[Wallace Clarke Home Movies: Reel 30]

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.

In this film, Wallace focuses on Australian birdlife, particularly waterbirds filmed from a small boat among lily pads and overhanging trees on still waterways located in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Originally made on Super 8mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:02:00 titles ‘A Walkabout Film’ (dramatically placed over a crocodile with jaws raised and open), ‘Wild Paradise’
00:00:18:00 a close-up of bougainvillea, some men in shorts look nervously at the camera and cormorants (water birds) stand among water lilies and reeds
00:00:49:00 the men take to the water in a small fishing boat with outboard motor and pass by some waterbirds including cormorants, a large pelican, white egrets
00:02:01:00 the boat passes a flock of magpie geese followed by more pelicans, storks and black ibis
00:02:38:00 a white bellied sea eagle perched in a tree
00:02:48:00 some spoonbill and other water birds
00:04:05:00 a large black necked stork takes off in flight
00:04:13:00 a pelican stands with a chick close by
00:04:45:00 views around the river and wetlands
00:05:26:00 a lone magpie goose stands at the water and a few white egrets in flight
00:06:10:00 a darter water bird perched in a tree
00:06:23:00 an eagle on the very top of a tree
00:06:43:00 a large pelican sitting among lily pads
00:06:48:00 the sightseers on their boat
00:08:19:00 campsite alongside the river
00:09:44:00 water buffalo, dirt roads and flowering trees
00:10:50:00 irrigation in a banana tree plantation
00:11:09:00 a tourist bus on a dusty road
00:11:46:00 what appears to be an old ‘fan boat’ for skimming over swamps and wetlands
00:12:23:00 a black and white heron looking for dinner in the water
00:14:47:00 vehicles on a road leading into a town
00:15:11:00 driving into Darwin
00:15:49:00 the ‘Paspalis Centrepoint’ building in Darwin
00:15:54:00 a banner across the road for a concert featuring ‘Australian Crawl’ and ‘John Farnham’