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This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries] On: 11 August 2014, At: 00:11 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/chjf20 ‘National identity’/‘National history’/ ‘National film’: the Australian experience Ina Bertrand a a La Trobe University , Australia Published online: 15 Sep 2006. To cite this article: Ina Bertrand (1984) ‘National identity’/‘National history’/ ‘National film’: the Australian experience , Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 4:2, 179-188 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01439688400260171 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/ terms-and-conditions
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Page 1: ‘National identity’/‘National history’/ ‘National film’: the Australian experience

This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries]On: 11 August 2014, At: 00:11Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Historical Journal of Film, Radio andTelevisionPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/chjf20

‘National identity’/‘National history’/‘National film’: the AustralianexperienceIna Bertrand aa La Trobe University , AustraliaPublished online: 15 Sep 2006.

To cite this article: Ina Bertrand (1984) ‘National identity’/‘National history’/ ‘National film’:the Australian experience , Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 4:2, 179-188

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01439688400260171

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to orarising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms& Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: ‘National identity’/‘National history’/ ‘National film’: the Australian experience

Historical ffournal of Film, Radio and Television, VoL 4, No. 2, 1984

"National Identity'/'National History'/ "National Film:" the Australian experience

INA BERTRAND, La Trobe University, Australia

Australia is a very old country, but a comparatively new 'nation' [1]. A certain geographical territory was labelled 'Australia' on maps as early as 1600, but it was not colonised by white settlers till 1788. Even then, merely claiming a territory on behalf of the King of England (half a world away), could not by itself produce a 'nation'.

If a political definition is applied, then the Australian nation was founded in 1900 with the federation of the states under an Australian constitution. But the examples of the even newer nations of Asia, Africa and the Pacific suggests that such a political definition is inadequate, that a nation really begins when its members acquire a sense of shared identity. When, then, did the white inhabitants of Australia begin to feel such a sense? An ideal way to produce the sort of internal cohesion that creates a nation is a struggle for independence, with the more bitter the struggle the stronger being the uniting effect: but Australia's independence was negotiated with an apparently amiable colonial power. A revolution against a corrupt or class-based government can produce a similar effect, but the nearest Australia came to that was the Eureka rebellion on the goldfields, a just but very minor insurrection. Defence of the national territory is perhaps the most effective national cement of all: but white Australians have never had to defend Australian soft [2], and our baptism in blood is instead dated from one minor and unsuccessful campaign in Turkey in World War I.

These three moments---Eureka, Federation, Gallipoli--all have their loyal sup- porters as the central image of Australian nationhood. But they appear rather inadequate in comparison with, for instance, the French or Russian Revolutions, the American War of Independence, or the Vietnam War.

Yet white Australians seem to need some way of establishing a community identity, of expressing the uniqueness and/or the typicality of their experience of being 'Australian'. The search for this has been a constant element of the rhetoric of politics, education and the arts, to which Australians have been exposed from the earliest days of settlement.

The first construction of Australia derived from its physical environment: it was a long way from other centre, of civilisation, and it contained an indigenous people different from anything encountered elsewhere, strange and exotic plants and animals, and a vast range of terrains and climatic conditions. But the first generation of Australian-born were inevitably compared with the inhabitants of ~he old country', and at first found wanting: how could the descendents of outcasts, whether voluntary or not, ever match the true Britisher? Gradually, however, a more optimi.~tiC evaluation was made. After all, ff the Australian was the inheritor of

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180 L Bertrand

British civilisation, he must necessarily be superior to all who had the misfortune to lack such a heritage entirely. This implied a maturational model: Australia was viewed as a young country 'growing up' under the wise patronage of the colonial power. The purity and innocence of the wattle emblem embodied this naive view of Australian potential [3].

Contemporary with this, and partly in reaction against it, came a re-examination of Australians' relationship with their environment and a growing belief that a new character was being produced in response to this. Any disloyalty to Britain would have been vigorously denied, but the characteristic feature of this position was a vigorous defence of Australian difference from the British. This difference was defined in terms of egalitarianism and independence, embodied in opposition to elites (whether social or intellectual) and to overbearing authority, and represented by the physical image and the mateship ethic of the bushman, the digger and later the surf life-saver.

