AustLit

An action adventure, Uncivilised sees Beatrice Lynn, a successful novelist, journey into the 'unexplored' reaches of north-west Australia to research a book about an Aboriginal tribe who is believed to be ruled by a white king, Mara. On the way there she is abducted by an Afghan trader, but the strange song of the Mara echoes through the jungle. The white chieftain later buys her from the Afgani, and attempts to win her love. Meanwhile opium smugglers try to buy Mara's collection of fabulous rubies, as war breaks out between Mara and a renegade Aboriginal warrior called Moopil. Beatrice finds she is falling in love with Mara, as a great battle begins.

'The main thread of the story is made the history of two families. James Morrison is a stalwart teamster of the early days, who is somewhat irresponsible in his romantic adventures. He is engaged to marry Jane Judd. When a cargo of girls arrives in Sydney he meets Biddy, a sweet little Irish girl, whom he decides to marry. He goes back to the country to tell Jane all about it, but circumstances force him into marrying Jane against his inclinations. The foresaken [sic] Biddy also marries. She and her husband are speared by blacks, and Morrison, who has ridden to their rescue; is given custody of the infant son by the dying Biddy. The Morrisons bring up Biddy's son with their own. The two infants establish families, and the picture closes with the grant-grandson [sic] of one marrying the great-granddaughter of the other, and both families are united in the pioneering of Northern Australia.'

Source:

'Pictures of the Week', The Australasian, 1 June 1935, p.17.

The first of two docudramas by Charles Chauvel (the other is Heritage), In the Wake of the Bounty retells the story of the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian in 1789 against William Bligh, depicting the fate of the mutineers on Tahiti and Pitcairnis. Presented as part narrative and part travelogue, the film uses introductory enacted scenes showing the mutiny, followed by documentary footage, anthropological style, of the mutineers' descendants on Pitcairn Island (including Polynesian women dancers) and an underwater shipwreck.