[KenRa Films Present: the Kenneth Rankine Home Movie Collection: Reel 17]

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 people enjoying the water and sunshine at the former State Swimming Centre (now demolished) in Batman Avenue, Melbourne. Being 1943, those enjoying the Olympic-sized pool and its facilities include soldiers in uniform as well as those displaying the various swimwear styles of the 1940s. There are sequences of diving from the high diving-boards, underwater scenes, and people sunbaking, swimming and enjoying themselves bring the reel to a close. Throughout the reel, many people react to the camera by smiling and posing for it, while others appear less enthusiastic about being photographed. The footage also shows glimpses of landmark buildings of Melbourne at the time.

Selected highlights list:

00:00:09:00 title ‘Olympic Pool Melbourne 1943’. The open-air Olympic Pool (formally known as the State Swimming Centre) was built by the Melbourne City Council, and opened in Batman Avenue, Melbourne in 1935. It was Melbourne’s first Olympic-sized pool, and was also known as the Beaurepaire Pool (named after champion swimmer Sir Frank Beaurepaire who was also Melbourne’s Lord Mayor 1940-1942).

00:00:25:00 we see the pool and some of its surrounding seating and walkways. Three landmark Melbourne buildings can be seen in the background; St Paul’s Cathedral, the Forum Theatre, and the T&G Building (Temperance and General Building).

00:01:41:00 people are seen swimming laps in what may be a race (as other swimmers appear to have cleared the pool).

00:02:36:00 a man using a telescope to watch the swimmers.

00:04:01:00 the camera dwells on a young woman wearing a yellow two-piece bathing suit (a style still relatively unusual in 1943 Melbourne, although the wartime scarcity of fabrics for clothing was making them more common).

00:04:17:00 we see a diver launch herself from one of the high twin diving-boards positioned high above.

00:04:21:00 a clever effect gives us two male divers in reverse-motion appearing to leap out of the water and onto the diving-boards.

00:05:50:00 a man in bathers lies face downwards on one of the lower diving-boards and hammers at something underneath it. This is presumably to secure the cloth covering on the ends of the boards (this can be more clearly seen in a following sequence of people diving from these boards).

00:07:04:00 we see people using the lower diving-boards, with part of the Melbourne CBD skyline behind them, including a clear view of the T&G Building (Temperance and General Building).

00:07:34:00 there appears to be a race – as other swimmers have once again cleared the pool, and some are seen applauding – where some contestants are swimming in backstroke and some in freestyle (also known as the ‘Australian Crawl’).

00:07:54:00 a sequence filmed in slow-motion captures the contortions of diver’s bodies as they execute more complex dives. Behind the high diving-boards we can see railway tracks, lines and carriages (probably at the old Jolimont Yard railyards).

00:08:13:00 an ‘underwater’ sequence shows a man swimming towards the camera, filmed through a window into the pool.

00:09:29:00 a very similar ‘underwater’ sequence gives us a glimpse of what looks like a porthole ‘window’ into the pool – giving a clue as to how these underwater sequences were shot.

00:09:53:00 we see another race begin, with all visible contestants swimming freestyle. 00:10:18:00 One of the racer’s end of lap turns is captured in close-up.

00:11:05:00 another reverse-motion effect shows us a woman diving ‘backwards’.

00:12:33:00 two women in the water appear to practising (or demonstrating) some life-saving techniques.

00:14:43:00 two men in bathers at the side of the pool are performing gymnastic figures.

00:15:27:00 we see another sequence of exercises from the two gymnasts.

00:16:41:00 the final shot of the reel is the of the cameraman behind his camera and tripod.