Gradually, in the twentieth century, as the urban and the technological were incorporated into the Australian image, there was a backlash against the association of the 'typical' Australian with the bush and with radicalism. Now, a conservative, consumer-oriented society preferred to reach a definition of Australia in terms of a 'way of life' rather than any intrinsic qualities of the Australian people. At first the encroachment of other cultures through immigration was bitterly resented (the White Australia Policy): but the post-war influx of migrants, and the even more recent revitalisation of aboriginal culture have now both been subsumed within this 'Australian way of life' through the concept of multiculturalism.

Though they emerge sequentially, these four broad strands of ideas constructing 'Australianness' do not replace each other. Instead, they are cumulative, each becoming a part of an increasingly complex and interdependent web of ideology, strong enough to make the notion of the existence of an 'Australian identity' a given within Australian society. Intellectual debates, which have continued with, if anything, increasing fervour since World War II, do not challenge its existence, but are instead concerned with theories of its origin and development [4].

This general acceptance of the construction 'Australian', working to accommodate its divergent or conflicting elements, can be seen as an aspect of the prevailing liberal consensual ideology persuasively described by Tim Rowse [5].

The concept is clearly important to the two forms of representation under discussion here---rim, and history. The similarities between the institutions produc- ing film and television programmes and those producing written history have been discussed elsewhere [6]. For Australia (and perhaps for other nations), the con- struction of a national identity is one aspect of this overlap.

In one way, the connection has been built in mechanically by the system of government financial assistance which has facilitated the current revival of the commercial film industry: in order to support 'Australian' films an attempt had to be made to define them. Under the Act establishing the Australian Film Commission in 1975, an 'Australian film' is one "that has been made wholly or substantially in Australia and that, in the opinion of the Commission, has a significant Australian content". 'Content' is further defined as covering subject-matter, place of pro- duction, nationality and place of residence of key personnel, and source of finance.

Despite its pragmatic sound, this definition leaves plenty of room for interpreta- tion, and its application demonstrated that the Commission's aims were both commercial and chauvinistic. The commercial aspect emerges in the expressed intention to create "cinema that Australian audiences will readily pay to see" and "'a

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"National Identity'/'National History'/'National Film" 181

favourable climate for private investment in Australian film and television pro- grammes". But cultural, rather than industrial, protection is clearly the purpose behind encouraging "the making of film and television programmes which have truly reflected the historical, social, political and economic trends in Australian life", and which can be "screened successfully overseas because their craft and artistic standards are international and their content derived from the Australian viewpoint" [71.

In this desire to give Australian audiences their own films, and to project overseas an image of an indigenous Australian culture, history is one of the specified, approved subjects. But, even if it were not prescribed, those historically-produced constructions of Australian identity already discussed provide ideal subject-matter, either syntagmatically through historical narrative, or paradigmatically through recurring images and symbols. So Australian history, already constructed by written forms, has been constantly mined for subjects by film-makers---an over-determined national site.

This looking backward, then, is more than mere nostalgia [8] : it is the construc- tion of communal memory. Memory is the locus of identity. Once constructed, it can function just as effectively through contemporary images and narratives, but history, and its constant reconstruction in the images of film and television, has a vital role to play in its initial formation. In this formative process, film and history constantly work to reinforce each other: a film's specific location in time and space provides validation of already existing popular national stereotypes, and the comfortably familiar icons and symbols in a film provide validation of the form in which the historical events have been depicted.

Truth is not at issue here. As a nation we can live without 'truth': perhaps we prefer not to know if the truth is unpleasant or, even worse in the 1980s, boring. But we cannot continue to exist without a sense of self, identity, in this case 'Australian- Hess'.

Perhaps this preference for the mythic can account for the difference in popular reaction to recent films. Squi~zy Taylor [9], for instance, is a beautiful period reconstruction, paying scrupulous attention to the details of background incident, set and costume, but with a most ambivalent attitude to its 'hero'. Squizzy may have been a small, weedy, arrogant, mean, spiv, but for a short time in the 1920s he captured the imagination of the Australian public, speaking to them through those national stereotypical traits of disrespect for authority and cocky courage in the face of overwhelming odds. The folk memory is uncomfortable with a 'balanced' or 'objective' portrait. The film-makers themselves find difficulty in reconciling the glorious monochrome images they create of the underworld of gambling and sly grog and gang warfare with the despicable weakness of the character they place in the centre of it. Media teachers may find the film valuable for discussion of production qualities and techniques, history teachers may use the film to suggest the atmosphere of the 1920s, and both may find it provokes debate on the role of the media in constructing heroes and national myths. But the public stayed away.

