[Wallace Clarke Home Movies: Reel 15]

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 is made up of two films. The first captures the dramatic coastline of the ‘Shipwreck Coast’ in the west of Victoria. It also features the ‘Fletcher Jones’ (clothing manufacturers) at Warrnambool including the ‘Silver Ball’ water tower designed by Ralph Jones, engineer and eldest son of owner David Fletcher Jones. Erected in 1967 as part of the Pleasant Hill factory’s extensive fire protection system, the water tower was state heritage listed, along with other aspects of the Pleasant Hill site, in August 2006.

The second film features Victorian National parks.

Originally made on Super 8mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:02:00 title ‘Coastal Panarama’ and ‘A WHC Film’
00:00:23:00 roadsign ‘Port Campbell National Park’ followed by views from the ocean cliffs including the Twelve Apostles
00:01:52:00 an old grave with an engraved headstone for members of the Carmichael family followed by dramatic views out over the roiling sea
00:05:46:00 the Fletcher Jones headquarters building in Warrnambool, Victoria
00:05:49:00 the ‘hawkers wagon’ emblazoned with information on history of Fletcher Jones as ‘painstaking tailors’
00:05:55:00 views around the grounds of the Fletcher Jones headquarters
00:06:45:00 old boats and sailing ships in dry dock possibly at Flagstaff Hill maritime museum, Warrnambool
00:07:40:00 the Lady Bay lighthouse at Flastaff Hill in Warrnambool and views of a canon looking out to sea
00:09:17:00 a distinctive rocky outcrop on a beach
00:09:52:00 looking out over the waterways and beaches of Warrnambool from a higher vantage point followed by some caves and grassy paddocks with grazing sheep
00:10:29:00 title card ‘The End’
00:10:50:00 title cards ‘A Walkabout Film’ and ‘National Parks of the S.E.’
00:11:15:00 roadsign ‘Mount Richmond National Park’ follwed by close-ups of wildflowers
00:12:03:00 a car with gear packed on the roofrack
00:12:14:00 sign ‘Discovery Bay Coastal Park National Parks Service’
00:14:40:00 bee-keeping
00:14:49:00 walking up a steep sand dune and down again; views of the dunes and beach; pelicans on the water; views of the sea and beaches
00:15:49:00 fishing and a child runs across the frame in ‘gumboots’
00:15:55:00 sign ‘Lower Glenelg National Park’ and ‘Glenelg River’, a large river or lagoon, wildflowers and sea birds
00:17:08:00 sunset over the sea
00:18:57:00 boathouses and small boats on old jettys
00:19:07:00 sign ‘State Border South Australia’
00:19:35:00 jetty and motor boat
00:19:57:00 farmland with old buildings and a windmill
00:21:01:00 looking out from the rocky shore
00:21:30:00 old entry signs ‘Clarke Park’ followed by ‘Dingley Dell’ which is the historic home of one of Australia’s most famous poets, Adam Lindsay Gordon, and views of the cottage in which he lived