Diggers” vaudeville concert party which toured Australia and New Zealand for many years after the war.
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The Diggers’ March in Sydney
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In April 1938, several thousand New Zealand “diggers” sailed from Wellington for Sydney, where they reunited with their Australian “cobbers” of 1914 – 1918 in a grand Anzac Day procession through the city.
The huge march from the Cenotaph to the Domain, where a commemoration service was held, was part of Australia’s 150th anniversary celebrations and some 50,000 returned servicemen took part – with an estimated half a million people lining the Sydney streets.
In this live radio broadcast from the Wellington waterfront, Station 2ZB announcers – who were veterans themselves – capture the cheering, bands and excitement on the docks. New Zealand Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage farewells the old soldiers as they board former World War One troopships – ‘the Monowai’ and ‘the Maunganui’ – for the trip across the Tasman.
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Entertaining the troops, “The Kiwis” concert party
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The campaigns of the Western Front saw men serving in frontline combat positions in the trenches usually for a few days to a week at a time. In between, units were rotated back to ‘reserve’ positions several kilometres away from the Front, where boredom was yet another enemy to contend with.
In an attempt to keep the troops entertained, concert parties were formed by the men, with names such as “The Pierrots”, “The Tuis” and “The Kiwis.”
Bill McKeon, who served in the Wellington Infantry and had been in a concert party himself, had fond memories of “The Kiwis” and the high-quality shows they put on at Nieppe, near Armentieres in 1917, which he recalled in a radio interview with Neville Webber.
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Blighty wounds and deserters
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George Lee was among the later reinforcements to join the war, arriving in the trenches near Antwerp in April 1918. By this time, conditions at the front line were intolerable. There were only two ways out; death or injury. In this excerpt, Lee remembers the different methods men employed to be invalided out of the trenches.
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Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty
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This song, in which a series of soldiers yearn to return to ‘Blighty’, or Britain, was hugely popular in 1917.
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Never Mind the Food Controller
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An uplifting music hall song, intended to provide comfort during wartime food rationing.
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I’m Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
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"I’ll linger longer in Yarrawonga"
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The Rose of No Man’s Land
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A sentimental song composed as a tribute to Red Cross battlefield nurses.
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What Did You Do in the Great War, Daddy?
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The subject of a child innocently shaming their father for failing to carry out military service was a commonly used theme of war propaganda.
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Every Girl is a Fisher Girl
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This rousing music hall song by Australian-born Florrie Forde, popular during WW1, suggests that every girl is ‘fishing for a mate’.
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France’s South Pacific Soldiers in Sydney
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The First World War was truly a global war. What brought this home to Australians was seeing troops from other countries, including France’s Pacific colonies, passing through their country on their way to the Front.
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The Patriot Spirit
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Troops from France’s Pacific colonies, on their way to the war in Europe, allowed Australians to display their loyalty and patriotism.
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Carving Anzac Day
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An Anzac Day cinema advertisement encouraging Australians to not only mark Anzac Day as a day of significance but to 'carve’ its meaning into the nation’s psyche.
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Sydney Marches to Remember
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With their white, starched uniforms and red crosses on their foreheads, 2000 members of the Junior Red Cross make a startling presence at the eleventh anniversary of Anzac Day in Sydney.
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Anzac football in London
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During their war service, Australian troops organised Australian Rules football matches across Europe. The highest profile matches were played in the United Kingdom but one-off matches were also played in other countries, including Belgium and France in 1919.
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Lest We Forget
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Thousands of Melburnians turn out in the pouring rain in 1925, to honour the fallen of the First World War.
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Royal Decorations
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A young Prince of Wales decorates Australian soldiers in France.
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Mimic Warfare
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Troops needed to practice warfare before experiencing the real thing. But they probably didn’t expect to have children walking around the ‘battlefield’ watching them!
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Fill-the-Gap
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“We are dying of exhaustion for want of a spell”
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Ask Your Tailor for Anzac Tweed
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The factory weaving Anzac Tweed was on the brink of closure when it was taken over by the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League. It then employed only returned servicemen and their families.
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The Choice is Yours
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A government film gives hope of rehabilitation to the returning war veteran.
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With the Aid of the Red Cross
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Veterans returning in wheelchairs and with missing limbs gave Australians at home their first sight of the true cost of modern warfare.
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Learning to farm
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After surviving the bloody battles on the Western Front and elsewhere, able-bodied returning soldiers were offered opportunities to become farmers.
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Anzac Hospitals at Home
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Returned servicemen engage in handicrafts, music-making and a degree of flirting with nurses while convalescing in an Anzac hospital.
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The sound of the silents
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Although there were no sound tracks recorded, or played, on films made during the First World War, audiences never watched films silently. In cinemas across Australia and New Zealand orchestras (which could mean anything from a single pianist to a full instrumental ensemble) provided music to accompany movies, and played as the audience entered and exited the cinema.
Violet Donaldson (nee Capstick) worked for many years as a pianist at three cinemas in Timaru. In this extract she recalls the “primitive conditions” in the theatres and also how she wrote and played tunes based on sheet music she listened to at the music shop she worked at, surprising returned servicemen who weren’t expecting to hear the latest in European music back home.
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Short films, audiences and nitrate fires
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Harry Kennedy was a long-time picture theatre manager in Timaru. In this interview, recorded on his retirement after decades working in showbiz, he recalls the types of films shown to cinema-goers, the enthusiastic applause and appreciation of the audience to films shown to them, as well as one of the hazards of film at the time: a nitrate fire in the biobox (projection booth).
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Early newsreels: A 1915 Pathé Animated Gazette
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People went to cinemas during the war to be entertained, but moving-pictures also played an important role in providing cinema-goers with news and information from abroad. Early newsreels, or topical films, were an important part of the typical cinema programme of the time.
This film is an example of a full-length Pathé Animated Gazette newsreel that was shown during the war. It demonstrates the contents of these types of films and how they mixed serious topics with more light-hearted footage: scenes of the Algerian Native Cavalry in Flanders, a brief glimpse of King George V and Queen Mary making their way through packed London Streets to a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, the opening of a New Zealand military hospital, and Zouaves (Algerian French Infantry).
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The Empire’s Troops
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Nearly three million troops from the colonies of the British Empire served during the First World War. This film made by Pathé Freres, released in 1917 but filmed over the period 1915 to 1917, shows how broadly based the Allied forces were. We see Canadians at Salisbury Plains, Indians at Marseilles, and Australians and New Zealanders in Egypt.
Usually films of soldiers during the war are formal affairs. While the film starts off this way, with the usual scenes of training, marching and inspections, it also shows troops of all the different nationalities in a more informal mood, playing up to the camera-- including performing a Highland jig! It also shows a rare glimpse of ANZAC forces at camp relaxing in Egypt, with the spectacular backdrop of the Pyramids behind them.
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Bringing the audience into the picture
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The experience of the cinema-going public remains perhaps the most challenging aspect of understanding film and audiences in New Zealand and Australia during the Great War. This image, taken circa 1910 in an unknown New Zealand cinema, is a rare glimpse back at a packed house.
