First Australian Film - The Melbourne Cup (1896) Pt1 The Crowd Milling Pre-Race

This is the first film made in Australia - it's of the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse in 1896.

This first part shows the crowd milling abut before the race.

Though the camera is fixed, the ? does not seem static as the crowd have obviously been asked to move around and behind the camera

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• First Australian Film
• old Australian footage
• The Melbourne Cup
• 1896

[Boobdepot1977]

Watch the top hatted bloke put a shoulder into the guy's back at 0:16 without even a "pardon me sir". So much for polite Victorian times! Try getting away with that in 100 years time, mate.

[nickwallacesmith]

hey Boobdepot1977 - yep so many myths about the victorian era - another that people were sexually repressed - just did it less overtly

[nickwallacesmith]

hey Blenhemshots

yes a bygone era we're just a little in touch with through stories told grandparents by the previous generation - my grandmother took a flight in 1920 and kept the ticket - she said cows looked like mice and cars like beetles!

i like this footage cos of the passing parade - not people all stiffly lined up to be filmed, but going about their business of attending a race day

good to hear from you, nick

[nickwallacesmith]

hi AusRadioHistorian

thanks for the corrections - i try to cover so many areas here that i'm obviously an expert in none, almost

and thanks for the references - very nice of you to take the trouble to send them - and i'll be interested in following them up

curious our film industry began with a tragedy

best

nick

[nickwallacesmith]

hi PIPZZZ02

good to hear from you

it does seem from a magical bygone ago of elegance - and i don't think this is just romanticizing the past

glad you enjoyed the post

best

nick

[James03300330]

Where can i view the VRC Derby footage though?

Cheers

[Blenhemshots]

A window into another world - no aircraft, no radio, no Australian central government, Queen Victoria still on the throne!

The camera could not have been that noticeable as the vast majority of people in shot ignore it.

Like the way some are engrossed in conversation - if they had only known that people in the 21st century would be watching them.

[AusRadioHistorian]

This is NOT the first film made in Australia - not even the earliest Australian film surviving. Two films of the 1896 VRC Derby were shot by Sestier three days earlier, and one of them was released in the NFSA's video compile "Federation Films" in 1990. For full details refer: "Cinema Papers" No 93, Melbourne, May 1993, pps 34 - 41; and ibid., August 1993, pps 34 -39 & p 62. The first Australian film was of passengers alighting the ferry at Manly, 25 October 1896 - unfortunately not surviving.

[PIPZZZ02]

Put this footage next to shots of present-day crowds at race meetings and ask what became of all that beauty and elegance.

It's like a dream.

Thanks Nick.