[Ted Parsons Home Movies: Reel 5]

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.

This film takes place on the Jubilee Golf Course in Wangaratta, in its original location on a property on Yarrawonga Road. The club was established in 1935 and in 1963 moved to its present location on Wangandary Road. Ted was President of the Jubilee Golf Club from 1939 to 1955, as shown by a plaque in a cigarette box he received. The film features scenes of the locals playing games of golf and the 1956 Grand Tournament, and features some great examples of 1950s sporting fashion.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:02:00 sign ‘Jubilee Golf Club’
00:00:14:00 scenes of the golf course and golfers teeing off
00:01:28:00 women chatting at the weatherboard club building
00:01:46:00 four female golfers cross the course with their golf clubs, wearing pleated skirts and cardigans
00:02:07:00 view up the hill to golfers amongst the trees
00:02:42:00 a group of golfers under a large tree; two women tee off while a group of men look on
00:03:24:00 views across the course
00:05:35:00 stylish golfer in brown check skirt and pink cardigan
00:06:27:00 two men in woollen flat caps
00:06:44:00 golfers gathered outside the golf club, a modest weatherboard building
00:06:53:00 poster for ‘Grand Tournament Wangaratta Jubilee Golf Club’
00:07:49:00 several men tee off in front of the club house as crowd applauds
00:08:36:00 championship board
00:09:02:00 presentation table set up with flowers, six glasses on a silver platter and wooden cigarette box
00:09:13:00 focus on cigarette box with interior sign ‘Presented to E.J. Parsons’
00:09:25:00 more views of golfers on the course