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Australia Day at Burra
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This newsreel shows the then prosperous and bustling mining town of Burra, or the collection of townships known as ‘The Burra’, celebrating Australia Day on July the 30th, predating the now national celebration held on 26 January. At that time there was no nationally recognised national day, instead they usually were based around each state’s date of significance for the founding of the colony.
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“The Answer to Declining Enlistment Numbers”
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This pro-conscription cartoon appeared shortly after August 1915. Although Australia had not long been involved in the war, it was already becoming apparent that casualty rates in Turkey were extremely high.
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The campaign that failed
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Conscription was introduced by law in New Zealand. However, Australians were able to vote on introducing conscription in a referendum in October 1916. This film was made as part of the “Vote Yes’ campaign. It shows PM William Hughes presenting the pro-conscription case, followed by messages to vote 'Yes' from well known figures such as the martyred Nurse Cavell, King George V and France’s General Joffre. Despite these efforts, however, the campaign for conscription was narrowly defeated.
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“The Hero of the Dardanelles”
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“Produced with the wholehearted co-operation of the military and naval authorities,” The Hero of the Dardanelles, was a feature-length narrative film made to encourage men to enlist. It premiered at Melbourne’s Majestic Theatre on 17 July 1915, unfortunately, only the first 11 minutes of the 40-minute film survive.
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Within Our Gates
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After the outbreak of war there was a growing public opinion that all Germans in Australia were a threat to security and should be interned. In this cartoon, this attitude appears as a fear that employees of German origin are protected in government jobs.
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Regarding the epidemic of marriages
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A report issued in March 1916 observed that wounded and convalescing Anzac troops were falling in love with their nurses, and marrying them. Officials were concerned that these marriages, made in haste during exceptional circumstances, might not be wise. The situation became further complicated as servicemen applied for grants to bring their new brides back to Australia.
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The wounded return home to Australia
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More than 150 sick and wounded men return to Australia on the S.S Karoola which was fitted as a hospital ship in England. Soldiers suffering severe injuries are transported from the ship to waiting vehicles. They disembark on stretchers and, rather unconventionally, by piggy-back.
When sick and wounded soldiers left the battlefield they were out of immediate danger, but were not entirely safe until they reached their final destination. It was not uncommon for hospital ships to be attacked, whether because of mistaken identity or intentionally. The Australian hospital ship HMAT Warilda was sunk on 3 August 1918 with the loss of 123 lives. The greatest disaster of this kind was in February 1916 when a German U-boat torpedoed the Canadian hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle, with the loss of 234 lives. After the war the U-boat’s captain and two of his lieutenants were charged with war crimes.
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Caring for our Wounded
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Over 3,000 Australian nurses volunteered during the First World War, working in hospitals, including hospital ships and trains, and in field stations closer to the front line. This film shows scenes of Allied forces medical staff and stations taken throughout the Western Front, 1916-1918: “No words can describe the awfulness of the wounds. Bullets are nothing. It is the shrapnel that tears through the flesh and cuts off limbs”
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Boxing and recruiting
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In the early stages of the war sport was seen as a fertile site for recruitment, and this film shows 17,000 spectators crammed into the Sydney Stadium to witness Les Darcy defend his world middleweight title against American Eddie McGoorty in 1915. An intense affair, Police ended the fight in the 15th round after McGoorty was knocked down for the fourth time. Beforehand the Premier of NSW, William Holman, and the opposition leader, Charles Wade, were scheduled to give a recruitment speech.
However, as it became obvious that the war would not be over quickly, and as casualties from Gallipoli mounted, sport was condemned as a distraction from fighting and the home front war effort.
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Patriotic Football
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Football clubs displayed their patriotism by publishing lists of players (past and present) who had enlisted, and by organising carnivals and events to raise funds for the war effort. This film shows a fundraising match between the 1915 VFL premiers Carlton and an Army Camp side at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Camp team, wearing the Collingwood strip, was made up of current and former AFL players who had enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. The match, won by Carlton, raised 248 pounds for the Wounded Soldiers Fund and attracted 6000 spectators.
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Australian Light Horse in the Middle East
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The Australian Light Horse Regiments are almost legendary, although accounts of their actions may be more myth than fact. This film shows some of the 6,1000 horses embarking from an AIF transport ship, along with troops. The footage also shows the Imperial Camel Corps, established in January 1916 and made up of British, Australian and NZ battalions, entering the town of Beersheba, with General Edmund Allenby who headed the British Empire’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He is seen here after Jerusalem’s fall into Allied hands on 9 December 1917, reading his proclamation of martial law in the nine languages of the city.
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Australian troops at the Pyramids
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Australian and New Zealand troops arrived in Egypt in December 1914. They set up Mena Camp near the Great Pyramids outside Cairo and began training in preparation for the Western Front and Gallipoli. This footage sees them exploring the extraordinary landmarks - the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
While they waited in Egypt to be deployed, the Australian and New Zealand forces were formed into the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) under the command of Lieutenant General William Birdwood. The training the Anzacs received was only rudimentary, and did little to prepare them for what was to come.
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Direct to Aussie
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This footage shows Australian troops boarding a train in France after the battle of the Somme and some of the worst fighting of World War One. One carriage has ‘Direct to Aussie’ on the side, suggesting the troops are returning home – or perhaps just wishing they were!
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Billy Hughes visits the AIF’s home away from home
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The First World War led to a major influx of Australians into Britain. From summer 1916 to the end of the war there were never fewer than 50,000 Australian troops present. In 1915 Horseferry Road in Westminster, London, became a home away from home for the Anzacs. The AIF Administrative Headquarters, the Australian War Records Section and the War Chest Club were located there (the Club was established to promote the welfare of all soldiers). Horseferry Road became a historically significant Australian location: it was where the Anzacs could create a community for themselves, and was filled with men wearing slouch caps and speaking with familiar accents.
In this film the Australian Prime Minister, William ‘Billy’ Hughes, doffs his top hat to the camera before inspecting soldiers at the AIF Headquarters. These visits were effective in raising troop morale, letting them know that, though far from their own country, they remained in the thoughts of those back home.
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Flags for Victory
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Belgian Flag Days, along with French Flag Days, Violet Day and Wattle Day, occurred across Australia during World War One. They were organised to raise funds, engage communities and encourage new recruits, as well as to honour and pay respect to the wounded, the fallen and their families. This film shows a Belgian Flag Day held at the former mining town of Burra, South Australia, on 10 May 1915.
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Australian soldiers in France
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Prime minister William (Billy) Hughes, Sir General Rawlinson and Major General Monash visited AIF soldiers in bombed out Péronne, Somme, France, July 1918. For almost the whole of the war, the town of Péronne was occupied by German troops; it was liberated by Australian troops on 2 September 1918.
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The Sydney suburb of Manly remembers the fallen
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This film shows the unveiling of a monument for Alan David Mitchell, the first soldier from Manly to die in the war. Erected by his parents and unveiled on 14 October 1916, the monument remains in place along The Corso in Manly. Over time it has been updated to commemorate all those from the district who have died fighting in conflicts from the South African War to Afghanistan.
