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Marvellous Melbourne: Swanston and Collins Streets by tram
Title:
Marvellous Melbourne: Swanston and Collins Streets by tram
NFSA ID
9525
Year
1910
A point-of-view shot of a tram crossing Princes Bridge towards the city shows Flinders Street Station on the left of the frame, and St Paul’s Cathedral on the right. Further along Swanston Street, horse carriages can be seen travelling on the outer parts of the road while pedestrians cross the road in front of the trams. Intertitles introduce static shots of the Town Hall, St Paul’s Cathedral and Collins Street. The clip ends as the camera reaches the back of the number 18 South Melbourne tram. Summary by Poppy De Souza
See more clips from the history of Melbourne in the Melbourne Time Capsule curated collection.
Marvellous Melbourne is a compilation of a series of films that Higgins and Spencer made about aspects of everyday life in the city and premiered at Wirth’s Olympia in Melbourne on 22 November 1910. The footage, with its camera angles, static shots, dollies and steady pans across the city, illustrates the beauty and many attractions of the city of Melbourne and is an important visual record of Melbourne’s history.
According to the National Film and Sound Archive database, this is the ‘oldest surviving complete documentary film on Melbourne’. Cozens Spencer, a Londoner, moved to Australia in 1905 and successfully exhibited films throughout the country. In 1908, Spencer formed a production unit (Spencers Pictures) with the cameraman Ernest Higgins, and made a number of short actuality films, this being one example. Spencer later went on to produce feature films, some with director Raymond Longford.
Marvellous Melbourne synopsis
This silent documentary with intertitles was compiled by producer Charles Cozens Spencer and cinematographer Ernest Higgins. It documents architecture, transport, and recreation in Melbourne in the early part of last century.
Notes by Poppy De Souza
Production company
Spencers Pictures
Director
Charles Cozens Spencer
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.