In great contrast is The Man From Snowy Rizwr, which beat even Star Wars on the Australian market. Here was a film with almost no identifiable historical referent of incident or character, but which wholeheartedly endorsed the most obvious of the mythic elements in that complex portrait of 'Australianness' already discussed. The film-makers do, however, introduce into the fiction a character called Banjo Patter- son, who is intended to represent the author of the poem on which the central, final,

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182 /. Bertrand

incident of the film is based. This anchors their syntagmatic flow (historical, specific in time and place) in 'real' history and gives them a freer rein to play with the paradigmatic elements (the mythic, unspecific, stereotypical), without losing credi- bility with the audience.

Similarly, Gallipoli is really structured round the cultural paradigms of mateship, and the associated accession to manhood, yet it ties this closely into an historical narrative familiar to all Australians and so provides instant confirmation of the chosen images.

Unsurprisingly, then, the historical mini-series has been particularly successful on Australian television. Certainly we have enjoyed watching the representation of other nations' rites of passage---Roots, Upstairs Downstairs, etc. have all been popular in Australia. But we have produced our own comparable series with enormous enthusiasn~ Perhaps the greatest successes have been Against the Wind, The Last Outlaw, The Timeless Land, For the Term of His Natural Life, and .4ll the Ri~ers Run, though there have been many others as well, dating back as far as 1974 [10]. Currently, about 20 television mini-series set in Australia's past are in various stages of pre-production and production, and half of these are based on actual historical incidents [ 11].

Occasionally the same story has been filmed many times. Ned Kelly was the subject of the first feature-length fiction film produced in Australia in 1906, and his story had been filmed at least three other times before being used in the mini-series The Last Outlaw. The Eureka Stockade is currently being reconstructed on film for the fourth time. Robbery Under.4rms, a novel of the bushranging period, had already been filmed three times, and is currently in production again as both a film and a mini-series.

It is not necessary for the story to come from far back in the past to achieve this validation effect: The Dismissa/, telling the story of the political coup of 1975, was one of the most successful productions of 1982. But it appears that the further back in time is the historical referent, the safer the producers feel in allowing the paradigmatic elements to out-weight the syntagmatic. The closer viewers are to the events, the more they demand reassurance of 'historical accuracy' and the more is judgment of the programme (by critics and public alike) limited to these issues. For instance, very great care was taken in the promotion campaign for The Dismissal to present the series as accurate and objective, with the result that its dependence on national paradigms (stereotypical views of politicians of right and left, ambivalent attitudes to independence from Britain) and on characteristics derived from its institutional base in television drama (the authoritative narration, the patterns of climax and resolution) was disguised.

In choosing subject-matter, film-makers take into account not only the require- ments of funding institutions, but also the location, preferences and expectations of audiences. Within Australia, four positions have been identified on these latter issues [ 12]. Some producers first seek the local audience, in a belief that a production should budget to cover its costs on the home market, and look to overseas sales only as icing on the cake. Some look instead to an international market, and therefore budget high, in the belief that cost controls quality: as high costs cannot be recouped from the small local market, that market should not be allowed to dictate subjects and styles. In both camps there is a further division, between those who believe that the way to success with any audience (local or overseas) is by concentrating on the local subject, that which we can do better than anyone else, and those who believe that the largest audience is to be found by concentrating on what is universal in the humafi experience

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"National Identity'/'National History'/'National Film" 183

and disguising local origins. The question of which of these positions, or combination of them, has been most successful is still a matter of bitter debate [ 13], but clearly the producers of the programmes under discussion here endorse the 'cultural specificity' [14] position, and look to a local market first.

Gallipoli is an excellent example. After doing well within Australia, it went on to acceptance even in that most difficult foreign market of all, the USA: however, marketing strategies were altered. 'Gaflipoli' is a household world in Australia, but in the USA advertisements proclaimed: "From a place you have never heard of, comes a story you'll never forget". It was its familiarity which sold it within Australia and its exotic character which was used to attract American audiences.

But how can film-makers ensure that they will receive the necessary degree of support from their local audience? Television and film critic John Hinde, claims that a 'film industry' can be created anywhere, and at any time, with sufficient capital, but that a 'national cinema' exists only when the film-makers are in symbiotic relationship with what he calls a 'seminal audience' [15]. Such an audience will enthusiastically support local productions, thus ensuring the financial viability of the industry, because the films address deeply-felt needs in the com- munity and help to resolve social tensions.