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Nurse Cavell deep in prayer
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Nurse Cavell is a 1916 Australian feature-length film directed by W. J. Lincoln about the execution of Edith Cavell during World War I. It was also known as Edith Cavell. Subtitled as ‘Britain’s Joan of Arc’, it is considered a Lost Film.
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Britain’s Joan of Arc bravely meets her fate
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Nurse Cavell is a 1916 Australian feature-length film directed by W. J. Lincoln about the execution of Edith Cavell during World War I. It was also known as Edith Cavell. Subtitled as ‘Britain’s Joan of Arc’, it is considered a Lost Film.
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"I gave my life willingly for my country”
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The Matyrdom of Nurse Cavell is a 1916 Australian feature-length film directed by Jack Gavin and Charles Post Mason about the execution of Edith Cavell during World War I. The Matyrdom of Nurse Cavell was viewed as a rival to Nurse Cavell, also produced in 1916, and there was legal action by Jack Gavin’s backers. It is considered a Lost Film.
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Nurse Cavell imprisoned before her execution
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The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell is a 1916 Australian silent film about the execution of Nurse Edith Cavell during World War I, directed by Jack Gavin and Charles Post Mason. Told in four parts, the film was one of the most popular Australian silent movies ever made. The film is lost with no copies known to have survived.
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"When We March Through Berlin Town"
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When We March Through Berlin Town is a jaunty tune clearly aimed to lift the spirits the troops and encourage men to enlist. The soldier at the centre of the song says farewell to his sweetheart, Jeannie, because the King of England is needing ‘laddies big and broad’. He assures Jeannie that he will wear her sprig of heather in his old Scotch cap when they defeat the Germans and occupy Berlin. The tone of the song is one of supreme optimism.
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“Tell My Daddy to Come Home Again“
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The songs sung by music hall artists during the First World War were often filled with war fever and patriotism. Propaganda messages promoted through song could appeal both emotionally as well as rationally and had the added benefit of being easily remembered and repeated by the average citizen. Tell My Daddy to Come Home Again: The Evening News Lonely Soldiers Song, recorded by Stanely Kirkby in 1915, is one such song, with lyrics written from the perspective of a child lamenting their father who has gone off to war.
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“Brave Women Who Wait”
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For the war effort to be successful, it was not only men who needed to be recruited. The women on the home front also had to show their commitment, so they were also the target of propaganda campaigns. Brave Women Who Wait reminds the general population that while the men may be dying on the battlefields, the women were also making sacrifices at home.
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"All the Boys in Khaki Get the Nice Girls"
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This light-hearted recruitment tune composed in 1915 by Tom Mellor and Harry Gifford was a British wartime hit and claimed a uniform was all it took to attract 'nice' girls
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"Advance, Australia Fair"
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Written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick and first performed in1878, Advance Australia Fair was officially declared the national anthem by the Governor-General, Sir Ninian Stephen, on 19 April 1984. This version is one of the earliest recordings, thought to be made in 1915, when Australian troops were landing in Egypt.
Despite it’s status as the official national anthem, Waltzing Matilda (1895), a more uplifting tune with lyrics by Banjo Paterson telling the story of a criminal stealing a sheep, is still widely regarded as Australia’s ‘unofficial’ national anthem.
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‘Only a Sinner’
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Only a Sinner was written and recorded some years before the First World War. Despite its rather plodding and mournful tune it is easy to imagine that religious hymns like this became popular again once men found themselves confronted by the horrors of modern warfare.
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”The Tanks that Broke the Ranks”
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Written and composed by English music hall writers Harry Castling and Harry Carlton,The Tanks that Broke the Ranks, was a popular music hall song celebrating the first use of tanks on the battlefield. The sheet music was released in December 1916, just three months after the first use of tanks in war by the British, during the Battle of the Somme.
Although both sides regarded the tanks with interest and awe when first deployed, their success was mixed. Of the 49 tanks shipped to the Somme, only nine made it across ‘no man's land’ to the German lines.
The song references many prominent German military leaders of the day, including Kaiser Wilhelm, Alfred von Tirpitz, Paul von Hindenburg and Prince Wilhelm. It was very popular in music halls in 1917. This recording was sung by internationally acclaimed Australian performer and recording artist Peter Dawson under the pseudonym ‘Will Strong,’ which he used for music hall recordings.
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Marking the first Anzac Day in London
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In April 1916, a year after the Anzac landings at Gallipoli, the first anniversary of the battle was observed in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. A grand memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey in London, attended by King George V and Queen Mary. Hundreds of New Zealand and Australian military personnel marched through the streets to the Abbey to attend the service.
Among them was Sydney-born Dr Agnes Bennett, who had been working in Egyptian hospitals treating the wounded from Gallipoli. Some 40 years later she recalled the experience in this excerpt from a radio ‘talk.’
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Surgeon-General Charles Ryan, ANZAC Cove, 1915
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Surgeon-General Charles S. Ryan is shown in a casual pose outside the aide-de-camp’s dugout at Anzac Cove, May 1915.
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The Pioneers - Graveyard scene
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The lost 1916 Australian silent movie The Pioneers is known only from contemporary descriptions and a few stills such as this one, probably from the closing scenes of the film. It shows Deirdre, played by Alma Rock Phillips, and a boy contemplating the graves of pioneers Donald and Mary Cameron.
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‘It's a Long Way to Tipperary’
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In this animated film, a British soldier dodges bullets and explosions. He grits his teeth as he thinks, ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’. If you want to sing along, as cinema audiences did when it was presented, the lyrics are right there on the screen.
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The Pioneers - In the bush
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Well-known actors, elaborate sets and a sizeable budget were assembled to make The Pioneers. This 1916 silent movie, set in the 19th century, follows the lives of a pioneering family and two escaped convicts. The film is considered lost and is known only from contemporary descriptions and a few stills such as this one. It probably shows the pioneering couple Mary and Dan Cameron, cutting timber in the bush.
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Tamworth celebrates the 8-hour day and war efforts
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Rain poured and cold winds blustered, but that didn’t dampen Tamworth’s annual 8 hour day festivities and patriotic parade on 23 October 1916.
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"Shine, Sir?" Kiwi Boot Polish advertisment
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In this groundbreaking early cinema ad, Boot Room staff at London’s Imperial Hotel depart to join the Army, leaving the hotel short-staffed. Two boys offer to tackle the guests’ footwear. Thanks to the Kiwi Polish bought for them by a kind Australian soldier, they polish and buff their way into employment.
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Mutiny of the Bounty: Daybill
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The daybill, or poster, for the first known cinematic dramatisation of the story Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford (1916).
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Seven Keys to Baldpate
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In Seven Keys to Baldpate, a silent film based on a stage farce, a struggling novelist undertakes to write a novel during 24 hours in the Baldpate Inn. He thinks he has the only key but a succession of strangers arrives.
