Song performed by John Collinson about Mildura, circa 1926.

Private footage of Australia’s ‘Queen of Song’ relaxing with her family at Coombe Cottage, her outer Melbourne residence in 1927.

In celebration of the 160th anniversary of Dame Nellie Melba’s birth, we reveal previously unseen private footage of Australia’s ‘Queen of Song’.

Private footage of Australia’s ‘Queen of Song’ relaxing with her family at Coombe Cottage, her outer Melbourne residence in 1927.

In this excerpt from the premiere episode of This Fabulous Century, Peter Luck’s hugely successful nostalgic trawl through Australia’s recent past, a 1978 location visit to Dame Nellie Mel

This clip features imagery of the film For the Term of his Natural Life (originally released in 1927, but restored by the NFSA in 1981).

Excerpt from a silent comedy short directed by Stan Laurel and starring Australian comic Clyde Cook, James Finlayson, Tyler Brooke and an 18-year-old Fay Wray, of King Kong (1933

A copy of the novel For the Term of His Natural Life (Marcus Clarke, 1874) signed by the cast of the 1927 film adaptation. 

Restoring 'The Cheaters', a 1929 silent film by the pioneering McDonagh sisters.

Glass negative of Stuart Booty with his wife in a garden.