[Wallace Clarke Home Movies: Reel 14]

Wallace Clarke was an amateur filmmaker who was particularly keen on capturing the Australian landscape from the 1960s to the 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.

This film shows Wallace and companions on a trip around the ‘High Country’ in northern Victoria starting with the township of Matlock - the fortunes and population of which went up and down through the gold rush in the 1800s to logging in the 1950s - and a summer visit to the alpine district of Mount Buller.

Originally made on Super 8mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:40:00 road sign for ‘Matlock’ followed by views of the small town, old timber houses, rusty corregated iron sheds and roofs, old vehicles
00:01:08:00 stacks of logged timber
00:02:01:00 signpost to ‘Warburton, Moe, Walhalla’ and other destinations followed by the road into ‘Woods Point’
00:02:30:00 driving along country roads and by a creek, a large lake and a waterfall
00:04:30:00 hikers on a hilly trail that features electricity pylons and overhead wires that seem to be of interest
00:04:45:00 looking out over grassy hills sprinkled with wildflowers and electricity infrastructure
00:05:20:00 close-up of yellow wildflowers and yellow 1970s style headscarf tied at the nape of the neck
00:05:31:00 hikers taking photos of flowers or grasses
00:05:45:00 travellers and children descending a rocky hill walk
00:06:17:00 the ‘fire lookout tower’ on the summit of Mt Buller, constructed in the 1960s, followed by views from the summit
00:08:12:00 a glimpse of what appears to be the ‘Enzian Hotel On Chamois’ built by local Austrians looking for a European alpine experience
00:08:20:00 views out over the mountain peaks
00:09:17:00 two people sitting in the bush with a ‘billy’ can followed by more wildflowers and views out over rocky and grassy terrain
00:12:41:00 hikers walking around large boulders on the hills
00:13:01:00 picnic on a large cut off tree trunk
00:13:05:00 a yellow ‘Walkabouters Club’ t-shirt being worn by one of the hikers
00:13:27:00 wading in the creek
00:14:06:00 an ‘A-frame’ house or chalet in the bush
00:14:40:00 a motorbike parked on a foot bridge over a creek and people in the water
00:16:05:00 a lovely old building on the creek, including rusty corregated iron