Australian impresario J.C. Williamson had already produced several war-themed films when he turned to filming plays such as this ‘mystery farce’, his final film. The war films, with outdoor scenes and dramatic action, were apparently more successful than these filmed theatre productions with their quivering canvas sets. Ironically, being less popular may have protected them from being destroyed through repeated projection.
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Charlie Chaplin at the Sydney Show?
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Was Charlie Chaplin at Sydney’s 1916 Royal Easter Show? Yes, but not the real Charlie Chaplin. Just one of thousands of impersonators, as Chaplin’s worldwide fame grew.
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"The most valuable shipment of films"
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The arrival of a shipment of US films in Sydney in 1916 confirmed that Hollywood had won Australian hearts. But some commentators were already concerned about the impact on Australian film production. On 16 March 1916, ‘Kinema’ of the Melbourne Argus asked, “Why should Australia be mainly dependent upon other countries” for its motion pictures? The article explored costs and marketplace realities that forced the closure of Australian film-producing companies, “one after the other”. In a conclusion that resonates even today, Kinema says, “whilst the successful Australian productions can be counted upon the fingers of the two hands, the number of those which have entailed serious financial loss is unfortunately considerable.”
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Officer 666
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This two-minute clip is taken from the Australian-made 1916 silent comedy Officer 666, based on a Broadway play. The director, Fred Niblo, also stars as millionaire Travers Gladwin. To foil an art theft, Gladwin disguises himself as Police Officer 666. However, one of the thieves arrives disguised as Gladwin, and merry confusion ensues.
As war raged across Europe, and Hollywood began building cinema audiences internationally, the Australian film industry was thriving. An impressive 16 feature films were released in 1916. Officer 666 was one of four features released by theatrical company J.C. Williamson. Williamson aimed to film hit US plays before the American companies, and then import them into Australia.
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Percy’s First Holiday
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W.S. Percy was a favourite Australian comic opera star. This film clip shows the crowd outside Sydney’s Crystal Palace cinema for a special matinee screening of his first film, Percy’s First Holiday.
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Neptune’s Daughter
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In Neptune’s Daughter, an “eight-reel spectacular pictorial triumph” made by Hollywood's Universal Studio, Australian celebrity Annette Kellerman plays a mermaid who swears vengeance on the fisherman who trapped and killed her little sister in their nets. Transforming into a human, she seeks the King with the intention of killing him as his laws were responsible for the death. After being discovered, Annette makes her escape and is thrown back into the sea where she realises that she is in love with the King.
Kellerman was internationally famous for long-distance swimming and became a life-long advocate for women’s fitness. It was claimed she had the exact physical measurements of the Venus de Milo statue. Neptune’s Daughter showcases Kellerman’s aquatic skills as well as her “perfect” figure, which was shown, “in the nude—beautifully, chastely in the nude”, as Australian Theatre Magazine commented. She also pioneered changes to female swimwear, even though her close-fitting athletic bathing suit provoked a 1907 arrest for indecency in Boston, USA.
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The first ‘War Year’ Melbourne Cup - 1915
Video
The Great War did not succeed in killing interest in horseracing in Australia. The 1915 Melbourne Cup was filmed and screened less than 24 hours after the race.
Since 1896 the Melbourne Cup was filmed annually and screened shortly afterwards. In 1915 the tradition continued with the filming of the same scenes Marius Sestier had originally filmed in 1896. This Australasian Films newsreel reveals how far filmmaking had come in just those nine years. Camera techniques had become more dynamic and creative, and the film industry was a crucial element in the circulation of news.
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12,000 Aussies send their love to ‘Little Mary’
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Canadian-American silent film star Mary Pickford was one of the world’s most popular movie stars during the First World War. In 1914 12,000 Australian fans signed an autograph book for her and contributed to a presentation silver cup. This film clip shows her reacting with bashful charm as she receives these tributes while filming in Hollywood.
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"The toughest part of the war was lack of sleep"
Audio
Coupled with the lack of shelter or water and a very poor diet, Australian and New Zealand soldiers on Gallipoli found the lack of sleep almost impossible to get used to. The cramped conditions, noise, heat and flies made a good night’s rest a rare luxury. Men often fell asleep where they were sitting – or standing, as New Zealand veteran Jerry Duffel recalls in this radio interview recorded in the 1960s.
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Diggers in the tunnels of Quinn’s Post
Audio
The underground war at Gallipoli was fought from May 1915 right up until the evacuation in December that year. Because the two opposing sides were often only a few yards apart, parties of engineers from Australia and New Zealand could dig through the soil to lay explosives underneath enemy trenches. At the same time, Turkish tunnellers were doing exactly the same thing, sometimes with only a few metres of earth between them.
The men who organised the tunnelling were engineers (sometimes also called sappers). They were responsible for all the infrastructure needed to wage a war: from tunnels and trenches to buildings, roads and jetties. In this excerpt from a 1959 radio documentary, Captain Ernest Harston, who was adjutant of the Wellington Infantry Regiment, and Jim Meek, a corporal with the New Zealand Engineers at Quinn’s Post, recall the tunnels, the former miners who worked in them, and the many tasks the engineers had to carry out.
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Maggots and brandy – evacuating wounded men
Audio
Facilities for evacuating and treating men wounded on Gallipoli were woefully inadequate. The British military command had not anticipated such large numbers of casualties, who often waited for days unattended on the narrow beach before they could be transported by ship to a hospital. Alexander McLachlan, a Scots officer on board the transport ship Saturnia, recalls in this 1969 interview how he and his colleagues were unable to cope with the vast numbers of sick and wounded.
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‘Sons of Australia’
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'Sons of Australia' was composed by Felix McGlennon in 1900, during Australia’s participation in the Second Boer War. It became popular again during the First World War, and this version was recorded in 1915.
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‘They Were There! There! There!’
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The lyrics of the song ‘They Were There! There! There!’ were written by Private Harley Cohen shortly after his return from Gallipoli in September 1915. He was still recovering from wounds sustained during the Battle of Lone Pine.
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‘Only One of the Toys’
Audio
The dismal lyrics of ‘Only One of the Toys’ suggest that the soldier in question is merely a toy with no authority. He eventually dies on the battlefield, fulfilling the destiny he predicted to his son before leaving for war. Despite its gloomy subject, this 1914 song was surprisingly popular in its day.
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‘Heroes of the Dardanelles’
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The Gallipoli campaign inspired a number of patriotic songs like this one, that helped to build the Anzac legend back home and give Australia an independent identity from Britain.
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Soldiers swim at Gallipoli
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This hand-coloured glass slide shows men swimming in or lying beside the water at ANZAC Cove, beneath Plugge’s Hill (in background).
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Brother Turk Thankful
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Harry Julius’s clever animated comment on the fighting spirit of Australian forces against the Turkish enemy.
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Even Major-Generals die in battle
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The sombre 1915 funeral procession of Major-General Sir William Bridges, killed in action at the Dardenelles. Filmed in Melbourne after Bridges’ body arrived home months after his death.
