The 1936 NSW Police Carnival, featuring a parade with the 'boys in blue' and stunts involving dogs, horses and a motorcycle chariot race, Ben-Hur style, which needs to be seen to be believed!

From Movietone News, 7 March 1936.

This iconic and Academy Award-winning newsreel shot by Damien Parer contains some of the most recognised images of Australian troops in the Second World War.

Australian troops from the 39th Battalion along the Kokoda trail through dense jungle terrain and across a river. The voice-over commentary by actor Peter Bathurst emphasises the harsh conditions, the bravery of the troops and the care and kindness of the Papuan carriers.

It also shows the presence of the Salvation Army and includes a shot of Father Albert Moore lighting the cigarette of a wounded soldier. Another wounded man with his arm in a sling stands outside a village hut.

The final sequence contains a series of shots filmed from elevated positions along the track of the stretcher bearers carrying wounded soldiers and troops climbing through steep sections in gruelling conditions.

Members of the 39th Battalion are framed from the waist down, trudging through ankle-thick mud as the image of Damien Parer is superimposed on screen in a reprise from his introduction to camera. He addresses the audience directly to remind them that the 'country is in peril’.

The clip ends with a dissolve back to feet trudging along the muddy track. An evocative instrumental score is used throughout the clip. Summary by Poppy De Souza

This clip shows the opening title sequence from the Cinesound Review newsreel. Five Cinesound cameras appear around the edges of the frame and the head of the Cinesound kangaroo is superimposed in the centre. The title graphic – 'Cinesound Review’ – appears as the newsreel’s theme music plays over the soundtrack.

This Movietone News special edition newsreel marks the nationwide celebrations at the end of the Second World War.

This clip shows joyous celebrations erupting in Sydney streets at the declaration of peace after the Japanese surrender. Footage includes enormous crowds crammed shoulder to shoulder in the city. A tracking shot from a moving vehicle shows the famous image of the dancing man who does a pirouette and doffs his hat for the camera. Another man holds up the front page of the newspaper with the 'PEACE’ headline, people crowd into trams, and over shots of people going wild throwing shredded paper, the voice-over by Jack Davey urges people to 'tear up some paper, it’s the thing to do!’. There are also shots of night celebrations and the start of the victory march the following morning.

This newsreel special of the 1964 Beatles tour captures footage of the band in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand, concert excerpts and the attendant 'Beatlemania’.

This clip begins with news footage of the Beatles standing on a balcony in Melbourne, waving to fans in the streets below. Paul McCartney plays with a boomerang and laughs with the crowd. The Beatles song 'Love Me Do’ is on the soundtrack while a sequence of Beatles albums, photographs and tabloid headlines are shown. Commentator Ken Sparkes describes the 'Beatlemania’ and the extensive merchandising that has accompanied it. Beatles fans are filmed outside the Sheraton Hotel in Kings Cross along with equally enthusiastic followers of Polish-American piano virtuoso Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) who is seen smiling as he is mobbed by the crowds. The Beatles arrive at Wellington Airport in New Zealand. John Lennon plays with a stuffed kiwi and Paul McCartney gives a traditional Maori greeting. Summary by Poppy De Souza

American singer Paul Robeson delivers a stirring rendition of 'Ol' Man River' for construction workers at the Sydney Opera House. He was the first professional singer to perform there – singing on the concrete foundations of what would become the Concert Hall.

'Ol' Man River' is originally from the 1927 musical Showboat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

Robeson, with his powerful voice and his belief in civil rights, turns the tragic song about the struggles of African American people into a protest song full of strength and defiance.

Despite how many times he must have sung it, his performance feels raw and full of emotion. The construction workers watch on in awestruck silence. The sound recording is first-rate with his words clear and easy to understand.

This performance was organised by the Building Workers' Industrial Union during his tour of Australia in 1960.

This newsreel covers the historical moment in a tantalising way with only the performance shown. The coverage could have been improved with a wider shot of him on the site and shots of him meeting workers.

Apart from the opening shot, the footage could have been filmed anywhere. The Opera House in its first phase of construction in 1960. The sails were still a long way off (construction would continue for another 13 years).

This is an excerpt from Cinesound Review no. 1516 released on 17 November 1960.

