Heritage

Clip 3: ‘White gold of Australia’

Taken from the feature Heritage (1935)

Original title classification G – this clip chosen to be G

Curator’s clip description

The great granddaughter of Biddy O’Shea has flown to the Northern Territory station run by Frank Morrison, great grandson of James, to talk about their future together, but they disagree about his ‘prehistoric’ views of a woman’s role. Frank (Franklyn Bennett) is a federal MP, who sees his future on the land in the harshest part of the country. His speech to Parliament helps Biddy Parry (Peggy Maguire) make up her mind to share that life.

Curator’s notes

One of the least successful aspects of the film is its tendency to speechify – but in this scene, it’s at least in the context of Federal Parliament, where Frank Morrison is an MP. It’s interesting that they argue over the woman’s role. Even if Biddy’s argument doesn’t get very far, it’s a continuation of a struggle between genders that goes on throughout the film – starting with the scene in which Biddy O’Shea demands her independence 150 years earlier (clip one).

Paul Byrnes, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

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This black-and-white clip is from a feature film promoting a future for Australia based upon the pioneering mythology of the country’s early settlement. The clip opens with an argument between an engaged couple, Frank (Franklyn Bennett) and Biddy (Peggy Maquire), about where they will live. The scene dissolves to one showing Frank in the Australian Parliament, making a speech on the unlimited prospects of Australia based on its British heritage, the courage of the early settlers, the ‘white gold’ of Australia (wool), and the role of women. Biddy, who is sitting in the public gallery, approves. Frank finishes his speech to great applause as rousing music begins.

Educational value points

The clip shows Frank as a Member of the Australian Parliament (MP), speaking in favour of an Imperial Bill. In his speech he outlines a view of the past based upon the pastoral life of the pioneers and a vision of the future that continues this heritage. The future of Australia is still to be based upon white British males farming the land, with women at their side as ‘homemakers and civilisers’ for future generations.

In his speech in Parliament, Frank is talking only about the people responsible for the original settlement of land and the growth of the wool industry in Australia in the early 19th century, the squatters. This was a very narrow but widely accepted point of view in 1935 when the film was made. It did not acknowledge the contribution of other sectors of Australian society to the growth of the country.

In 1935 Australians still saw themselves as part of the British Empire. The common ‘race’ mentioned in this clip refers to the British race, which Frank claims has ‘done the adventurous and outdoor tasks of the world’. He goes on to describe all Australians as having common interests and traditions.

In this clip Frank does not mention Indigenous peoples or people from any other background or culture apart from the British as being part of Australia’s heritage or future. At the time, the British ‘race’ and British culture remained dominant in Australia, a status maintained by a restrictive immigration system known as the White Australia Policy.

At the time that the film Heritage was made, Australia identified with and was proud to be part of the British Empire and depended on Britain as its major market for the export of its primary resources such as wool and meat. The ‘white gold of Australia’ mentioned in this clip is wool, which was the cornerstone of Australia’s economy until the mid-1950s.

The relationship between men and women portrayed in this clip is conservative and traditional. The clip begins with an attempt at female independence and ends, after Frank’s speech, with Biddy’s unspoken but enthusiastic acknowledgement that he, as a man, is the leader and that she will follow him in the traditional and subservient role of wife and presumably the mother of his children. In 1935, this would have been the accepted role for a woman of her class.

The film from which this clip is taken, Heritage, was not a success. Much of this clip shows Frank giving a lengthy speech that at times sounds as though he is preaching or even berating his fellow parliamentarians. The acting in the film was also criticised for being wooden.

Charles Chauvel (1897–1959), an Australian film director, wrote and directed Heritage. He and his wife Elsa Chauvel (1898–1983) were pioneer Australian filmmakers who produced feature films from the 1930s through to the 1950s.