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Lieutenant General Birdwood takes a dip
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Lieutenant General Sir William Birdwood, a senior officer in Britain’s pre-1914 Indian Army, was appointed in December 1914 to command the ANZAC forces. Birdwood has been described as the ‘Soul of Anzac’. His Corps headquarters was located in the hills just behind Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, and was open to Turkish shelling. On most days, he could also be observed swimming off the beach, sharing the dangers of Turkish shelling with everyone else.
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“Every one of those lads was lying dead”
Audio
Dunedin-born Charles Duke was working in Australia as a journalist when World War I broke out. He signed up with the Australian Imperial Force, sailing with the 4th Battalion. By early August 1915 he had twice been wounded and evacuated from Gallipoli. Yet he returned to his unit and found himself caught up in the bloody offensive which came to be known the Battle of Lone Pine.
Duke wrote a detailed account of his war, and in this 1969 radio programme he gives a vivid description of hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches at Lone Pine.
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A narrow escape at Lone Pine
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This eyewitness account by a Gallipoli veteran describes how Australian officer Major Leslie Morshead was almost killed by a Turkish ‘broomstick’ bomb in the trenches at Lone Pine in early August 1915.
Morshead later became one of Australia’s best-known military leaders in the Second World War. As Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead he led the Australian 9th Division through North Africa, becoming known as the ‘defender of Tobruk’, and then went on to fight in New Guinea and Borneo.
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War Fever
Audio
At the outbreak of the war, a commonly expressed concern was the need to enlist quickly in case the fighting ended before New Zealand forces could take part in what was widely imagined to be a great adventure. On August 8 1914, just four days after war was declared, the Evening Post newspaper reported that nearly 600 men in Wellington City had already volunteered for war service. George Davies was a schoolboy growing up in the working class Wellington suburb of Newtown. He recalls the enthusiasm to enlist among the men he knew.
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From Queen Street to the front
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Although the details are uncertain, this brief film clip shows the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment marching down Queen Street on 22 September 1914, after a civic farewell at the Auckland Domain. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that “[f]lags were waved, and lusty cheers were given as the troops passed”. These scenes were later included in the 1928 Australian film The Exploits of the Emden. The original footage, like much film from that era, is now long lost.
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Dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere
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In late 1914 the New Zealand and Australian forces were diverted from their original destination of England to Egypt. There they combined to form the ANZAC Corps that would eventually fight in the Gallipoli campaign. This film shows an activity that became a routine part of soldiers’ life - the troop inspection.
As well as the blazing Egyptian heat, the ANZAC troops had another menace to contend with – dust. Herbert Hart wrote in his diary “[t]he sand is worked into such fine dust near camp, that it now flies everywhere whenever the troops move over it. We had dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere, it fell from our puggarees [cloth wrapped around the regulation sun helmets], pouches, pockets, putties [long cloth strips wrapped around the calves] or from all our clothes.”
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The Anzac convoy departs from Albany
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The Main Body of the NZ Expeditionary Force steamed off from Wellington on 16 October 1914. The convoy consisted of 10 transport ships and four escorts, carrying 8000 soldiers and nearly 4000 horses. They arrived in Albany on 28 October to join up with 28 Australian Imperial Force troopships. The combined Anzac fleet of 38 troopships and escorts, carrying 30,000 soldiers and 7,500 horses, departed Albany on 1 November.
This film shows soldiers of the Auckland Infantry Battalion ready to embark on Albany Wharf, and the line of grey-painted New Zealand troopships waiting to follow the Australian convoy ships (which retained their civilian colours). This vast fleet took soldiers from Australia and New Zealand halfway around the world to participate in the First World War.
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Auckland Cup, 1912
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In 1912 Ellerslie was still a young suburb of Auckland, with a population of only around a thousand. It was also the home of the racecourse, and people streamed in from all over the city to watch the Auckland Cup, then New Zealand’s richest horse race. This film shows the Australian horse Bobrikoff taking the 1912 Cup.
With few private cars, and public transport still in its infancy, most of these punters would have arrived by train. Horse-racing was for many years one of the most popular forms of entertainment in New Zealand. The First World War did not interrupt the running of the Auckland Cup, although there would have been significantly fewer men at race meetings during 1914-1918.
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Fashion on the field, 1912
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“To-day is Taranaki Cup day – the sportsman’s day in Taranaki – and from near and far worshippers at the shrine of Pegasus will do pilgrimage to the local racecourse to lay their offerings on the altar of sport.” (Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1912)
By 1912 signs of militarism in New Zealand - like compulsory military training, and the commissioning of the battleship HMS New Zealand - were increasing. In the rural province of Taranaki, however, the threat of war seemed a million miles away as crowds assembled for the Taranaki Cup horse race. They are seen here dressed in their finest, parading on the lawn, meeting and greeting, seeing and being seen. These scenes were quickly processed and screened at the local Empire Picture Palace, “the home of intellectual refinement”, the very next day.
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“What about a drop of water, Digger?”
Audio
Water shortages were a constant problem for the thousands of men based at Gallipoli in 1915. Natural water was scarce on the peninsula and attempts to solve the problem by using water condenser units to convert sea water for drinking proved inadequate. Water supplies, often from as far away as Egypt, had to be brought in by boat and landed on the beach, sometimes under fire. Then the various containers had to be dragged over the rugged landscape to the thirsty men in their trenches.
The unidentified New Zealand veteran in this interview recalls how the mateship between Kiwis and Australians meant they sometimes gave each other preferential treatment with water rations.
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The Daisy Patch
Audio
Joseph Gasparich was a gumdigger and school teacher before he joined the Auckland Infantry Battalion. In May 1915 he was serving with the combined Australian and New Zealand forces at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli. General Sir Ian Hamilton decided to try and break through to the south of the Gallipoli peninsula, and New Zealand and Australian infantrymen were sent to Cape Helles by ferry. On 8 May the New Zealanders launched a series of attacks across an open field of poppies and daisies. In 1968 Joe Gasparich recorded his memories of the unsuccessful attacks in the Daisy Patch. “It was absolute murder – or suicide, whichever way you like to look at it.”
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Seasick men and horses
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Twenty-three-year-old Auckland telegraphist (signaller) Cyril Bassett sailed for the war in October 1914 with the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Cyril was on board the battleship Waimana, with the rank of orderly corporal. In this 1976 interview, he recalls that during the long sea voyage. his job was to clean up after seasick men and horses. However, in August 1915 Bassett won the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the Allied forces, for maintaining communication lines under fire during the Battle of Chunuk Bair.
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Penny trails and white feathers
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During WW1, those at home were encouraged to support the men at the front by donating money or goods to the war effort. Colin Franklin-Browne recalls watching fundraising parades and penny trails (lines of coins which the public were encouraged to add to) on Wellington’s streets in 1914-15. He also remembers the dark side of this patriotic fervor. Women’s patriotic groups sent white feathers, symbols of cowardice, to men who had not enlisted. The women targeted pacifists, men not yet in uniform and even those unable to enlist for medical reasons.
