Newcastle canoe race, 1941

This newsreel item from 1941 shows a canoe derby on Throsby Creek, Newcastle. It was of a fund-raising event to aid the purchase of a Spitfire aircraft during the Second World War. As crowds line the banks to watch, two ‘battleships’ hurl missiles at each other and the Bartolomeo Colleoni capsizes. The boy piloting the Sydney raises his arms in victory. Next we see a canoe race in more conventional craft, interspersed with shots of the crowd cheering on the competitors. The clip ends with two older boys racing for the finish line near a pier.