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Film Director Tells
Of North Aust. Needs
"Pedal radios and aeroplanes are as necessary as water to
development of Northern Australia/' said Mr. John Heyer, associate-director
to Mr. Harry Watt on the Australian documentary
film, "The Overlanders," who has returned to Sydney after four |
months in the inland.
"yAST distances between settlements
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could be overcome only by development
of radios and air travel, he added.
Discovery of an aboriginal corroboree
ground, hitherto unknown to white men
was one of the exciting experiences of
the film unit under Mr. Heyer's direction.
"The location of this ground is being
kept a strict secret by all members of
the film unit. It will be divulged only
to leading Australian anthropologists,
to whom the information may be of
scientific value," Mr. Heyer said.
The corroboree ground was discovered
accidentally. A location in the interior
was- chosen for some shots, where
a great slab of rock some 200 feet high
rose sheer out of the "frlain. About
halfway up this, a curve in the rock,
and a small shelf about 20 feet long,
provided a perfect natural amplifier,
so that voices could be distinctly heard
several hundred yards away.
While working here, some of the film
unit discovered aboriginal totems and
implements hidden in small caves near
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the rock. These indicated that the I
corroboree ground had been in use
for countless years, and was still reeu-1
larly used.
After being photographed, the totems
were replaced and care was taken wot
to disturb anything on the area, which
was apparently the meeting place of
numerous aboriginal tribes of that
area.
"Northern ^Australia can provide us
with magnificent subject matter for
films," Mr. Heyer said. "There is, for
example, the historic trek of the three
Durack brothers from Southern
Queensland to the Ord River near
Wyndham about the '80's of last
century.
"They made this journey when the
country had never before been explored
by white men. It took them three
years—and they successfully brought
across over 70,000 head of cattle.
"The stupendous nature of their
achievement can be judged, when we
know that to-day it is considered a
major task to move a mob of 2,000
cattle along an organised route."
Mr. Heyer's unit recorded many of
the songs sung by stockmen on the
night watch, when they ride around the
mobs all night. Some of the stockmgn
sing Scotch ballads, the aboriginal
drovers have their own melodies.
The unit also heard a beautiful Australian
folk song. It was sung by a
son of a famous droving family—the
Zingenbines—and had been written b/
a Chines^ cook at Anthony's Lagoon.
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