Notes by Beth Taylor

In a huge moment for Australian fashion, this was the first time original fashions designed by Christian Dior were seen outside Paris. The garments, including hats and accessories, were flown in ten packing cases to Sydney for David Jones' spring parades in 1948.

Dior enthused 'Australians have a cleaner, brighter outlook and are more receptive to new ideas than the tired people of European countries'.

Dior's first ever collection in 1947 created a post-Second World War style known as the 'New Look' which included tiny 'wasp' waists, accentuated bustlines and a return to a fairytale feminine ideal. Based on the shape of a flower, he used models with 20-inch waists (51 cm) to achieve the silhouette.

The yardage required for Dior's full skirts was a reaction against the austerity of the Great Depression and war rationing. In turn the voluminous look kick-started the fabric industry and the post-war European economy.

These fashions would have been out of reach of the vast majority of Australian women. The year 1948 was significant because it marked the end of clothing rationing, which started in 1942.

Each garment came with its own descriptive language – which we miss out on here because there is no voice-over available for this item. The narration typically highlights unique features, for example the second item is a sheath dress in black wool with a craned collar of black taffeta featuring a wasp waist and hobble skirt.

This newsreel segment comes from Movietone News A0857.

Please note this clip is silent. The NFSA holds the picture negative only for this newsreel rather than the final version, with voice-over narration, that would have screened in cinemas at the time.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This Movietone Newsreel from 1938 follows a young boy from the suburb of Bellevue Hill as he takes a trip on his bicycle through the busy streets of Sydney. The boy's pet Kelpie jumps on his back to go along for the ride.

This 'year in review’ edition is not a typical example of the newsreel’s format. It presents some of the significant events of 1971 and includes a range of story types.

This clip includes scenes of anti-apartheid demonstrations against South African sporting teams; John Gorton’s tour of Vietnam; William McMahon becoming Prime Minister; a wool fashion parade staged in the New Guinea Highlands; an unusual wedding celebrated underwater at Sydney’s Marineland; and tennis player Evonne Cawley (then Goolagong).

Note: the quality of the soundtrack on this clip is poor because of deterioration of the original sound negative.

The first Australian public viewing of Blue Poles (Number 11, 1952) by American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), 1974. The painting was purchased by director of National Gallery of Australia (NGA) James Mollison for $1.3 million in 1973 with approval from Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Mollison is seen here with director of AGNSW Peter Laverty. The painting was a controversial purchase of the time and still a topic of debate today. This is an excerpt from The Australian Movie Magazine No. 7415: Blue Poles.

One of Australia's most decorated Olympic athletes, Dawn Fraser was the first woman to break the minute for 100m and the only woman to capture the 100m freestyle in three successful Olympics: Melbourne (1956), Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964).

The clip features Dawn's famous 100m final in Tokyo in 1964. Pressed by the American teenage sensations Sharon Stouder and Kathy Ellis, who were expected to win all freestyle events, Dawn meets the challenge by setting a new Olympic figure of 59.9 seconds.

Her performance in Tokyo was also remarkable considering the circumstances leading up to the event. Dawn was involved in a car crash which resulted in the tragic death of her mother. Dawn suffered injuries resulting in her neck and back being encased in a steel brace for weeks and was racked with depression after the accident.

Dawn's ability to overcome these physical and mental barriers – and then win gold – shows toughness and determination perhaps unparalleled in Australia's Olympic history. These events were later dramatised in the Australian feature film biopic Dawn! (Kan Hannam, Australia, 1979).

The later part of the clip features Dawn at the Prince Alfred Park pool, where she took up a coaching appointment. As stated in the clip, Dawn’s younger students take the opportunity to study her faultless technique while she swims her daily mile.

One of the delights of this newsreel segment is how it successfully edits together snippets of Dawn’s swimming career with her current occupation as a swimming instructor (including her ambitions to coach an Olympic champion).

Playing out as a kind of ‘then’ and ‘now’ of Dawn’s life, the clip’s controlled but dramatic voice-over is typical of newsreels and advertisements of the time.

Excerpt from Australian Movie Magazine No. 7048, 26 November 1970.

