''The Birth of White Australia'' is a 1928 Australian

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

directed by Phil K. Walsh. It is an historical drama about the settlement of white Australia, including scenes of

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

's landing at

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

, skirmishes with

Australian Aborigines Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isla ...

and the

Lambing Flat riots The Lambing Flat riots were a series of violent anti- Chinese demonstrations that took place in the Burrangong region, in New South Wales, Australia. They occurred on the goldfields at Spring Creek, Stoney Creek, Back Creek, Wombat, Blackgu ...

. This was Australia's last silent feature film, thanks to the advent of "talkies".

Plot

The film moves back and forth in time. It covers Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay, clashes with Australian aborigines, and the discovery of gold. The main plot concerns the

, which is depicted as partly being caused by the Chinese attempting to murder a white girl after she criticises them for washing their clothes in the drinking water. The film ends with the introduction of legislation restricting Chinese immigration.

Cast

*Bert Trawley as John Davis *Dot McConville as Mary Davis *Rita Aslin as Miss Dinah Myte *Alice Layton as Madame Sefton *Frank Hardingham as Tom Kendrick *Pietro Sosso as Portuguese Dick *Gamboola, "last of the Lachlan River chieftains" Aboriginal actors from Yass and

Batemans Bay Batemans Bay is a town on the South Coast region of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Batemans Bay is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire council. The town is situated on the shores of an estuary formed where the Clyde River meets th ...

appeared in the opening scenes depicting life before colonization. The leading man, has been named as Lionel Henry, and the leading lady, Miss O'Brien, "a Sydney girl". Dot McConville, a resident of Leeton, was well-known as a champion horsewoman. Scenes of cattle mustering were shot at "Eubindal" station,

Binalong Binalong (Bine-a-long) is a village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, 37 km north-west of Yass in Yass Valley Shire. At the , Binalong and the surrounding area had a population of 543. History Original inhabit ...

with many citizens of the Yass district taking part, notably E. de Mestre of Binalong, Jack Garry and P. Garry, of "Glengarry", Frank Bennett of "Mylora," and C. Cunningham, of "The Lagoon". J. T. O'Neill, Mollie Donoghue and Rita Aslin are cited as taking part. Sarah Musgrave, a 96 year-old pioneer of the Young district, also featured in the film. There is also an appearance by Billy Hughes and other dignitaries, seen in the section depicting the opening of Federal Parliament.

Production

The film was entirely financed by the townspeople of

Young, New South Wales Young is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and the largest town in the Hilltops Region. The "Lambing Flat" Post Office opened on 1 March 1861 and was renamed "Young" in 1863. Young is marketed as the Cherry Ca ...

. Walsh formed the production company in February 1927 and raised capital of £5,000 of which £3,000 was allocated to the film. Most of the investors were local farmers. Shooting began in September 1927, with most of the cast coming from Young. Chinese were played by whites wearing stockings over their faces.

Reception

The film had its premiere at the Young "Strand Theatre" in September 1928, and despite full houses over three nights was shown nowhere else and is believed to have lost its investors money. Dominion Films went into liquidation in 1931, and all footage associated with its production was offered for sale by tender. Walsh did not attempt another movie. The complete original film was recovered in 1965 from where it had been stored in the Young Town Hall. Modern critics have compared its production and acting unfavourably to ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...

'' of a decade earlier, whose tone is similarly deprecated. It was shown in its entirety in October 1993 at the Pordenone silent movie festival in a screening run in partnership with the Australian National Film and Sound Archive and the

New Zealand Film Archive The New Zealand Film Archive was established in 1981. On 1 August 2014 the archive was amalgamated with Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero and the Television New Zealand Archive to form Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. 2009 lost film recovery In earl ...

. The film, which ran to 90 minutes, created a distinctly disturbed reaction from filmgoers, presumably discomfited by its unashamedly racist theme.

References

External links

*
''The Birth of White Australia''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

''The Birth of White Australia''
at Oz Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Birth of White Australia, The 1920s historical drama films 1928 drama films 1928 films Australian black-and-white films Australia–China relations Australian historical drama films Australian silent feature films Far-right politics in Australia Films set in New South Wales Films set in the 18th century Films set in the 1760s Films set in the 19th century Films set in the 1860s Young, New South Wales Silent drama films 1920s English-language films