The constant search in Australia for a national identity suggests the existence of such a need, and the increased contradictions evident within the construction of the concept have increased the pressure for mythic resolutions of the potential conflict. Film and television are ideally suited to this purpose, despite the distortions caused by the artificiality of the definitions applied to obtain government aid and the tension within the industry between the discourses favouring the local or the international market.

Perhaps there/s a seminal audience there; one that has been fed on the national myth, is vaguely uncomfortable about the inconsistencies within it, and which is looking to film, and perhaps even more to television, to resolve these. The popularity of historical reconstruction would then be understandable.

Once the dissemination of national culture and the encouragement of national spirit was an explicit aim of Australian education [16]. But the spread within the government school system of liberal educational philosophy, with its belief in laissez- faire pluralism and the devolution of authority, means that the public schools no longer openly take the ideological lead [17]. The gap left by the abdication of educational institutions is being filled by the institution of television, which, placed as it is within the home, is even more powerful than the earlier film form.

Teachers (and some parents) are very much aware of this, though their response may be to see it as a rival to themselves, rather than as another tool to be added to their inventory. Some history teachers, however, have responded enthusiastically to the presentation of historical reconstruction on television, and have used the programmes in their classrooms [18]. In this, they are often in advance of the professional historians.

Against the Wind was one of the most popular of the historical mini-series, scrupulously researched, presented with lavish attention to image and stirring mythic characters. But it was dismissed by one of Australia's leading historians for its inaccuracies [19]. Professor A. G. L. Shaw objected to the depiction of the horrors of the convict ship, which he aclmitted were accurate for the voyage chosen, because the programme failed to make clear that t hi.~ particular voyage and ship were not typical. He went on to complain of other anachronisms, such as showing a convict overseer on horseback. On the same panel as Professor Shaw, however, was

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184 /. Bertrand

Colleen Isaac, history teacher at Lauriston Girls School. She expressed delight with the response of her students [20], both because of the pleasure they obviously obtained from the series, and because she was able to initiate discussion at a level not previously possible, about not only the period depicted but also the historical processes involved in presenting it.

The value of popular television to a history teacher in a classroom at the present time cannot be overestimated, for history is one of those subjects which is suffering in the battle for 'relevance': losing out to science and technology with those students who are career-oriented, and to social science (social studies, economics, politics) with those students who desire to understand better their immediate environment. For many students, the past is dead and better buried. Yet these same students may enthusiastically watch the latest popular television, and are as likely to be fans of The Sullivans as of Prisoner.

To take advantage of this, history teachers need to understand how television programmes and films work, and to be able to pass on this understanding to their pupils. But history teachers in Australia are currently not trained for this. If they were lucky, they may have studied at undergraduate level with historians who used films as illustrations, but it is most unlikely that they will have been introduced to other possible uses of visual material for either research or teaching. This gap between the study of history in universities where history teachers are trained, and the teaching of history in the schools, can be bridged by the use of printed materials issued in conjunction with the film or television production. The f i l l producers' awareness of the need for such materials in schools and of the potential market this can open up, has led to the production of a study guide being one of the regular features of film and television promotion, particularly for historical reconstructions. The quality of these---in both research and presentationmvaries enormously, but at their best they are very good indeed: Colleen Isaac found the guide issued with Against the Wind [21] extremely valuable.

The Australian Teachers of Media also issues two irregular series of study guides: one on 'current issues in media' (e.g. The Atom/c Care) and one on Australian feature films. The latter series has already included one for the feature f i l l Squizzy Taylor and one for the feature-length compilation For Love or Money, prepared with the intention of making them applicable in history, as well as media, classes.

Though such study guides have to be phrased simply enough for use in schools, they are beginning to address issues which commercially-prepared materials can do no more than hint at, those methodological concerns which f i l l and history share: discourse/narrative analysis, and/or image/symbol analysis, studied textually or contextually or both.

Now that historians are reviewing issues such as the construction of Australian identity, it is surely only a matter of time before they, too, will be looking to films, including commercial films, as a rich source, perhaps even a (the?) mythological base, for Australians' ideas about themselves.

To trace the ideological processes at work in this construction of communal memory is another step. That has begun among the f i l l theorists [22]: perhaps it will soon surface in the writings of historians also. They may even have caught up with Australian audiences, whose ready acceptance of images of their history on television and cinema screens indicates a clear, though untheorised, recognition of the mythic significance of such images.