Three year old Victor Willey Jr gives a customer a smooth shave with a sharp razor, at his father's barbershop in Sydney's Brighton-Le-Sands in 1938.

This is an excerpt from Movietone News A0233 from 1938.

Check out the Cinesound Movietone newsreel curated collection for other classic newsreels.

'Movietone recalls news highlights of an eventful year ... 1963', reads the opening title of this newsreel which provides a wonderfully edited snapshot of key local and international events in 1963, and how they were viewed at the time.

They include the Profumo Affair in the UK, US President John F Kennedy's assassination, torrential rain in Sydney, a royal visit, Australian politics and notable sporting achievements.

This newsreel item from 1953 shows the activities of schoolchildren in Australia anticipating the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on 2 June 1953.

In Melbourne, we see schoolchildren looking at an exhibition of dolls dressed in royal regalia. The proceeds from the exhibition are going to the Queen Elizabeth Child Health Centre.

At Newport in Sydney, children – resplendent in carefully constructed replica gowns – re-enact the coronation in the grounds of their school.

At Fort Street School in Sydney, 11-year-old Kay Hogden is confidently reciting her speech, the recording of which is promptly flown to London and broadcast on the BBC before the coronation.

A Fox Movietone cameraman stands on top of a car, filming a fighter aircraft as it flies overhead.

This clip is taken from the Fox Movietone newsreel Annette Kellerman Returns to Australia.

After living and working abroad since 1905, swimmer, vaudeville performer, silent movie star, author and entrepreneur Annette Kellerman arrives back in Australia to a warm welcome in 1933.

Kellerman knew how to market herself and make people sit up and take notice. A fine example of this is her reference to her next novel – which she laments may never be finished because 'nowadays a novel has to have so much sex appeal and I don't know a thing about that'. 

It's not clear who the people are standing behind her in this newsreel, but their shy smiles and reactions to her talk of nudity and sex appeal show how ahead of her time Kellerman was.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This clip features the opening title sequence for the Australian Movie Magazine theatrical newsreel.

Note: the quality of the soundtrack on this clip is poor because of deterioration of the original sound negative.

A news story from 1989, when the NFSA launched Operation Newsreel to preserve, restore, catalogue and copy the Cinesound Movietone Australian Newsreel Collection (1929 to 1975).

Operation Newsreel was a $4 million project funded by government and privately sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox, Greater Union and News Corporation.

In the days before television, cinema newsreels were an important source of news and current affairs and formed an integral part of the cinema program. They cover significant events in Australian social, cultural and political history.

The lion is one of the most iconic symbols of Lunar New Year festivities.

This Cinesound Newsreel clip, filmed in Sydney in 1937 (Year of the Ox), features a lion dance performance accompanied by drums and percussion and could be the earliest known film of Chinese New Year celebrations in Australia.

The lion dances are a highlight of traditional Chinese New Year celebrations.

The lion, as well as the noise from the fireworks and music, is intended to scare away evil spirits to make way for good luck to come to the community.

Margaret Macallum visits a quiet stretch of the Anatoki River in Nelson Province, New Zealand, where she feeds the local eels.

The eels come when Margaret taps the water; they allow her to pat and handle them, and they take food from her hands.

Woman Adopts Strange Hobby of Eel Taming: New Zealand is an excerpt from Movietone News A0672 from 1946. 

Check out the Cinesound Movietone newsreel curated collection for other classic newsreels.

This clip begins with footage of Salvation Army headquarters where food and drink are provided to Australian troops. At a village base, Papuan stretcher carriers bring men to be tended by an AIF doctor who bandages the injured. The voice-over narration says that 'these are realities of war’. Salvation Army officer Albert Moore lights the cigarette of a wounded soldier propping himself up on his elbows. Other men are gathered around him. A man whose arm is in a sling stands in front of a village hut. A village at Eora Creek is shown in tropical rain. Papuan carriers climb the track in the rain and members of the 39th Battalion labour along the Kokoda track up steep muddy inclines and through thick jungle. The final three shots show a group of men walking through ankle-deep mud; a tighter framing of the same scene; and a pan across the faces of four weary Australian soldiers.

The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games introduced a new feature: a purpose-built village for the athletes, as seen in the newsreel excerpt.

