Mount Gambier: Life in Australia

'Plenty of room around here. Rich country, sheep and cattle, makes Mount Gambier a prosperous place.'

With its opening and closing scenes shot at Port MacDonnell, this film was made in 1964, when Mount Gambier had a population of 16,000 people. It shows a day in the life of a 'typical' Mount Gambier family in the 1960s. Dad smokes a pipe while fixing the lawnmower, mum dons a blue 'pinny' to kiss her husband off at the door, and little freckled Tony goes to sleep with pictures of The Beatles pinned above him.The film shows rural, agricultural and manufacturing industries of the area,  and features the recreational past times of members of the family.

Part of the Life In Australia series, made for the Department of Immigration, to entice immigrants from Europe. There’s no denying that these films were a marketing tool; Australia (and its cities and rural centres) was the product, and as such, it was presented as an idyllic destination where everyone led prosperous, happy lives. The scripts for each film are almost identical, covering employment and industry, education, sport, health care, shopping, religion, night-life, and art. Australia had everything anyone could wish for!