[William Darbyshire Home Movies: Reel 1]

William (Billy) Darbyshire (1903–1979) was a film enthusiast and traveller who emigrated with his parents from England to Australia in 1911. It may have been this early trip that influenced a young Billy to travel the world later in life and film his travels as he went.

First travelling to Africa for work and to various destinations whilst in service during WWII, Billy would continue to travel after the war throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, the Pacific and North America. It was in this period, during the 1960s, that he purchased an 8mm movie camera which resulted in a collection of films that capture his travels, taking in the sites of the world from Asia to Europe and Africa to the Americas.

The films were originally made using Standard 8mm film. The quality of the film can be a little challenging as it is jumpy, damaged and scratched at times.

In this film, filmmaker Billy travels by ship to Fiji, then Honolulu, Hawaii and on to Canada. The film gives an indication of what it was like to travel by ship around the Pacific in the 1960s. Featured in the film is the passenger ship ‘Arcadia’ which was built in Scotland for P&O Cruises (original name, ‘The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company’) in 1953, for trips between Britain and Australia. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s ‘Arcadia’ became a cruise liner on the trans-Pacific routes including the West Coast of America. Near the end of the film Billy shows a few scenes from ‘Stanley Park’ in Vancouver, Canada which included the ‘Zoo and children’s farmyard’ at the time, which has since been closed.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:27:00 a large passenger ship the ‘Arcadia’ sails through a bay
00:01:40:00 formal public gardens
00:02:02:00 looking across a bay toward mountains in the background
00:02:31:00 ‘P&O-Orient Line’ boarding ramp
00:02:49:00 military band uniforms indicate Fiji
00:02:50:00 an elaborate colonial style building
00:02:55:00 busy town streets with vintage model cars and police conducting traffic in traditional uniform
00:03:45:00 boys having a pillow fight on poles that are placed across a pool
00:04:10:00 scenes from ‘Arcadia’ at sea
00:04:50:00 night time scenes around a bay
00:05:25:00 a grand public building named ‘Aloma’ (probably in Hawaii)
00:05:55:00 scenes around a busy town
00:06:05:00 women performing traditional dances in Hawaii
00:07:50:00 tourists on a beach between mountains and buildings
00:08:20:00 traditional long boat surfing with paddles
00:08:50:00 board surfing
00:09:40:00 town scenes in Hawaii including an American sailor and US mailbox
00:10:10:00 great vintage cars, circa 1960s and earlier
00:10:45:00 1960s style motels
00:11:30:00 sunbathers on a beach
00:13:20:00 passenger ship steaming through a bay
00:15:17:00 lovely older couple smiling at the camera with a vintage bus in the background
00:15:24:00 ‘Canadian Pacific’ containers on a dock
00:16:03:00 ‘Stanley Park’ gardens in autumn
00:16:15:00 penguins and bears in enclosures in the zoo which was part of ‘Stanley Park’