[Ted Parsons Home Movies: Reel 12]

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.

The majority of this film is comprised of scenes from the Athletic Carnival, showing a great snapshot of sport and fashions of the period.

It also features scenes from the Cheshunt State School in the King Valley, showing the schoolchildren learning about river erosion. This section of film was possibly filmed as part of a documentary made by members of the Wangaratta Camera Club called ‘Treasures of the King’, which was made to show the need for a dam across the King River.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:02:00 a parade with a marching band
00:01:00:00 Union Jack flying
00:02:00:00 bagpipes and highland dancing
00:02:52:00 Cheshunt State School, a small weatherboard building
00:02:59:00 schoolchildren sitting on the grass
00:03:10:00 a teacher in cat eye glasses speaking to the children in front of the school
00:03:29:00 two men with cameras taking photographs of the children in their lesson
00:04:02:00 the children making a dam, learning about river erosion
00:04:51:00 title card ‘Wangaratta Athletic Carnival 1958’
00:06:37:00 sprinters set off
00:07:06:00 man with a starter pistol
00:08:09:00 woman in a pink polka dot dress wearing a hat made out of newspaper
00:08:31:00 boy in a tartan cap eating a Peters brand ice cream
00:08:46:00 sign ‘W.B. Richardson Stand’
00:10:23:00 truck sprinkles the track with water from a tank; a handwritten sign on the tank reads ‘No training while watering’
00:10:36:00 a man shows off to the camera, flipping a cigarette into his mouth while smoking
00:11:58:00 firemen demonstration; the teams have the name of their town emblazoned on their shirts, including Myrtleford, Bright and Wangaratta
00:13:56:00 a stylish couple, both dressed in white, the woman wearing a ruffled lace halterneck