[Wallace Clarke Home Movies: Reel 18]

Wallace Clarke was an amateur cinematographer and filmmaker during the 1960s to the 1990s. Wallace was particularly keen on capturing both the Australian landscape and the people who enjoyed it. 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, titled ‘Papua New Guinea May - June 1961; No.1’, shows landscapes, seascapes, vegetation, people, villages, boats, roads, cars and other infrastructure of Papua New Guinea. It includes aerial footage of sea, forest, and mountains, and scenes of the (former) Royal Australian Navy base HMAS Tarangau at Manus Island.

Originally made on Super 8mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:20:00 activities at a small airport
00:00:43:00 ‘Trans Australian Airlines’ (TAA) seaplane
00:02:12:00 luggage being manually loaded onto Ansett Australia plane by local staff.
00:02:36:00 passengers file past local staff wearing distinctive ‘Anset AAA’ waist-to-calf tunics
00:03:21:00 brief glimpses of a rugby match
00:07:47:00 outdoor classroom with young students at work
00:10:27:00 group of men constructing (or repairing) a traditional village building
00:14:04:00 woman preparing coconut with a large knife
00:16:53:00 large ship (probably one of the Royal Australian Navy) in port
00:17:06:00 small monument bearing sign ‘Tarangau’ (Royal Australlian Navy base HMAS Tarangau, commissioned 1950)
00:17:26:00 sailors in white uniform lined-up on deck
00:17:37:00 ship moves off from port
00:20:52:00 a food market with many people
00:27:39:00 distinctive three-sailed boat