[Wallace Clarke Home Movies: Reel 10]

Wallace Clarke was an amateur filmmaker who was particularly keen on capturing the Australian landscape from the 1960s to 1990s. As well as Australian urban settings and some world travels, Wallace’s films focus on the many hiking and camping destinations that he visited.

Often carrying the credit, ‘A Walkabout Film’, Wallace’s movies indicate that he was part of a nature study and walking group called ‘The Walkabouters Club of Victoria Inc’. The ‘Walkabouters’ formed in 1968 as a result of a Council of Adult Education (CAE), Outback Study Tour to Central Australia. Some of the attendees decided to start the Club in order to continue educative walks particularly around Victoria. The Club encouraged their resident artists and photographers to capture their activities.

The collection of Wallace’s films was donated to ACMI by his widow Gwenda Clarke and is shot on various formats, predominantly Standard 8mm and Super 8mm film.

In this film, Wallace and companions tour ‘Ayers Rock’ (Uluru) as it was then named, and ‘The Olgas’ (Kata Tjuta), and he provides some context for both sites, Indigenous names and the connection to local Indigenous Australians.

In acknowledging the importance of Uluru to Indigenous Australians Wallace provides a respectful and admiring narrative. However, information and context of the 1960s is unlikely to be as accurate or as sensitive as a narrative prepared with or by current traditional owners. (In 1985 the Australian Government returned Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to the traditional owners of the area – the Anangu).

Originally made on Super 8mm film, with a sound track and voiceover narrative.

00:00:02:00 title card ‘Land of the Pitjandjara’ (Pitjantjatjara)
00:00:42:00 we see Mount Conner, as stated by the voiceover
00:01:10:00 a large pelican in the sandy landscape and voiceover explaining ‘Curtin Springs is one of the great cattle stations of the (red) centre’, and travellers stand around a well packed ‘Land Rover’ off-road motor car
00:01:30:00 filming from the car along a muddy track
00:01:40:00 travellers from buses gather wood for campfires as the narrator explains their destination is ‘Ayers Rock (Uluru)’, followed by stacking dead mulga branches ‘atop the vehicles’
00:02:00:00 driving under stone entry gate and ironwork sign ‘Ayers Rock and Mount Olga’
00:02:19:00 approaching Uluru
00:02:38:00 a ‘Tjintir-tjintirpa’ (willy wagtail) pecking at dry scrub grass while Wallace’s narration gives a brief description of the connection of local Indigenous Australians, the Indigenous name ‘Uluru’ and context in which it sits, the ‘dreamtime’ legends
00:03:28:00 views of the northern, or as Wallace points out, ‘the sunny side of the Rock’
00:04:00:00 views around the base of Uluru and Wallace continues his narrative
00:04:20:00 a long shallow cave
00:04:30:00 ‘The Olgas’ (Kata Tjuta) on the horizon a short distance away from Uluru
00:04:43:00 close-up of ‘the Kangaroo Tail’, a long detached piece of rock stretching across Uluru
00:05:08:00 a ‘wet weather cave’ that Wallace describes as ‘especially significant’ that contains Indigenous rock art. Wallace explains that this art depicts ‘totemic symbols’, which are ‘attributed to the dreamtime heroes’ and only a ‘chosen few of the tribe’ can work on the artworks for conservation. The soundtrack changes to include some traditional singing.
00:05:53:00 close-ups of beautiful rock formations at the base of Uluru
00:06:28:00 the travellers climbing on ‘the western end’ according to Wallace’s narrative
00:07:00:00 a dingo approaches the camera
00:07:24:00 filming from a vehicle approaching Kata Tjuta; the road is flooded or as Wallace narrates, more like ‘a canal’ than a road, needing a ‘good deal of reconnaissance’
00:08:13:00 dramatic footage of the vehicles driving through the muddy water covering the road
00:08:56:00 sunrise filmed as it lights up the eastern side of Kata Tjuta, which Wallace describes in very artistic terms
00:09:15:00 the travellers have breakfast at their campsite
00:09:30:00 views of the ‘Walpa Gorge Walk’ and difficult spots for walking or climbing
00:10:08:00 the travellers drinking directly from Walpa Creek by lying down
00:10:51:00 the travellers sit for lunch between the giant ‘tors’ (isolated weathered rocks) which make up Kata Tjuta, on the other side of the Walpa Gorge
00:11:12:10 various views around as the travellers walk ‘into the heart of the Olgas’
00:12:40:00 ‘gazing out across the expansive desert’ to the ‘Petermann Ranges’
00:13:06:00 birds, insects and a goanna as well as more views of the monolith rocks along the way back to the campsite
00:14:19:00 small tents at the campsite and views back to Kata Tjuta
00:14:56:00 title card ‘The End’ features a silhouette of an Indigenous Australian man and spear sitting on a rock looking out over the land