[Brookes Family Home Movies: Reel 6]

This film captures a slice of recreational family life in Australia. We see scenes of people enjoying the water and sunshine at Shelly beach on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. There are also scenes from a children’s backyard party.

The film starts at the beach where the Brookes family enjoy a day out in Port Phillip Bay, watching the Lazy E (now called the National E) state championship race. Also seen are some old style dingies, catamarans, Sabot and Mirror boats sailing, while the learn to sail on a sailboard. Moored speed boats are seen at Portsea, while people are swimming and children enjoying themselves on the shore.

The second section of this film shows a family and friends event, which could be a children’s birthday party, being celebrated in a suburban back yard. There is very funny footage of children playing various party games including the Chocolate Game. This game involves participants rolling a dice, racing to dress up in a costume and then eating chocolate with a knife and fork. There is also a Dress Up Relay race. We see the children dash back and forth with costumes packed into a TEAL branded airline - style bag. The TEAL acronym may stand for Tasman Empire Airways Limited, which was the forerunner of Air New Zealand, established in 1940. The children unpack their costumes, dress up and then dash back to the next person in line, all the while keeping an eye on how fast their competition is going.

There is an amusing sequence of children playing the Lifesaver Toothpick game. The first player in the line is given a lifesaver lolly to hold in their mouth with a toothpick, they then transfer the lifesaver to the next person holding a toothpick in their mouth without using their hands.

There is some trampoline action and a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The Donkey in this instance appears to be called “Flowery”. There is also a balloon catching game played around an above ground backyard swimming pool, and Food on a String being played using chocolate, coconut covered snowballs strung from a monkey bar. The children try to eat them without using their hands.

The film also shows children playing in the street with historical cars parked alongside them. One of these cars appears to be a black Volkswagen Beetle and one appears to be a Pontiac.

There are also scenes of family members fly-fishing in a dam. This dam could possibly be Rocky Valley Dam - a prime fly-fishing body of water just out of Falls Creek Victoria on the Omeo road. It is also sometimes referred to as Rocky Valley Lake and is the water storage dam for the Kiewa Valley, Victoria. Parked at this location are the family vehicles which look like a Citroen Station Wagon from the DS series and a Morris Minor.

This film shows excellent examples of recreational activities, sailing dinghys and yachts, children’s party games, children’s fashion, and vehicles typical to the era.

This film was made on 16mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:08:00 Mirror or Sabot boats on the beach
00:02:14:00 Mirror or Sabot boat sailing with speed boat anchored in foreground
00:04:44:00 Mirror or Sabot boat hitched to the back of a Citroen, registration number JEW 818
00:05:39:00 Children playing the Chocolate Game
00:06:28:00 Children and adults sit around and jump on a trampoline
00:06:56:00 Girl somersaults on a trampoline
00:07:17:00 Children jumping and lying around the trampoline with children performing handstands in the foreground
00:07:42:00 Dress Up relay
00:09:41:00 Lifesaver Toothpick game, lifesaver being passed from one mouth to another
00:10:14:00 Food on a String being played
00:10:52:00 Pin the tail on “Flowery” (donkey) game
00:11:57:00 Game of balloon catching
00:12:04:00 Children playing in the street with vintage cars parked alongside
00:13:53:00 Fly-fishing
00:14:52:00 Possibly a Citroen and Morris Minor at fishing location
00:15:33:00 Fly-fishing