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The First Anzac at Gallipoli
Audio
Britain’s Royal Navy was in charge of landing the first Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. From their troop transport ships, the men were loaded into smaller boats which were towed as close to the beach as possible. The steam-powered ‘picket’ boats which towed them were commanded by teenage Navy midshipmen like 15-year-old Eric Bush, who was responsible for getting about 200 Anzacs ashore. Among the first Australians to land was Private James Bostock, who recalls how he jumped overboard and waded onto the beach at what would soon be known as Anzac Cove. Both men were recorded in 1955 for a BBC radio documentary marking the 40th anniversary of the landings.
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Australia’s submarine at Gallipoli
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In the early hours of 25 April 1915, Royal Australian Navy submarine the AE2 sailed up the narrow Dardanelles strait to disrupt Turkish supply ships. She faced strong currents, Turkish gun batteries on shore, and mines that had sunk two earlier submarines. Yet the AE2, commanded by Irish Lt. Commander Henry Stoker, successfully passed through the Narrows into the Sea of Marmara, making several attacks on Turkish shipping before she was hit by a torpedo boat. Stoker ordered his crew to evacuate and scuttled the vessel. He and his crew were taken prisoner for the rest of the war, and several died of illness in captivity. Forty years later, Henry Stoker recalled the nerve-wracking voyage.
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Treating Gallipoli’s wounded – Dr Agnes Bennett
Audio
The Australian-born and New Zealand-based doctor Agnes Bennett refused to let routine sexism keep her out of the war. She offered her services to the New Zealand Army as soon as war broke out but was turned down because she was a woman. Undeterred, she paid her own passage to Europe, intending to join the French Red Cross. In May 1915 she was sailing through the Red Sea when word reached the ship of the casualties arriving in Egypt from the Gallipoli campaign. She disembarked at the next opportunity and began working in the over-stretched military hospitals of Cairo, with the status and pay of an army captain. Dr Bennett recalls her wartime experiences in this recording, made in 1959.
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Swimming with Birdie at Gallipoli
Audio
As the weather warmed up on Gallipoli during the summer of 1915, new problems plagued the Australian and New Zealand forces. The increased heat worsened the men’s thirsts and a huge number of flies swarmed over the battlefield, due to the many unburied corpses and shallowly-dug latrines, or field toilets. A refreshing swim in the Mediterranean was the only relief, as New Zealander Bertie Cooksley recalls.
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Verdun Buns – a Red Cross cookbook
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Ena Ryan was born in the prosperous Wellington suburb of Kelburn in 1908. In this 1985 interview she leafs through a cookbook produced during the war as a fundraiser for the Red Cross. The recipes and advertisements reveal the social upheaval the war brought to communities back home, from florists advertising speedy service for last-minute weddings (before men departed overseas) to recipes for cooking for invalids. Some recipes were contributed by the public, and Ena is appalled that one woman named her recipe ‘Verdun buns’, after the horrifingly destructive 1916 Battle of Verdun.
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A.I.F Parade and Departure
Video
In the first months after Australia entered the war, the public mood was wildly enthusiastic and patriotic. That mood is evident in this clip, showing cheering crowds gathered to support a military parade as AIF troops depart on the troopship A2 Geelong. The ship can be briefly glimpsed departing at the end of this film.
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Expert rough-riders – Australian Light Horse
Video
By 1914 Australian horsemen had proved themselves as expert rough-riders and good shots in wartime. Untrained colonial cavalry had distinguished themselves in the Boer War, and Australia had 23 regiments of volunteer cavalry at the outbreak of WW1. Many men from these regiments joined the Light Horse Regiments of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Some are seen here in training with their horses, and in a military parade. Troops are also shown departing on the troopship A2 Geelong, farewelled by a huge crowd as the ship leaves the dock.
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Heroes of Gallipoli
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Heroes of Gallipoli contains the only known filmed scenes of the Allied involvement in the Gallipoli Campaign. It is an edited version of an earlier film, With the Dardanelles Expedition. This is amateur film, shot under the most trying conditions, yet it provides unique footage of Gallipoli and some of the most vivid frontline images of the First World War.
Heroes of Gallipoli was deliberately edited to tell a story of Australian military achievement. However, the film footage also tells a story of British and New Zealand action that the intertitles never mention.
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The fleet's afloat
Audio
Prior to radio, songs were largely heard performed in music halls. People would then visit music shops to purchase the sheet music of tunes they liked. Many homes had a piano, and at least one member of the family knew how to play it, providing a common form of entertainment and socialization. Music shop owners would often employ a pianist to perform during business hours so customers could hear the sheet music played live. If a song was particularly popular, it would then be recorded by professional musicians.
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Today the German monster threatens the world
Video
This cartoon begins with a caption that reads, ‘the German monster threatens the world with bloodshed, slavery and death’. An animated King Kong-like monster wreaks havoc on the world, destroying villages, women and children. At the end of the clip, an intertitle says ‘your help is needed and needed now’, accompanied by an illustration of a soldier to encourage young men to enlist in the armed forces.
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Distraction from the war – a day at the beach
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This brief clip from around 1914 is one of few surviving film records of Australian beach scenes from this period. Beachgoers of both sexes are seen strolling along the sand of an unidentified beach in their Sunday best. A small group playing in the shallows is all male since ‘open bathing’ (swimming outdoors) was still considered somewhat improper at this time. A glimpse of a lone skiff indicates that Australians were quick to embrace all aquatic sports, not just swimming.
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New furs from Georges
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While a bitter war raged on the other side of the world, some wealthy Melbourne residents carried on with their lives just as usual. This 1915 newsreel item shows women modelling expensive fur coats, stoles, muffs and hats for Georges Department Store in Collins Street, Melbourne. Georges was a 'favoured spot with most of the smartest people in Melbourne'. The furs shown here would have been beyond the reach of most Melbourne residents at that time. As the war progressed, public condemnation of excessive or wasteful fashion became more prominent in the press.
Originally silent, this footage has had the 1911 song Every Girl is a Fisher Girl added.
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Clowns and kids raise funds for war effort
Video
Clowns boxing and performing ‘pratfalls’, children singing, dancing and marching in formation – this was the crowd-pleasing entertainment at a Red Cross fundraiser at Bondi Junction, Sydney in 1915. The Australian Red Cross had been formed just a year earlier, at the outbreak of the war. It concentrated on raising funds to support the war effort by organising public events such as the ‘fete’, or festival, seen here. This newsreel clip was originally silent and a popular brass band tune of the period, The Gippsland March, has been added to the soundtrack.
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'When the war is over, mother dear'
Audio
Though your heart is aching, mother dear
For your soldier boy never fear
I’ll come back some day, and kiss your tears away
When the war is over, mother dearIn this somewhat maudlin song, written and recorded in England in 1915, a soldier laments being far away from home and from his mother, and promises to return to her.
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The landing of the Australian troops in Egypt
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This commercial sound recording includes what might be the first recorded version of 'Advance Australia Fair', the song that became Australia's national anthem. In music and drama, this production recreates the 1914 arrival of the Australian troops in Egypt, before their departure for Gallipoli. It may have been aimed at giving those on the home front a sense of the soldiers’ lives. The recording is very celebratory and full of pride at the role Australia was playing in the Great War.
