Although we have a sense of the sequence of events at an AFL game, being silent and without intertitles, this footage is difficult to follow.

Australian Rules Football match synopsis

This segment is included in a title called Wheat Harvesting and contains historical footage from the 1920s covering a variety of subjects that reveal glimpses of Victorian life including: street scenes in central Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Alfred Deakin’s funeral and an AFL match. It also includes footage of wheat harvesting.

Curator's notes

The camera work is simple and basic. While the camera remains mostly still, there are some slow panning shots and edits. Apart from a few intertitles to introduce a segment, there are no intertitles throughout the segments.

As with a lot of early historical footage, its provenance is unknown. The nitrate print from which this copy was made is in good condition and the image is clear. Intertitles suggest it may have been used in a newsreel, but lack of production details or a title card at the beginning of the film make this speculation only.

Notes by Elizabeth Taggart - Speers