• Major projects
  • R6132 Laying pipes across the Darling Ranges, c1902
  • R8135 Across the Trans-Continental Railway, c1917: Laying the railway line
• Primary industry
  • R8006 Pacific Islander labourers clearing land, c1895
  • R8179 Chinese farm workers planting cane, Cairns, 1890s
  • R3951 Maize silo stack, Hilltop, Tilba Tilba, c1895
  • R8118 Wheat Harvesting with Reaper and Binder at Jimbour, Qld, 1899
  • M002600 Three men on horseback, droving sheep with dogs, c1910
  • R3595 Shearing by machinery, 1890-1917
• Small business
  • R9150 Living Hawthorn, 1906: Businesses and street life, Hawthorn
  • R6154 Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 2
• The clothing industry
  • R7338 For Love or Money, 1983: First women's union
• The post office
  • R2997 Telephonists at the Brisbane telephone exchange, 1910
  • R2418 Yorketown Post Office technology
• Newspaper production
  • R2078 Carting paper to the stores
  • R7073 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Stereotyping at Fairfax
  • R7074 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Preparing the printing machine
  • R2080 Newspaper printing press in action
  • R7075 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Folding mechanism of print machine
• Working with haulage animals
  • M000437 Wagon loaded with wheat, 1880-1900
  • M000808 Bullock team moving a road roller, 1880-1900
  • R6160 Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 8
• Mining
  • R4735 Dryblowing in Coolgardie, c1894
• Logging
  • R3208 'Geeveston Saw Mills and wagon load', 1890s
• Working at home
  • R3222 Washing clothes in an iron tub, c1890s
  • R3377 'Kitchen at the old King Street bakery'

R6154 Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 2

Educational value

Australian country towns such as Hamilton were usually built around the main street, which in this period was also the commercial and retail centre - the street in this excerpt has a newsagent, chemist, bicycle shop, butcher and hotel; the main street played an important role in generating a sense of community and providing an informal meeting place.

Before the development of supermarkets, people bought their household goods from a variety of speciality shops such as the butcher and the 'Tailor, Hatter and Outfitter' seen in this excerpt and which were usually built on the main road of a town or suburb - shops built in the Victorian era of the 1840s to 1890s, such as those shown in the excerpt, usually had recessed doors and tiled front entrances, with display cases in the windows and hand-painted signs bearing the name of the store on the shopfront.

Hamilton the township originated in the late 1830s and developed as a major regional centre for the surrounding sheep and cattle district - it prospered during the gold rush in the 1850s, supplying the goldfields with food and other produce, and by the 1870s small-scale secondary industries had developed.

In this period men wore suits with waistcoats and ties, and sometimes overcoats; women's dresses and skirts were narrow with a high waist that was often defined by a cummerbund, while hemlines were ankle-length and square collars were fashionable; it was customary to wear a hat outside, as a bare head was considered immodest.

Horse-drawn vehicles were the main form of transport at the time, since although motor cars had first appeared in Australia around 1900, their high price and the scarcity of petrol meant that horse-drawn carts and buggies were still the main transport for people and goods - by the 1920s car ownership became more widespread as assembly-line production made cars more affordable.

The butchers seen hanging up a carcass outside the butcher shop were possibly doing this to indicate that the meat was fresh, or perhaps to show customers what meat was available - the film suggests that standards for handling meat in this period were less stringent than today, as regulations now require meat to be refrigerated.

The striped blue-and-grey apron was adopted by butchers in Australia as a mark of their trade - the stripes were based on the blue-and-silver crest of the Butchers Guild in England, and the width of the stripe indicated the butcher's professional status, with master butchers having broad stripes and apprentices, narrow stripes.

This early film footage is typical of the period, when films were silent and in black and white - the size and weight of the camera meant that films tended to use long, static takes, but in this excerpt there are also panoramic shots made by turning the camera on a fixed axis; early film cameras were hand-cranked and if the camera was under-cranked during shooting, the action was accelerated, making it appear unnaturally fast or jerky, as in this excerpt; short actuality films recording daily life in Australian cities were made from 1896.

Year level

0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12

Topics

Central business districts

Towns

Learning area

History

Studies of society and environment

Strand

History/Historical knowledge and understandings

Studies of society and environment/Time, continuity and change

Rights

© Education Services Australia Ltd and National Film and Sound Archive, 2011, except where indicated under Acknowledgements