This short film takes a look at the life of Queensland sugarcane cutters.

It shows itinerant workers contracting with a cane farmer, cutting the cane and loading it for transport, from early morning to dark.

Other sequences show the cutters in their quarters eating as much food as they need to carry out a tough job.

The film is straightforward in its approach: cane cutting is hard work, although the pay is good and the industry means much to Queensland, where five million tons of sugarcane have to be cut by hand in back-breaking conditions.

Cane Cutters is a National Film Board Production, produced by the Department of Information.

Set in the imaginary town of Coastville, in tropical Queensland, this study of cyclones and their behaviour provides invaluable information on how to protect yourself and your property when a cyclone strikes. Besides examining some of Australia's most disastrous cyclones and showing how meteorologists and emergency services predict them and prepare for them, the film includes fascinating footage showing how a cyclone develops off the coast of Africa, filmed from satellite, tracking aircraft and ships as it crosses the Atlantic and finally devastates the Mexican town of Tampico.

A vivid portrayal of the threat to property and life inherent in tropical cyclones. Indicates the counter-disaster operations initiated by civil defence organisations and the simple safety procedures which should be followed by the community in general.

A scriptwriter and a director argue their approaches to the problem of a comprehensive documentary about Australia: one favours an experimental style, the other a more conventional approach. Excerpts, wittily observed, from both proposed films indicate the faults of each, and the problems of making such a film are chronicled with considerable humour. Far North Queensland features from 13:40.

Life in Cairns is 'sort of relaxed', says the narrator.

 This film takes the form of a psychiatric session, using the metaphor as a way to explore the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef.

Frame capture from the 27 seconds of a nitrate film showing South Sea Islander labourers cutting sugar cane at Nambour, Queensland, under the watchful eye of an overseer. One of the few pieces of footage of Melanesian labourers cutting cane in Queensland. Filmed using a static Lumière Cinematograph.

This film features the wonderful camerawork of Ron Taylor.

Taylor had worked with The Commonwealth Film Unit on a number of films and his work was well regarded here and overseas.

Perhaps best known for his work on filming sharks, including for Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), this film shows that his interest was in the whole marine environment, especially the Great Barrier Reef.

Taylor frequently worked alongside his wife Valerie, a champion diver and spear fisher in her own right who was similarly knowledgeable about sharks and marine life.

This film also features a musical score composed by Don Burrows.

A tourist visiting Far North Queensland investigates what underpins the tropical north and discovers it is more than just a holiday destination. It is a place where jungle has given way to the cultivation of sugar cane and tobacco, and where prosperous communities of Australians have proved that the Australian tropics are a pleasant place to live in and that industry is generously rewarded there.

The harvester is operated by a person seated on one side of the machine. The camera films, from various positions, the harvester as it is guided along the edge of the cane field. Men walk behind the harvester bunching together the discarded cane tops. The camera pans across slightly to capture the cane being discharged in bunches from the hopper. In another fixed view, the harvester is seen moving towards the camera. Summary by Poppy de Souza.

 A romantic tour of Heron Island and the Great Barrier Reef.

A TV community advisory announcement detailing preparedness for cyclones in northern Australia.