In previous Commonwealth Games, competitors had been housed in hotels or billeted in private homes but the Western Australian State Housing Commission decided to use the need for accommodation to develop a modern housing development. In 1959, the council set aside 65 acres of land in City Beach. The area is now a Perth suburb, but in the early 1960s it was still mostly bushland. 

The houses themselves were not luxurious; most didn't have a television and there were no telephones. Boy scouts and girl guides worked as runners taking messages.

According to the newsreel, the Games hosted 1200 visiting athletes from 35 countries, representing 660 million people. The housing project cost was estimated at £1 million.

A Cinesound Review newsreel story about the premiere of UK-Australian film The Overlanders at the Lyceum Theatre in Sydney on 27 September 1946.

Seen in this clip are some of the film's stars – John Nugent Hayward and Helen Grieve – as well as visiting American radio broadcaster Norman Corwin, Dutch director Joris Ivens, artist William Dobell with Mrs Chips Rafferty, journalist David McNicoll, the ABC's Charles Moses and Herc McIntyre of Universal Pictures.

Actor Ron Randell, star of the recent biopic Smithy (Ken G Hall, Australia, 1946) about Charles Kingsford Smith, is besieged by autograph hunters.

The Overlanders was made in Australia by English director Harry Watt for Ealing Studios, at the request of the Australian Government. It starred Chips Rafferty as a drover who undertakes an epic cattle run across Australia during the Second World War, assisted by a motley crew.

The Overlanders was an unprecedented box-office hit at the Lyceum (and wherever it played), continuing its run into February 1947.

The Lyceum Theatre in Sydney's Pitt Street opened in 1892 and screened the first Lumière productions in 1896. Rebuilt and reopened in 1918 as Hoyts Lyceum Theatre, it showed a number of notable Australian silent and talking pictures as part of its program.

It was refurbished in a New Deco style as the New Lyceum Theatre (now managed by Greater Union) in 1941. The cinema was closed for two years by fire in the mid-1960s and then closed its doors in 1987. Today, the site is part of the Wesley Centre, which opened after extensive renovations in 1991.

Notes by Stephen Groenewegen

Strapper-cum-trainer Tommy Woodcock feeds Phar Lap, or Bobby as he calls him, his favourite treat - sugar cubes.

Phar Lap is pictured with Billy Elliot (left), the Australian jockey who rode Phar Lap at the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico, and his track jockey Jack Martin (right). Tommy feeds lines to Billy, encouraging Australians to bet on Phar Lap for the prestigious race.

Jack Martin offers Phar Lap a cigarette and then feeds him sugar. Billy Elliot puts a pipe in Phar Lap's mouth and we see Phar Lap enjoying a roll in the dust.

Little did anyone know that these would be some of the last pictures of Phar Lap seen alive. He died two weeks after his big win at Agua Caliente. This segment is taken from Movietone News Volume 3 No. 15 - Phar Lap Idol of the Australian Turf.

This newsreel features highlights from the 1965 grand final which finished with the St George Dragons defeating the South Sydney Rabbitohs by 12 points to 8.

At the time, the crowd of 78,056 people set a new attendance record. In 1965, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) capacity was 70,000 – a number which was reached a full two hours before kick-off.

Surrounding streets and parks were packed with an estimated 40,000 more who were still trying to get into the ground. Hundreds broke in by storming the Members' gates and climbing the grandstands onto the roofs.

Others bought tickets to the motor show next door at the Sydney Showground and gained a vantage point from there. Eventually police allowed thousands to sit on the ground itself, covering the outer ring of the oval.

This record for attendance at a rugby league match stood for 34 years, until the Sydney Olympic Stadium opened in 1999.

Nightclub owner Tony Murphy recruits Batman and Robin to launch his new club. The Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder arrive, not in the Batmobile, but in a Mini Moke! Murphy greets our superheroes at the door before they dance, rather awkwardly you’d have to say, with patrons inside.

A newsreel featuring the female lifesavers that patrolled Terrigal beach from 1942 to 1945, during the Second World War.

Bill Trerise with a camera on a tripod and one other man on top of Movietone Sound camera car 56, with three other men on the ground.