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Correspondence: Dr Ina Bertrand, School of Education, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia 3083.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

[1] Hundreds of aboriginal nations were distributed throughout Austrafia before the coming of the white man and some still survive, attenuated and embattled. But that concept of 'nation' is very different from the one under discussion here. The concept of 'nation' which grew out of the intellecttud tradition of Western Europe acquired specific meanings and applications during the nineteenth century and it is this which shaped the debate within white Australian culture.

[2] The white setters did not even recognise as a war their bitter and prolonged struggle to seize the land from its previous occupants.

[3] WHITE, RICHARD (1981) Inventing Australia: images and identity 1688-1980 (Sydney, Allen & Unwin), has provided a useful framework for the analysis of how Australian identity has been constructed. The wattle appears on the Austrafian coat-of-arms, but was recognised as a national emblem much earlier than Federation. The light golden colour and fluffy texture of the flower connote vulnerability, in contrast to the harshness of most of the Australian environment.

[4] The contributors to this debate are too numerous to mention, but some of the key works are: WARD, RUSSELL (1966) The Australian Legen~ (Oxford University Press); HORNE, DONALD (1964) The Lucky Country, (London, Penguin); BLmNEY, GF.OFFREY (1974) The Tyranny of Distance (Sun Books); SUMMERS, ANN (1975) Damned 1Fhores and God's Police (Harmondsworth, Penguin).

[5] ROWSE, TIM (1978) Australian-LiKoralism and National Character (Kibble Books). [6] MACARTHUR, COLIN (1978) Television and History (British Film Institute). [7] 'Towards a mere effective Coramlssion: the A.F.C. in the 1980's', a Report commissioned by the

Australian Film Commission from Peat, Marwick, Mitchell Services, Management Consultants, October 1979, Appendix 10 ('Long-term objectives of the Interim Australian Film Commission').

[8] Statistics do not support the claim of those who declare that there has been a 'nostalgia boom', in which 'most' Australian filn~ are set in the past. Of the 50 films listed in the AFC's publicity booklet (50 films, n.d., issued 1977), 23 were set in the past and 27 used contemporary stories. Since then, there has been a still stronger trend towards contemporary material. Such statistics, however, do not distinguish the relative importance of productions within the industry or the strength of audience support for thenL And they provide no way to account for the overwhelming impression remaining among the Australian critics and public that, regardless of the numbers, the really important Australian films are the nostalgic historical epics (Picnic at Hanging Rack, Breaker Morant, Gallipoli, etc.).

[9] For the benefit of readers not familiar with the output of the Australian film industry, the films and television programmes referred to in this text are described in Appendix 1.

[10] See list in Appendix 2. [11} See list in Appendix 3. [12] LAWSON, SYLVIA (1982) 'Towards decolonisation: film history in Australia, in: DErO~ODY, SUSAN et

al. (Eds), Nellie Melba, Ginger Megge & Friends (Kibble Books). DERMODY, SUSAN & JACK^, LIZ (1983) The Australian film industry and the Holy Roman Empire, Filmnews, Sydney, VoL 13, No. 6, June. O'REGA~, TOM (1982) Australian film-making: its public circulation, in: HtrrroN, ANNE (Ed.) First Australian History and Film Conference Papers (Sydney).

[13] E.g. a bitter exchange between producers and directors over the merits of high- or low-budget films in the columns of the national daily, The Australian, in July 1978 (particularly 6 July 1978, 'The tall poppies fall', and letter in reply 7 July 1978).

[14] This term has been credited to Bob Ellis (e.g. DE~DDY & JAcI~, op. cit.), but I have been unable to trace the original source.

[15} HINDE, JOHN (1981) Other People's Pictures (Australian Broadcasting Commission). [16] Examples of this are the Monday morning ceremony of saluting the flag and swearing allegiance to

monarch and country, or the jingoistic tone of the literary excerpts published until recently in State School Readers.

[17] This is not to deny the obvious fact that the public schools have ideological effects. However, the belief that they have abdicated formal responsibility is openly expressed in defence of the need for the continued existence of the pa/allel private school system, operating with considerable govern- ment financial support.

[18] Some television programmes can be purchased outright by schools. More commonly, however, schools took advantage of the ambiguities of the copyright legislation to tape off-air for use in

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186 I. Bertrand

classrooms under 'fair and reasonable use' for 'educational purposes'. In 1982-83 a scare campaign, with no obvious source, frightened off some school administrations, to the point of destroying tape libraries and refusing all requests even for legitimate off-air taping (e.g. of ABC School Broadcasts). A government review of film and television copyright currently under way should resolve these anomalies and is widely expected to allow off-air taping by educational institutions in return for a levy on blank tape sales.

