[KenRa Films Present: the Kenneth Rankine Home Movie Collection: Reel 12]

Kenneth Carruthers Rankine (1890 - 1968) was a keen amateur cinematographer and filmmaker. This collection of his home movies has been donated to ACMI by Kenneth’s granddaughter. The collection represents a wonderful slice of life in Australia; with contents including scenes of everyday life, major family occasions, holidays around Victoria and views of Melbourne.

This film shows the family at a number of motor sports events held 1957 - 1959 at Templestowe, Albert Park and Phillip Island.

Selected highlights list:

00:00:10:00 to 00:02:30:00 shows the ‘25th Templestowe Hill Climb’ held Sunday, September 1st, 1957 (as we see from a program for the event that is being held in front of the camera.) The Templestowe Hill Climb was an annual car racing event held by the Victorian Sporting Car Club Ltd. on a 969 metre course constructed by the Club in 1951. The footage shows ordinary street cars participating as well as racing cars. There are close-ups of cars and their drivers and ‘action’ footage of cars driving the course.

00:02:31:00 we see program for the ‘33rd Templestowe Hill Climb’, Sunday, 22nd March 1959, tucked under the windscreen-wiper of a car. This is followed by footage of the 1959 event, which includes shots of the family and close-ups of the children.

00:05:30:00 racing car driver Stirling Moss signing autographs for the crowd that surrounds him.

00:09:06:00 - 00:09:18:00 we see close-up footage of the family having a picnic Albert Park Lake (Melbourne).

00:09:19:00 we see a program for the ‘Second Day: 24th March 1957, Victorian Trophy Race, Organised by the Light Car Club of Australia’ being held in front of the camera. The Light Car Club of Australia held motor races at Albert Park in between 1953 and 1958.

00:10:11:00 we see a poster for ‘The Argus International Motor Races Australian Grand Prix organised by the Light Car Club of Australia’, followed by footage of what appears to be the same event.

00:12:12:00 there is a brief shot of Albert Park Lake with Government House visible in the background.

00:12:16:00 a close-up of the family children transitions to a shot of the young son in a very similar pose at a slightly older age.

00:13:27:00 a programme issued by the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club is held in front of the camera, displaying the title ‘P.I.A.R.C. October Meeting Sunday, 27th October, 1957’. We then see the family picnicking at the event, and other spectators and parked cars, with Westernport Bay in the background. The reel ends with footage of the Phillip Island coast and racetrack.