[Ted Parsons Home Movies: Reel 4]

Ted Parsons was a keen amateur filmmaker of the 1940s to 1960s. Ted’s films feature life in and around the Victorian regional city of Wangaratta post-war. This was a period of prosperity and optimism largely due to a successful textile industry that took Wangaratta from a small country town to major rural city, declared in 1959.

Ted captures the many sporting and social events, venues and clubs, holidays and travel along with scenes of everyday life. The collection also shows the broader issues faced by country people such as the regular flooding events around the Ovens and King Rivers.

Wangaratta’s success story as a manufacturing town traces the path of post-war migration and the accompanying growth of Australia’s economy, which makes these films particularly interesting.

The Ted Parsons Home Movie Collection has been donated to ACMI by the filmmaker’s grandson Barry Parsons. The films have been made on 16mm film.

In this film, Ted captures a trip to Queensland and New South Wales. The film features scenes of holidaying in Queensland, touring around Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Coffs Harbour, before travelling down the East Coast from Sydney to Eden and Lakes Entrance. The film includes memorable scenes such as a show of aqua ballet and water ski stunts in Surfers Paradise, dolphins in the Pet Porpoise Pool in Coffs Harbour, historic buildings in Brisbane and fruit farms on the Sunshine Coast.

Of particular interest is Lennon’s Hotel in Broadbeach, which was one of the earliest hotels in Surfers Paradise. At the time, there were few buildings around and the hotel was surrounded by stretches of sand dunes and unsealed roads. It would become the site of the current ‘Oasis Shopping Centre’.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:04:00 title ‘Queensland Gold Coast 1961’ followed by a sequence where travel brochures are tossed over the title card for hotels and destinations including Brampton Island and Surfers Paradise
00:00:23:00 looking toward Lennon’s Hotel, a very colourful, modern 1960s style roadside hotel
00:00:50:00 sign ‘Welcome to Surfers Paradise’
00:00:55:00 scenes around the pool at the hotel including women sunbaking in bikinis
00:01:32:00 sign ‘KR Darling Downs Bacon’ above a shopping plaza
00:02:37:00 the bridge to Chevron Island in Queensland
00:02:54:00 sign in dry grassland for ‘Shopping Centre Here’
00:03:24:00 handpainted sign for ‘Water Ski Revue and Aqua Ballet’ in Surfers Paradise Gardens
00:03:48:00 scenes of spectators on grassy slopes and the performers on the waterskiing show
00:04:41:00 a woman with a full head of hair ‘curlers’ which was a not uncommon look in the 1960s
00:04:51:00 a woman in costume for the aqua ballet, wearing a blue feathered tutu
00:05:04:00 various waterskiing stunts entertain the appreciative crowd
00:06:22:00 Mount Coot-Tha in Brisbane, a mountain with panoramic views over the city
00:08:14:00 traffic on a main road lined with palm trees
00:09:38:00 view of Brisbane City Hall
00:10:00:00 view of the Queensland National Art Gallery in its former premises on Gregory Terrace where it operated from 1931 to 1974
00:10:25:00 sign for the ‘Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary estd. 1927’
00:10:37:00 a koala riding on the back of a German Shepherd dog, hugging its neck
00:11:35:00 view of the grand sandstone Forgan Smith Building at the University of Queensland
00:13:26:00 exterior of the Buderim Ginger Growers Co-Op’s original ‘Merrybud’ factory, west of Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast
00:13:48:00 fruit farms, including strawberry fields and pineapple groves
00:17:00:00 fruit pickers and workers in the cane fields
00:20:11:00 kite surfer on the river
00:20:57:00 bougainvillea and two women in the gardens
00:22:00:00 banana plants
00:22:37:00 title card ‘Caloundra’
00:22:45:00 exterior of the Reef Hotel
00:23:34:00 large ship arriving on the coast
00:24:02:00 title card ‘Coolangatta’
00:24:05:00 exterior of the Kirra Beach Hotel
00:24:39:00 the Natureland Zoological Gardens
00:28:38:00 swimming and snorkelling with 1950s examples of oxygen tanks
00:29:37:00 exterior view of the George Gilltrap’s Auto Museum with displays of early twentieth century cars and trucks
00:30:48:00 a demonstration of a 1913 fire engine with a group of firemen dressed in uniform, watched by a crowd of onlookers
00:31:50:00 men pumping the fire hose
00:33:40:00 the Pet Porpoise Pool in Coffs Harbour, a small aquarium
00:35:07:00 visitors feeding dolphins, leaping up to catch fish from people’s hands
00:37:29:00 sign for ‘Galapagos Island Giant Tortoise’ named Harry
00:38:47:00 sign for ‘The Sanctuary’ across a river
00:38:53:00 rosellas feeding
00:39:16:00 two women feeding rosellas from bowls, birds landing on their heads and arms
00:39:36:00 a toddler screaming as a kangaroo paws its head
00:40:32:00 the Terranora Lakes Country Club Estate with golf course and swimming pool
00:41:30:00 the Hornibrook Bridge, a heritage-listed bridge built by Manuel Hornibrook in the early 1930s crossing Bramble Bay
00:42:39:00 the Sydney Harbour Bridge
00:42:52:00 Macquarie Lightstation, Vaucluse, which was Australia’s first lighthouse
00:44:27:00 focused views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, followed by views across the harbour
00:46:09:00 title card reads ‘Eden’
00:46:21:00 a campfire on the beach with a billy boiling
00:47:05:00 title card ‘Lakes Entrance’ followed by views over the estuary
00:47:51:00 fisherman pulling fish from a net on a dinghy
00:48:55:00 roadside picnic with table set up and playpen for a toddler
00:49:58:00 cooking sausages and bacon over stones
00:50:30:00 title card ‘The End’