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'If England wants a hand, well, here it is'
Audio
Comes a message o’er the ocean
A message to our sunny land
England calls Australia’s soldiers
We must answer her command
If England wants a hand, well, here it is…The lyrics of this rousing, patriotic ballad were written by one of Australia’s most popular vaudeville (music hall) performers, with music by a noted Sydney songwriter. 'If England Wants a Hand, Well, Here It Is' was used on the soundtrack of the 1981 Australian feature film Gallipoli.
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Boys of the Dardanelles
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Boys of the Dardanelles
They faced the shot and the shells
Down in hist'ry their fame will goThe patriotic ballad ‘ Boys of the Dardanelles ', composed by Australian writer and singer Marsh Little, was particularly effective for encouraging recruitment. This version was performed by the prolific English singer and recording artist Stanley Kirkby.
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Australia will be there
Audio
Of all the patriotic songs of WW1, 'Australia Will Be There' is probably the one best known to Australians. It became the marching song of the Australian Expeditionary Forces and was used to rally the troops as they marched away from home. 'Australia Will Be There' was written in 1915 by Walter ‘Skipper’ Francis. The song quotes from ‘ Auld Lang Syne’ in its chorus and is often given its longer title, 'For Auld Land Syne - Australia Will Be There '.
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Society Wedding, c.1914
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This rare example of amateur or home movie footage provides a glimpse of a society wedding about 1914, probably in an eastern suburb of Sydney. It shows guests arriving by car and horse-drawn vehicles at the church, followed by the wedding party. The bride and groom are seen leaving the church and being showered with rose petals before posing for photographs at the reception.
No record survives of this film’s source, subjects or locale.
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Fundraising for the war effort, Sydney
Video
Various wartime fundraising and recruitment activities are seen in this film from about 1916, shot from outside the General Post Office in Martin Place, Sydney, after rain. In pavilion-style tent stalls, Red Cross workers sell ribbons, flowers and other produce. The top-hatted Governor of NSW, Sir Gerald Strickland, walks among the crowds. Many AIF troops are shown in this clip, their humour in evidence in a shot of a young male civilian being ‘accosted’ and compelled to enlist, while others pretend to take his measurements for a uniform.
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Sailing into war, 1914
Video
For many Anzac soldiers, their outward voyage on a troopship was their first overseas experience. The excitement of departure was soon replaced by seasickness on one of the world’s roughest seas. On the long voyage to Egypt they took part in leisure activities and routine training exercises like those shown here. Officers organised physical training programmes, inoculations, lectures and target practice sessions to keep the troops occupied.
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Joining the Flotilla, 1914
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At the outbreak of war in August 1914, dozens of vessels were hastily converted into troopships to transport military units to their destinations overseas. This film shows newly recruited AIF troops boarding troopships at Woolloomooloo (Sydney, NSW) and Port Melbourne (Melbourne, Vic.) Their ships then joined the flotilla at King George Sound (Albany, WA), the final Australian anchorage for the first convoy of almost 30,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers heading to Egypt.
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Cockatoo Island
Video
Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour had the largest shipping dock of its kind in the world when this film was made there in 1916. It shows the building HMAS Brisbane, and its launch on 30 September 1915. Margaret Fisher, wife of then-Prime Minister Andrew Fisher breaks a bottle of champagne over the ship’s bow before it slides down the slipway into the harbour.
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‘Australia Prepared’- the Royal Australian Navy
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“Since Captain Cook’s arrival, no more memorable event has happened than the advent of the Australian Fleet”, claimed Australian Defence Minister Edward Millen. The Australian Fleet Unit - eight cruisers and destroyers headed by HMAS Australia - assembled in Sydney Harbour for the first time on 4 October 1913. This extract from a 1916 documentary shows that event, plus later scenes of the light cruiser Sydney, probably taken in Albany WA in 1914. Captain Glossop is seen taking command of the Sydney, and RAN sailors board small boats, probably at Man-o-War steps, to go on board her.
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“The Rushin’ Bear and the Flying Turk”
Video
Australian sketch artist and caricaturist Harry Julius often ridiculed the enemy by using the techniques of political cartoonists. In this episode of his weekly Cartoons of the Moment, ironically captioned The German Dove of Peace, an eagle represents Germany. His second sketch deals provocatively with contemporary fashion trends, while the third refers to the ‘Rushin’ Bear’ and the ‘Flying Turk’ to show the capture of the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum by Russian forces in February 1916.
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The war cameraman
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British journalist Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, on the right in this clip, was the lead cameraman for the 1915 film ‘With the Dardanelles Expedition’. With no film-making experience, but assisted by official Royal Navy photographer Ernest Brooks, Ashmead-Bartlett filmed British forces at Cape Helles and Anzacs in the area around Anzac Cove. From July to September 1915 he captured some of the most vivid combat footage of the First World War. In 1916 Ashmead-Bartlett gave lectures in the UK and Australia on his wartime experiences. This clip, from the weekly ‘Australian Gazette’ newsreel, shows him with an unidentified companion during his Australian lecture tour.
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Distraction from the war - Coogee Beach
Video
Scenes of surf, sun and swimming at Coogee Beach, Sydney, played upon the sea as a place of recreation in stark contrast to the suffering at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. This film clip from 1915 shows the local surf lifesaving club practising with a surf reel. The foreshore is teeming with swimmers and sunbathers, as well as a good number of beach visitors dressed to the nines and content to promenade.
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“Play the Greater Game”
Video
This 1915 Australian Government recruitment film uses slogans such as 'Play the Greater Game' to urge men to join the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Later propaganda films were less subtle in their efforts, and used persuasion, fear, guilt, confrontation, accusation, or scenes of heroic action on the battlefields to influence eligible men to enlist. The films omitted any reference to the harsh realities of military life or the threat of death or injury for Australian troops abroad.
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Australian artillery on the Salonika Front
Video
The camera operator is unusually close to the artillery action in this British-made newsreel. It shows an Australian gun crew operating their weapon gun beneath a canvas shelter in the Greek port town of Salonika (now Thessaloniki). Opposing them are Bulgarian forces who, together with Germans, had forced the Serbian Army from the port. This Australian artillery crew seems comparatively relaxed in comparison to the usual grim scenes of battlefront action from this period.
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The turkey, the eagle, the lion and the dove
Video
'The War Zoo' is the original title of this animated cartoon by the renowned Australian caricaturist Harry Julius. The miserable fez-wearing turkey represents the battered Turkish forces. The ferocious German eagle is approached by the ‘dove of peace’ and the British lion, ‘still the king of all’. Cartoons like this one, screened about 1915, were a direct and light-hearted form of war news and propaganda for the public at home.
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Comforts for the troops
Video
Throughout the war Federal Government House, the magnificent Melbourne residence of Australia’s Governor-General, was a central depot for Red Cross supplies for Australian troops serving overseas. Medical supplies and clothing, and small luxuries such as soap, tobacco and fruitcakes (known as ‘comforts’) were donated by the women of Victoria and delivered to Government House. Its ballroom became a warehouse and factory where goods were received, made, checked and despatched by volunteers, and the stables were converted into a workshop for making furniture and crutches. This silent film clip shows the first shipment of Red Cross supplies being loaded on to motorised and horse-drawn vehicles and leaving Government House for despatch to Australian soldiers in Egypt.
