Wrong Side of the Road

A rock'n'road movie

Wrong Side of the Road (1981) is a documentary-style drama that follows the First Nations bands Us Mob, Coloured Stone and No Fixed Address as they move from gig to gig in South Australia. It is partly a road movie, as well as a protest film, a political film and a rock film.

It came out of the Centre for Studies of Aboriginal Music (CASM) at the University of Adelaide, where Graeme Isaac (who co-wrote and co-produced the film) was helping young Aboriginal people to form bands. Dorothy Leila Rankine was involved in the founding of CASM, and her daughter Gayle was one of the students who appeared in the film.

Isaac told australianscreen online, 'We wanted to take an audience, principally a white audience, onto the other side of the road for a while. And just to have them share in the day-to-day experiences of a group of young black Australians.'

Directed by Ned Lander, Wrong Side of the Road evolved as a collaboration between the filmmakers, the community and the featured musicians. Although it has a strong documentary feel to it, the film is a constructed drama.

The themes and content – including the personal stories woven throughout – emerged from workshopping the central characters. Much of the dialogue in the scenes was improvised by the actors, based on their own experiences.

An Emotional Reunion

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In 2013, the NFSA Indigenous Connections team worked with director Ned Lander and producer Graeme Isaac to reunite the 10 surviving Aboriginal cast members in Sydney.

We wanted to conduct a series of oral history interviews to capture some of the stories about making Wrong Side of the Road, as well as explore the impact this film has had on their lives and that of communities across Australia.

The significance of this event was evident when everyone arrived in Sydney, with pioneers of Aboriginal music and members of the bands No Fixed Address and Us Mob joining friends and associates.

It was a very emotional experience for everyone involved. Some were reconnecting after a 20-year period. Others were reflecting on their shared experiences of the trials and tribulations of challenging adversity through music, experiences that became the foundation of the film. For us, it was an honour to work with these legends of Aboriginal music and have them share their stories with the NFSA.

Bart Willoughby interview

Bart Willoughby is an Aboriginal music legend – a singer, songwriter, drummer and multi-instrumentalist who has been playing music since 1978. Willoughby is a founding member of the South Australian Aboriginal band No Fixed Address and a cast member in Wrong Side of the Road. In this clip, he talks about the healing effect that songwriting has had on his life:

Gayle Rankine interview

Aunty Leila 'Gayle' Rankine was a leading voice for Aboriginal people with a disability. She talks about her involvement in Wrong Side of the Road, back when she was a student at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at the University of Adelaide. Gayle's mother, Aunt Leila Rankine, was a founding member of CASM. The Rankine family were a well-known family of activists in the Nunga community of South Australia.

Looking for more? 

• Watch another excerpt from Wrong Side of the Road
• Watch an interview with Carroll Karpany, a founding member of Us Mob
• See a rare clip shot during the making of Wrong Side of the Road of Us Mob performing 'Sunshine'

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This article was first published in 2013 and updated in 2023 and 2025. It includes content from the Wrong Side of the Road entry on australianscreen online by Romaine Moreton and Paul Byrnes.

Main image: a scene from Wrong Side of the Road (1981). NFSA title: 26957