
Railway workers unload materials from a railway truck for the construction of a segment of the trans-continental railway line. Two men in a horsedrawn buggy ride past the camera. Another view shows men laying timber sleepers and metal rails. Men shovel dirt away in another section of railway built over raised concrete platforms. A tracking shot reveals massive piles of wooden rails that will be laid to form the tracks. Summary by Poppy de Souza.
The two men in the horsedrawn buggy may be the Honourable WA Watt, the Federal Minister for Works and Railways at the time, and the Engineer-in-Chief for the Commonwealth Railways, NG Bell.
This documentary details part of the building of the trans-continental railway from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie.
Across the Trans-continental Railway is held in an incomplete form at the National Film and Sound Archive. The first half of the film print comprises titles and intertitles only, and the visual footage that follows refers to some, but not all, of these intertitles. It is therefore difficult to identify segments of this documentary and where they were filmed. With much early Australian cinema, only fragments or incomplete versions have survived. What survives, however, remains valuable and the seventeen minutes of surviving footage in this documentary provides a visual record of one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects.
The trans-continental railway (which began construction in 1912) linked the eastern and western parts of the country with the cost of construction at around ₤6.5 million. Intertitles explain that the project employed 3,000 men in the construction; that it connected 1,600 miles (over 2,500 kilometres) of eastern States with 3,400 miles (over 5,400 kilometres) of western States; and that it carried out construction from both ends simultaneously.
The 35mm nitrate negative held at the NFSA is one of many found during the 'Last Film Search’, which became operational in 1982.
Notes by Poppy de Souza
This silent black-and-white clip shows scenes from the construction of the Trans-Australian Railway between Port Augusta in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The opening scene of men unloading timber sleepers is followed by scenes of two men in a buggy driving alongside the railway track, of a steam engine and of teams of men carrying heavy rails into position. A slow pan shows work on an elevated section of line and the clip concludes with a tracking shot of stockpiled sleepers.
Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia
This clip starts approximately 6 minutes into the documentary.
This clip is silent. Men on top of a railway truck unload materials for the construction of a segment of the trans-continental railway line. There are teams of men working on various sections of the line. Two men in a horse-drawn buggy ride past the camera and into the worksite. A steam engine is stationary at the site, blowing plumes of smoke. Five men lift heavy timber sleepers together and lay them on the metal rails. The camera pans across the construction as men shovel dirt away in another section of railway built over raised concrete platforms. A tracking shot reveals massive piles of wooden rails that will be laid to form the tracks.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.