[Nixon Family Home Movies: Reel 8]

In the Nixon Family Home Movie Collection, married film enthusiasts Les and Dorothy Nixon have captured their family life from when their children are very young to when they are young adults, at home in Geelong, during wonderful beach holidays at Point Roadknight on the Victorian coast, and when going about their everyday activities, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The films show life in regional and suburban Victoria at the time: playing in the backyard and bike riding down the street (no helmets of course), lots of tennis, lots of beach and swimming, lots of family visits, birthday parties and family barbeques or picnic gatherings. Along the way, the films also record the distinctive fashion (often handmade) and hairstyles of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, through Dorothy Nixon being so stylish a dresser herself, and at the many family weddings across the extended family.

The films are made on Standard 8mm and then Super 8mm film, and are in reasonable condition though a little shaky or damaged at times.

This film contains family gatherings for birthdays and weddings as well as Christmas in 1979, a picnic in the Eastern Gardens in Geelong, a trip to Cairns and a tennis tournament in Launceston, Tasmania. There are several gatherings for family birthdays, one of which is Dorothy Nixon’s 50th celebrations.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:05:00 extended family members enjoying a buffet meal at one of the family’s homes
00:00:55:00 family members pose for the camera in a backyard
00:01:36:00 extended family members at a long lunch table
00:02:23:00 arrivals to and/or departures from a family gathering
00:03:28:00 family members at the beach
00:03:43:00 the camera catches family members taking photos of a family gathering
00:04:24:00 filming the photographer
00:04:38:00 Stuart, with a mouth full of braces, grinning at the camera in his school uniform
00:04:49:00 Karen, Stuart and Les in their tennis gear
00:05:06:00 Dorothy in bed with Stuart and Karen visiting
00:05:18:00 a Labrador puppy eating in a garden
00:05:42:00 one of the family infants pretends to drink from a beer bottle at a family gathering
00:06:32:00 Les caught on camera at a sunny family picnic or barbeque gathering
00:07:30:00 shorts and long socks: a 1970s fashion look
00:07:57:00 at the barbeque
00:08:33:00 a family birthday party
00:09:30:00 views around the Nixon family home
00:09:58:00 birthday party inside the house
00:11:13:00 the extended family picnicking in a park
00:12:38:00 the 1970s three legged barbeque
00:12:52:00 feeding bread to the seagulls
00:13:50:00 views of the large family picnic including a 1960s green picnic case
00:14:50:00 views of children at the family picnic in the park
00:15:51:00 playing cricket at the picnic
00:16:44:00 looking out over scenery to some mountains
00:17:25:00 Dorothy walking by a palm tree in a lush park followed by a waterfall
00:18:06:00 filming from a train travelling through mountainous green countryside including waterfalls
00:18:45:00 arriving at Kuranda Rail Station in north Queensland.
00:18:53:00 views of orchids at the ‘Tropical Orchid Gardens at Beautiful Tinaroo’
00:20:52:00 waterbirds
00:21:12:00 ‘Ben Cropp’s Shipwreck Museum’
00:21:24:00 boats along a pier
00:21:31:00 feeding – and teasing – a crocodile for a rapt audience at an animal park
00:22:26:00 up close to some cassowaries at an animal park
00:23:50:00 a yellow sightseeing vessel sitting at the pier followed by views of the ocean floor through the glass bottom of the boat
00:25:11:00 a sandy shallow beach
00:25:40:00 Dorothy sitting on a rocky beach and in close up
00:25:54:00 a crocodile and some sharks in separate small enclosures
00:26:05:00 a motel swimming pool setting
00:26:35:00 motor boating down a river
00:27:40:00 fields under cultivation and a tourist bus
00:27:53:00 a rocky cascading river
00:27:59:00 a view looking across the wing of a ‘Qantas VH-TJO Lorikeet’ airplane
00:28:09:00 teenage Stuart in the backyard at home and with Dorothy
00:28:26:00 Stuart being camera shy in an airport waiting room
00:29:13:00 ‘Ansett VH-RMO Boeing 727’ airplane taking off