[19] Historical StudieL. Austrafia and New Zealand, 1979, pp. 502-509, Reviews of Against the Wind, by A. G. L. Shaw, Inga Clendenninf, Colleen Isaac, A. A. Barta.

[20] Ibid. [21] COUTTS, BRIAN, WHrrE, GRAHAM & MARSI4ALL, L ~ (1978) Against the Wind, HSV 7. [22] E.g. DEr.MODY & J^cr.A, op. c/t; TUU.OGH, J. (1981) Legends on the Screen (AFI/Currency Press);

TULt~H, J. (1982) Australian Cinema.. industry, narrative and meaning (London, Allen & Unwin).

Appendix 1: Austrafian films and television series mentioned in the text

Squizay Taylor, 1982, directed by Kevin Dobson. The life of a smaU-tin~ cr/mlnal in Melbourne in the 1920s. The Man From Snowy Riz~r, 1982, directed by George Miller. Story ot ~ a young man's growth to maturity, finally proved by outriding the more experienced

horsemen in a chase after a runaway horse. Gallipoli, 1981, directed by Peter Weir. Story of the friendship of two young men who are both outstanding runners, and who enlist in the

Australian forces in World War I and take part in the Battle of the Nek, in the Gallipoli campaign. For Love or Money, 1983, directed by Margot OI/ver, Megan McMurchy, Jeni Thoruley. A feature-length Compilation film tracing the history of women's work, both inside and outside

the home, in Australia from before white settlement to the present day. Against the Wind, television series (13 • 1 hour episodes). Story of an Irish convict girl showing her early life in Ireland, her conviction and transportation to

Australia, her assignment to a landowner, her marriage to another convict and their establishment as small farmers in the colony of New South Wales.

The Sullivans, television series (see Appendix 2). Story of a Melbourne family during and just after World War II, following the fortunes of family,

friends and neighbours both at the front and at home. Prisoner, television series (one hour, twice weekly). Long-r~mnin$ 'soapie' set in a women's prison, with occasional references to the world outside

through activities in a half-way house and with prisoners who are released or who escape.

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"National Identity'/ "National History'/ "National Film" 187

A p p e n d i x 2: A u s t r a l i a n h i s t o r i c a l t e l e v i s i o n s e r i e s a n d s e r i a l s

First release date Title No. of episodes

1973 Seven Little Australians 10 1974 Rush 8

Marion 4 1975 Cash & Company 13

Ben I-Ia]l 13 1976 Rush (second series) 13

Tandarra 13 Power Without Glory 26

1978 Against the Wind 13 1979 Ride on Stranger 4 1980 Lawson's Mates 6

Lucinda Brayford 4 The Timeless Land 8 Water Under the Bridge 9 The Last Outlaw 8

1981 Outbreak of Love 3 I can Jump puddles 9 A Town like Alice 3

1982 Jonah 4 Sara Dane 10 1915 7 Women of the Sun 4 The Di.~nni.~.al 3

1983 For the Term of His Natural Life 6 All the Rivers Run 8 (The American production of The Thorn Birds was also screened during 1983)

The SuUivaus

Carson's Law

One hour per week from 15.11.76; 5• mins from 1.5.78, ended 10.3.83,

TotaL" 1114 episodes, 557 hours. 2 x50 mins each week, from 25.1.83, still running.

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Page 11: ‘National identity’/‘National history’/ ‘National film’: the Australian experience

188 L Bertrand

Appendix 3: Australian historical television series planned or in production, 1983

t A Boy in the Bush 4 • 50 mln~ t* A Fortunate Life Five episodes * Cowra 1 0 x l hour t Eden's Lost * Eureka Stockade

Five Mile Creek 13 parts Naked under Capricorn 3 x 100 rains New Gold Mountain 4 X l hour

t Poor Fella my Country l0 parts t Robbery under Arms * The Bodyline Series 8 x I hour * The Dunera Boys Four episodes * The First Fleet l0 x 1 hour * The Flying Doctor 6 x I hour * The Lancaster Miller Affair 5 x 1 hour * The Last Bastion 6 hours t The Shiratee 4 • 1 hour * The Weekly's War

The Young Wife Three episodes t Thunderbolt Three episodes

Waterfront 6 • 1 hour * = actual historical referent. t ---- fiterary source.

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