AustLit

A group of escaped convicts seize Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour. The island has working coast artillery guns on it, which the convicts use to threaten Sydney until their demands are met. The authorities are unaware, however, that the convicts cannot access the shells, which are locked away in the fort.

'Tale of the wanderings of a Sydney husband who takes to the road with five-year-old daughter after finding his neglected wife living with another man.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/50475). (Sighted: 7/4/2014)

An adaptation of Ralph Peterson's play of the same name, which had premiered successfully in London in 1952.

From an original storyline by Ralph Smart, Bitter Springs is a pioneering drama that centres on the conflict between white settlers and Aboriginal people over rights of access to water. In the early 1900s, the King family treks some 600 miles to take up the property they bought from the government. When they arrive, they clash with the local Aboriginal tribe. The waterhole on which the local people depend for survival is now part of the Kings' property. When one of the Kings is speared, the family decide to compromise rather than fight, and a deal is struck whereby both parties agree to establish a profitable sheep station around the waterhole.

The story is notably liberal in balancing the point-of-view of encroaching European settlers with Aboriginal claims for land rights, coincidentally contemporaneous with the emergence of the liberal, pro-Native American Hollywood Western with Broken Arrow (1950).

Based on the real incidents that occurred on the Ballarat goldfields in Victoria during the early to mid 1850s, Eureka Stockade follows Peter Lalor, a boisterous prospector who leads a rebellion against the colonial authorities over excessive licences and restrictions. At first, the prospectors intend to use random mob violence, but Lalor organises the group into a strong, united front. The climax sees them take on the troops under the flag of the Southern Cross.

Lalor is portrayed in this version as a man of doubts and principles rather than as the charismatic rebel leader traditionally associated with the legend.

Set in seventeenth-century Hanover, Saraband for Dead Lovers tells the story of the tragic love affair between Sophie Dorothea, wife of George I of England, and Count Konigsmark, a Swedish soldier. Events take place in a climate of political intrigue leading up to George I's succession to the English throne.

Set in Australia near the beginning of the Second World War, a time when much of the country was in fear of an impending Japanese invasion. This fear caused many Northern Territory inhabitants to begin evacuating, in order to escape being taken prisoner, and to burn everything in a 'scorched earth' policy, in order to leave the invading forces without resources. Rather than kill all their cattle, a disparate group decides to drive them overland halfway across the continent.

The Overlanders is a story that emphasises the Australian spirit in a time of great uncertainty. It recreates the hazards of an epic cattle drive and carefully assembles the mannerisms, vocabulary, and attitudes that characterise the Australian bushman. The story also reinforces the resilience and strength of women, particularly through the character of Mary Parsons. In this respect, it carries on the tradition of the bush heroine established in Australian films of the twenties and thirties.