Australian Memory of the World Program

Australia

The Edward (Ned) Kelly and Related Papers as found in the Public Record Office Victoria

University of Western Australia Ronald M. Berndt Collection of Crayon Drawings on Brown Paper from Yirrkala, Northern Territory

Australian Children's Folklore Collection

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Contents

Introduction
Register of Lost and Missing Documentary Heritage
Form to suggest items to be included on the Register
Articles on the project
Reports about the project

Introduction

The Australian Memory of the World Register of Lost and Missing Documentary Heritage is a preliminary list of Australia's significant documentary heritage that is missing or thought to be lost. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are advised that the Register may include the names and images of Indigenous Australians, some of whom are now deceased.

The Australian Memory of the World Register of Lost and Missing Documentary Heritage complements the Australian Memory of the World Register of Documentary Heritage. Both Registers are compiled using the same selection criteria, which may be usefully consulted by prospective nominees preparing nominations. Ideas, comments, and suggestions about these preliminary entries and recommended additional entries are very welcome. They should be sent to:

Professor Ross Harvey
Telephone: +61 02 6933 2369
Email: rossharvey@csu.edu.au, or

Anne Lloyd
Telephone: +61 02 6933 2468
Email: anlloyd@csu.edu.au

Any overall comments on this project or Register?

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Survey Form to nominate items to the Register

Ross Harvey, Anne Lloyd and Damian Lodge from Charles Sturt University are conducting a survey to identify Australia's Lost and Missing Documentary Heritage. Click here to complete the survey form.

If you require it, the Adobe^® Acrobat^® reader can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html.

Articles on the project

Harvey, Ross. "UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme and Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage." Australian Library Journal 52, no. 2 (May 2003). Available from http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/alj/52.2/full.text/harvey.html.

Harvey, Ross, and Anne Lloyd. "Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage." Incite 24, (June 2003). Available from: http://alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2003/06/documentary.heritage.html.

Reports about the project

2003 - April: Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage, a status report by Ross Harvey

2003 - August: Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage, a status report by Ross Harvey

2003 - December: Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage, a status report by Ross Harvey

2004 - April: Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage, a status report by Ross Harvey, Anne LLoyd and Damian Lodge

2004 - August: Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage, a status report by Ross Harvey, Anne LLoyd and Damian Lodge

2004 - December: Australia's lost and missing documentary heritage, a status report by Ross Harvey, Anne LLoyd and Damian Lodge

Preliminary Register

001

Title

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906).

Format

Motion picture film(s)

Commentary

Silent film. Exists only in fragments totalling 4 minutes 48 seconds, from an original 75 minutes.

Year of registration

2003

Last known location

Last known date

1906

Significance / provenance

This was possibly the first feature film in the world, and is also notable as the progenitor of the bushranger genre, still being produced (most recently Ned Kelly released in 2003). (See Pike & Cooper 1998, pp. 5-7; Edmondson and Pike 1982.)

Reference(s)

Edmondson, R. & Pike, A. (1982). Australia?s lost films. Canberra: National Library of Australia.

Pike, A. & Cooper, R. (1998) Australian Film 1900-1977: A Guide to Feature Film Productions 1900-1977. Rev. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

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002

Title

Fiction films made in Australia in up to 1912.

Format

Motion picture film(s)

Commentary

Most of these were ?feature? films, over 3,000 feet in length. Over three quarters of these films have been lost (see the table below).

Year of registration

2003

Last known location

Table: Australian Feature Films Produced 1900-1930 (source: Pike & Cooper 1998)

Year	*(complete)	**(incomplete)	total held at ScreenSound	annual total produced
1900	-	-	-	1
1906	-	1	1	1
1907	-	1	1	2
1908	-	-	-	1
1910	-	1	1	4
1911	-	2	2	51
1912	-	1	1	30
1913	1	-	1	17
1914	-	1	1	4
1915	-	1	1	8
1916	-	4	4	16
1917	-	-	-	8
1918	1	3	4	18
1919	1	1	2	7
1920	6	-	6	10
1921	3	1	4	13
1922	-	2	2	7
1923	-	1	1	8
1924	-	2	2	9
1925	3	3	5	7
1926	3	4	7	14
1927	3	-	3	7
1928	6	5	11	14
1929	-	-	-	1
1930	1	-	1	3
Totals	27	34	61	261

Last known date

1900-1912

Significance / provenance

These films represent ?perhaps the most local or ?Australian? phase of the industry?s history. In those years, filmmakers worked in direct response to their Australian audience, without much reliance on American or European models? (Edmondson and Pike 1982. p. 13). The loss of over three quarters of these films ?is not merely the loss of local popular culture from the 1910s and 1920s, of interest only to historians and antiquarians, but also could well be the loss of more mature works of art of more general value? (Edmondson and Pike 1982. p. 21). In the international context, while The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) may have been the first feature film in the world (Edmondson & Pike 1982, p. 9), much more significant is the fact that it was the first example in Australia of what became the regular production of long narrative films (4,000 feet or more) up to 1912. This output predated the regular appearance of such films in other countries, ?especially Britain and the U.S.A. In Britain, for example, the longest film made in 1911 was 2500 feet; in Australia in the same year at least twenty films were over 4000 feet? (Pike & Cooper 1998, p. 2).

Reference(s)

Edmondson, R. & Pike, A. (1982). Australia?s lost films. Canberra: National Library of Australia.

Pike, A. & Cooper, R. (1998) Australian Film 1900-1977: A Guide to Feature Film Productions 1900-1977. Rev. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

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003

Title

Soldiers of the Cross

Format

Multi-media performance

Commentary

Soldiers of the Cross, a multi-media evangelical performance. Although most of the slides have survived, none of the film is known to exist. (See Edmondson and Pike 1982, p. 13; Pike & Cooper 1998, pp. 4-5.)

Year of registration

2003

Last known location

Last known date

1896

Significance / provenance

While we do not know with any certainty what the first fiction film made in Australia was, we know that by 1900 brief segments of film were being used as part of Soldiers of the Cross, a multi-media evangelical performance (Edmondson and Pike 1982, p. 13; Pike & Cooper 1998, pp. 4-5).

Reference(s)

Edmondson, R. & Pike, A. (1982). Australia?s lost films. Canberra: National Library of Australia.

Pike, A. & Cooper, R. (1998) Australian Film 1900-1977: A Guide to Feature Film Productions 1900-1977. Rev. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

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004

Title

Australia House photograph collection

Format

Photograph(s)

Commentary

Year of registration

2003

Last known location

Australia House, London

Last known date

1922-1939

Significance / provenance

This collection is significant because of its role in representing Australia to England and North America. It played an important role in encouraging potential migrants to choose Australia rather than South Africa or Canada.

Reference(s)

Sassoon, Joanna (2000). Chasing Phantoms in the Archives: the Australia House Collection, Archivaria, 50: pp. 117-124.

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