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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Set in 1916, Beneath Hill 60 is the never-before told story of the Australian and German miners who served at the Western Front during the First World War. After enlisting in the Australian Imperial Forces, Queensland mining expert Oliver Woodward is sent to the front to take charge of a small group of miners during the one of the bloodiest battles in history. The soldier-miners from both sides drive their narrow tunnels under no man's land, attempting to out-manoeuvre and undermine each other as they create a great labyrinth of tunnels. It's a silent and savage war where one tiny sound can turn a man from hunter to hunted, where skilled listeners are more sought after than fighters.
Notes
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Based on the experiences of Oliver Holmes Woodward.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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“They Said It'd Be an Adventure” : Masculinity, Nation, and Empire in Centennial Australian World War I Film and Television
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 51 no. 6 2018; (p. 1356-1375)'The World War I Gallipoli campaign in modern Turkey in April 1915 was calamitous from the outset, with the amphibious assault by British and Allied forces landing well off course. Australia's first major military engagement since achieving nationhood in 1901, its chief success would become their stealth evacuation, which saw seventy thousand men covertly withdrawn over nine days and nights in December 1915. The campaign was ultimately futile and deemed immaterial to the outcome of the war. Such an ignominious defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Empire would seem an unlikely source for a national myth. It lacks, for example, “the psychic reassurance of triumph over the sources of threat” and the defeat of enemies that Graham Dawson identifies as a key psychic and social function of adventure narratives and soldier heroes (282). Yet, the ill‐fated Gallipoli campaign is popularly held in Australia's cultural imagination as the “birth of a nation” for a former colony then still under the yoke of the British Empire. In Australian politics and culture, the youthful nation's presumed character was forged in war and embodied in the deeds of its young men, in spite of ultimate defeat.' (Introduction)
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Who's a Jolly Swagman?
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 8 October 2013; (p. 10) -
Playing Soldiers
2012
single work
essay
— Appears in: Ampersand Magazine , Summer no. 5 2012; (p. 96-105) -
Iron Men
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 July 2011; (p. 6-7) The resources boom is spreading to the red carpet, as miners throw their weight -and cash - behind Australian movies.
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Bang, but Few Bucks, after Box Office
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6 May 2011; (p. 10)
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Tale of the Tunnels a Gripping War Story
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8 April 2010; (p. 11)
— Review of Beneath Hill 60 2010 single work film/TV -
Tunnel Vision
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 11 April 2010; (p. 14)
— Review of Beneath Hill 60 2010 single work film/TV -
Off the Shelf
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 13 April 2010; (p. 7)
— Review of Beneath Hill 60 2010 single work film/TV ; Fox 2000 single work picture book -
Digging up Forgotten Past of World War I Mines
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 April 2010; (p. 25)
— Review of Beneath Hill 60 2010 single work film/TV -
A Down and Dirty Delight
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 18 April 2010; (p. 15)
— Review of Beneath Hill 60 2010 single work film/TV -
Film Digs up Forgotten Past of War's Hill 60 Tunnellers
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 March 2010; (p. 5) -
'I Was in the Worst-Received Play in the West End'
2010
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 27-28 March 2010; (p. 4-5) -
Original Letters
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9 April 2010; (p. 9) -
It's a Tough Life Being a 'Digger'
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 April 2010; (p. 20) -
Deep and Meaningful
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 April 2010; (p. 4-5)
Awards
- 2010 nominated Inside Film Awards — Best Feature Film
- 2010 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Original Screenplay
- 2010 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Film
- 2010 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — AFI Members' Choice
- 2010 shortlisted Queensland Premier's Literary Awards — Best Film Script
- Western Europe, Europe,
- 1916