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Departure of Reinforcements for the Front
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Troops (seen from dock) wave from ship prior to departure. Numerous civilians hold streamers connected with occupants of ship, while other civilians wave handkerchiefs as the ship leaves the wharf. The HMAT A20 Hororata weighed 9,400 tons with an average cruise speed of 14 knots or 25.92 kmph. It was owned by the New Zealand Shipping Co Ltd, London, and leased by the Commonwealth until 11 September 1917.
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A troopship departs for Albany, 1914
Video
When Australia entered the First World War in support of Britain, ships were urgently needed to transport troops to the distant battlefields. The hastily refitted ships also had to carry the troops’ horses and military stores, plus wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for the armies of Britain and France. This film shows the loading and departure of troops HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) A20 Hororata from Port Melbourne, Victoria on 18 October 1914. Troops move up the gangplanks of the transport ship. A tug then tows the Hororata out of port and it joins other ships in the convoy to head out to sea.
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The naming of the capital
Video
Australia’s federal capital was purpose-built from 1909, since neither Sydney nor Melbourne would agree to the other city becoming the capital. The new capital was named ‘Canberra’, apparently from the name of the indigenous people of the area. The capital’s name was kept a secret until it was read out by the Governor-General’s wife, Lady Gertrude Denman.
This film shows the ceremony on 12 March 1913 when the new-born federal capital was formally named. Governor-General Lord Denman and PM Andrew Fisher are seen proceeding to the saluting base where the Australian Light Horse, field battery and lance regiments and Royal Cadets are lined up for inspection. Many of the men in this footage would not return from Gallipoli, the Western Front and other battlefields.
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‘Worst comes to wurst’
Video
A German soldier’s horse is turned into German sausage (or ‘wurst’) in the first sketch in this weekly episode of Harry Julius’ Cartoons of the Moment. Next, a battered fez-wearing turkey represents the beleaguered Turkish forces. In the third sketch of this clip, Kaiser Wilhelm II – the Crown Prince of Germany – is caricatured with human skulls adorning his uniform to emphasise the enormous loss of life suffered by German troops.
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Sheep dogs & medieval knights, Australian Gazette
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From a sheepdog trial to a costume parade in support of the French Red Cross – the weekly Australian Gazette newsreel captured a slice of Australian life through the war years.
This example from mid-1915 starts with a sheepdog trial at a showground, followed by shots of the British barque Inverness-Shire, dismasted by wild weather off the coast of Tasmania. The third segment (unfortunately damaged by deterioration of the nitrate film) records a parade heading down Collins St in Melbourne in aid of the French Red Cross. The clip ends with the mammoth funeral procession in Sydney for the great Australian batsman Victor Trumper.
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The Lynch Family Bellringers
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The Lynch Family, Harry Lynch and his four sons, toured Australia’s regional areas for several decades with their hand bell-ringing show. Gradually singers, dancers and comedians, including visiting European performers, were incorporated into the show. This poster advertises a 1914 tour featuring the novel attractions of the Glassophone and Aluminum Organ Chimes.
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The exploits of the Emden
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The German battle cruiser Emden opened fire on the Australian cruiser Sydney off the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean on November 9, 1914. The Sydney was then escorting the first convoy of Australian and New Zealand troops to the front. With her more powerful guns, the Sydney damaged the German vessel and drove ashore. This naval battle was recorded in a 1928 film, The Exploits of the Emden, based on an earlier German production. These extracts show New Zealand and Australian troops preparing to join the troop convoy in their own countries.
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‘Australia prepared’ – making ammunition
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‘The Amazing Micrometer’, a machine measuring to one 40,000th of an inch, is one star of this 1916 film, made at Australia’s Colonial Ammunition Company. Many of the factory’s workers are women, symbolising a community united in the war effort and highlighting women’s vital contributions on the home front. They are seen making .303 cartridges, packing them in cases, and filling a soldier’s bandolier (ammunition belt). This is an extract from an hour-long documentary showing how Australia ‘made and equipped the expeditionary forces’ to contribute to the Allied cause during the Great War.
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A rickshaw ride in Durban
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Two Australian soldiers riding in a rickshaw pulled by a local man in Durban, South Africa, is taken from a B&W glass slide. Durban was an important port during WWI as troopships from Australia and New Zealand sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. From 1916 this was a safer route than the Suez Canal as there was a risk of a submarine attack in the Mediterranean. Soldiers disembarked in Durban and the troopships resupplied the journey took up to eight weeks to and from Australia.
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Soldier’s souvenir view of Egypt
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This image (B&W glass slide) was probably taken by an Australian soldier during a break from a route (training) march. Australian troops relax under the shade of trees in Egypt. Many images taken by soldiers serving overseas in the war show more famous tourist scenes such as men seated on camels, the pyramids, the Sphinx, or in a building or busy city street. Yet this shot still gives a feel of the tourist abroad, in the relaxed lounging poses struck by many of the subjects.
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Unloading barges, Anzac Cove
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This scene of soldiers unloading barges at what became known as Anzac Cove captures one moment in the landing and subsequent eight-month campaign at Gallipoli. The soldiers’ routine activity does little to indicate the heavy casualties incurred or the physical hardships endured. Turkish gunners had a good fix on Anzac Cove and many men were killed and badly wounded in the beach area or by the water.
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At Anzac Cove
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This hand-coloured glass slide shows British soldiers near a dugout at ANZAC Cove. The scene appears calm, with the men in small, groups close to sandbagged dugouts and tents. The barges remind us that supplies were always a concern, as they had to be shipped in. Despite the superficial calmness of a blue and grey tinted sea and sky, the Allied forces had to struggle with a rough terrain, establishing shelter and supply lines on rugged cliffs and narrow unprotected beaches.
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Washing the horses, Suvla Bay
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With the Gallipoli campaign at deadlock, a smaller Allied force, including Australians and New Zealanders, made an amphibious landing at Suvla Bay on the Aegean Sea to relieve pressure on the main force. Many horses accompanied the landing parties, providing vital transport for men and material. This photograph shows men washing their horses in advance of the Suvla attack, with mules, tents and other equipment in the background.
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Farewelling troops in Wellington
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This rare film records a civic ceremony for New Zealand troops departing for the front. It shows the official farewell to the Wellington Section of the NZ Expeditionary Force on 24 September 1914. The troops are inspected by a group of dignitaries, including Prime Minister William Massey, Lord Liverpool the Governor-General and Major General Sir Alexander Godley. They then march four abreast down Adelaide Road and along Lambton Quay, Wellington’s main shopping street. The men of the NZEF are then seen crammed on board the deck and high up on the rigging of a troopship. Most have happy faces as they await what they expected would be a grand adventure. Contrast this with the more subdued figures of the 6th Reinforcement who appear at the end of the film. They are seen departing for the front in August 1915, when the horrors of the Gallipoli Campaign had become widely known.