- Date:
- 19uu
- Main contributors:
- Richard Leslie Gair (1892-1970)
- Summary:
- Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should note that this film may contain images of deceased persons. This home movie contains material mainly from three visits the Gair family made in Australia to Mildura and the Murray Valley in the State of Victoria in 1940, and central Australia in 1950 and possibly 1957 to the State of South Australia and the Northern Territory, especially central Australia. It contains sequences of travel with a prominent Australian tour company, Bonds Tours, utilizing an elongated, rugged car for travel. There is significant footage from Mt. Buffalo National Park in Victoria and Alice Springs and the West MacDonnell National Park in the Northern Territory. Notable locations within Mt. Buffalo National Park include wonderful shots of Pulpit Rock and Wilkinson’s Lookout, Lake Catani, the Leviathan, Manfield’s Lookout, Bent’s Lookout, and Reed’s Lookout. Shots in South Australia include Parachilna Gorge and the Flinders Ranges, with a stop at the Ancorichina Hostel nearby, as well as William Creek. A wonderful sequence of camera tilts reveals the various Kodak posters for Mt. Buffalo National Park. In the Northern Territory locations include Alice Springs (known locally as “The Alice”), the Fink Gorge National Park and West MacDonnell National Park, and the Hermannsberg Lutheran mission, an Aboriginal mission in the Ljirapinta Ward of the MacDonnell Shire. A majority of the final segment includes many profile and group shots of Aboriginal people at a mission possibly sponsored by the “Australian Board of Missions, Church of England, Alice Springs,” which was printed on a nearby car. Footage consists of color film stock with particularly beautiful title cards inserted for many new locations and sites.
