Curtin, Darwin bombed and American troops arrive
1. Extract from Cinesound Review No. 0528. War in the Pacific (1941)
John Curtin asks all Australians to commit themselves to the task of keeping Australia free.
After Singapore fell to the Japanese Army in February 1942, the focus of the Pacific War moved closer to Australia. Japanese forces bombed Darwin and launched an attack to try to capture the capital city of Papua, Port Moresby.
NFSA: 49746 Newsreel courtesy Cinesound Movietone Productions, NFSA
2. Extract from Cavalcade of Australia: 1901–1951 (1951)
Scenes from a documentary which uses archival film to highlight and illustrate the main events that occurred in the history of Australia in the fifty years following Federation. On the celebration of Australia's Jubilee as a Commonwealth, Australian film production organisations, both governmental and commercial, made archival material from their libraries available for this film.
Film Australia Collection NFSA: 1396113 Documentary courtesy National Film and Sound Archive
Activities
1. What does this short film clip show? Summarise what you see and hear.
2. Does the film appear to have a main purpose or message? If so, what do you think it is?
3. Who made the film clip and when was it made? Use this information to try to work out why the film was made. Does this change what you think about the purpose of the film?
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