Down Under | |
---|---|
Directed by | Harry Southwell |
Starring | Harry Southwell Nancy Mills |
Cinematography | Lacey Percival Cliff Thomas |
Production company | Anglo-Australian Films |
Release dates | |
Country | Australia |
Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
Down Under is an Australian feature-length film directed by Harry Southwell. It was the first full-length feature film made in Western Australia. [3] It featured the outback, as well as Perth and Kings Park.
An Australian vagabond, Walter Nobbage, has a series of adventures, including a trotting race meeting, a cattle muster and an aboriginal corroboree. Nobbage's sweetheart dies and he sacrifices his life for the safe her his dead sweetheart's little boy. [4]
The film was financed by West Australian businessmen and shot in that state at Erlistoun Station, Laverton and Perth. [6] [7]
Southwell claimed at the time he had a contract to make six films for distribution in Britain. [8]
It was the first and only production of Anglo-Australian Films. [9]
It premiered on 4 September 1929 in Perth at the Majestic Theatre. [3] The film appears never to have received a commercial release in Britain [9]
Southwell attempted to set up another company in Australia, Western Southwell Productions, aiming to make a £4,000 movie called Gold. This film was never made. [10]
Coolgardie–Esperance Highway is a 370-kilometre (230 mi) Western Australian highway between Coolgardie and Esperance. It runs in a north–south direction linking the state's Eastern Goldfields to the coast.
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