[Gadsden Family Home Movie Collection: Reel 19]

The Gadsden Company has a long and proud history of manufacture, dating back to its foundation by Jabez Gadsden in 1879. The company pioneered tinplate printing in Australia, and produced the first printed can the country had seen. By 1936 the company had twelve factories spread throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The company’s success allowed two generations of Gadsden family men – Stanley Gadsden and his son Ronald – to pursue their interest in amateur filmmaking (a relatively expensive hobby for the time). The two cameramen captured the family’s children, homes, many of its major events and holidays on film.

A collection of the films made by these Gadsden family photographers has been donated to ACMI by Chris Gadsden (Ronald’s son). The films comprise a fascinating assortment of imagery that provides a window into bygone days and customs.

This film is in two parts. Part one is of the Gadsden family farm ‘Mooltunya’ in country Victoria. The filmmaker’s wife Jess Gadsden attends her horses, dressed for the farm in gumboots and one of her many headscarfs (seen throughout the films).

The second part contains a family holiday to Alice Springs and surrounding areas which Ronald introduces by filming from a light plane on the approach to the Outback. Their first stop is to Flynn’s Grave memorial for John Flynn who among other achievements for the Outback, lobbied for what would become the Flying Doctor Service. Ronald’s camera shows an appreciation for the landscape they travel through – eucalypts, wildflowers and bees, bushland, rocks formations, dusty roads and the rock wallabies at the MacDonnell Ranges and Uluru. The reel shows a snapshot of Alice Springs in 1978, cars – kombi vans, utes and sedans, seventies fashion including clogs, denim skirts, flares and sunglasses. There are sequences of horseback riding through the bush where Mrs Gadsden shows her prowess among less confident riders and climbing Uluru.

This film was originally made using Super 8mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:03:22:00 huge boulders sitting either side of a shed
00:07:17:00 goanna on rocks
00:8:16:00 to 00:09:00:00 wing span and over Uluru (Ayre’s Rock at that time)
00:10:07:00 ancient Aboringinal rock paintings
00:11:40:00 walking up Uluru (Ayre’s Rock at that time)
00:12:30:00 Ronald and family climb Uluru and find the descent difficult – reinforced by sign warning of the dangers of the climb.