This 1994 documentary is about the original Indigenous custodians of the Brisbane area.

The clip shows aerial shots of modern day Brisbane and the voice-over narration tells us of the legacy of natural phenomena and Indigenous culture upon which the city of Brisbane is built.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

This clip from a Seven News Brisbane special includes early footage from the Royal Queensland Show, or Ekka ('Exhibition') for short.

The annual agricultural show is a Queensland institution and the state’s biggest event attracting over 400,000 visitors.

First held in 1876 it was inspired by other international showcases such as the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 in Britain.

Although short, this clip skilfully evokes memories of the Ekka by pairing silent archival footage of people enjoying rides with old-fashioned carousel music.

Stills of the first exhibitions at the Brisbane Showgrounds show the scale of the event and underline social historian Dr Joanne Scott’s comments about the Ekka’s role in putting Queensland on the map.

Scott’s research reveals there were 1,700 exhibits in more than 650 classes at the first Ekka. Items displayed included stained-glass windows, dugong meat, embroidery and artificial limbs.

Today there are best in show prizes for animals, agriculture, horticulture, education, arts and cookery. Live music, exhibitions, fireworks, food, rides and showbags are also now part of the Ekka experience.

The Ekka has only been cancelled four times to date – 1919, during the Spanish flu pandemic; at the height of the Second World War in 1942; and 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This short segment focuses on the metamorphosis of the South Bank site in Brisbane along Maiwar (Brisbane River).

Using a variety of news footage and archival material we see the space changing from a busy wharf to the venue for Expo 88 and finally its redevelopment into South Bank parklands.

World Expo 88 was a significant moment in Brisbane’s history and went from April to October 1988, attracting over 15 million visitors.

The main focus of the exposition were 100 pavilions from different countries and Australian states along the theme of ‘leisure in the age of technology’.

Other attractions included in this clip are the monorail, street performers and the platypus mascot named Expo Oz. The clip features the Expo 88 theme song ‘Together We’ll Show the World’ by Frank Millward and Carol Lloyd.

This 30-second segment is a good example of using eye-catching footage from many angles including helicopter footage and an evocative soundtrack to tell a story and convey a vibe, even in a relatively short space of time.

There is even a cameo appearance from Beyond 2000’s Amanda Keller wearing a hat and 1980s spiked hair.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Ludo Studio's Emmy award-winning children's animated television series Bluey prominently features Brisbane as its setting.

Bluey and Bandit Heeler appear in this still from Series One, Episode 39: Copycat, along with Brisbane's Story Bridge and the 'Tower of Power' building at 1 William St.

In 2020, Bluey won an International Emmy Kids Award (in the Kids: Preschool category) and the AACTA Award for Best Children's Program.

In 2019, the program's awards included the Logie for Most Outstanding Children's Program and Best Music for Children's Television at the APRA-AMCOS Screen Music Awards.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Australian Diary 77: New Australians Live in Unusual Home is a short program from the Film Australia Library.

Bridge toll-keeper George MacDougal and his wife live inside one of the two apartments in Brisbane's Walter Taylor Bridge. Opened in 1936, it was then known as the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge. The primary toll was sixpence (some vehicles were charged more) until it was removed in 1965.

Three generations of the bridge's original toll-master, Morton John Green, lived in the Indooroopilly pylon for more than 70 years. George and his wife, who was the sister-in-law of Morton's brother William Herbert Green, lived on the Chelmer side of the bridge.

The MacDougals also had a son called Robert, who worked shifts as a toll collector. William Green was Chair of the Board of Directors of the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge Pty Ltd. 

The narrator's comment about Mrs MacDougal serving her 'Lord and master' reveals the expected gender roles of 1950s Australia.

The bridge is the longest span suspension street in Australia. Interestingly it was built using support cables initially used in the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Used by about 35,000 cars a day, it remains the only habitable bridge in the Southern Hemisphere.

Filmed between 1947 and 1970, the Australian Diary series records how Australians have lived, worked and played over the years. Film Australia Collection © NFSA.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Updated in 2022 with thanks to Elaine Miles, one of Mort Green's grandchildren

The State of Origin is an annual rugby league series between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons. 

This clip focuses on the first State of Origin game, held on 8 July 1980 at Lang Park in Brisbane. The Maroons won 20-10.

Legendary Queensland players Arthur Beetson, Wally Lewis, John Lang, Kerry Boustead, Chris Close and a young Mal Meninga (then only 20 years old) played on the day.

This first Origin match was controversial, with players representing their ‘state of origin’ rather than the state where they currently played.

Many of Queensland’s best players had been lured by the higher paying New South Wales clubs, so it made for a tense match. 

The voice-over accurately describes it as a ‘brutal encounter’. The game footage, covered brilliantly from several different angles, backs up that statement with plenty of aggro on the field.

The choice to include the original Seven Network commentary (‘it’s on for young and old now!’) emulates the feeling of watching this historic game live.

This 30-second segment is a fine example of the storytelling potential that good footage provides, even in a relatively short space of time.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This short clip covers the Whiskey Au Go Go fire, a tornado in 1973 and the 1974 Brisbane flood. 

All three segments rely on compelling eyewitness accounts from survivors, news footage and amateur home movies.

The disasters are grouped together because of their timing in the chronological special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years which adds to the dramatic tension of the segments as a whole.

The Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley was firebombed on 8 March 1973, killing 15 people.

On 4 November 1973 a tornado travelled 51 kilometres, ripping through Brisbane and causing severe damage to thousands of properties.

The last segment describes the Brisbane flood of January 1974, awkwardly straddling a lighthearted approach to vision of someone swimming at Lang Park and people being able to catch fish on a main street, with an emotional statement from a woman who lost her home. 

Ipswich, Beenleigh and the Gold Coast were also flooded. Sixteen people died in the floods, 300 were injured and 8,000 homes were destroyed. 

Other major floods in the Brisbane River system include 1824–5, 1841, 1893 and 2011.

The Queensland State Emergency Service (QSES) was formed in 1975 to assist with natural disasters in direct response to the tornado and flooding.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This news segment is a fine example of a feel-good story with a hook to a local event that typically screens at the end of a news bulletin.

Colin Cunningham was a dairy farmer and cheesemaker for 40 years before turning his hand to making gelato, perfecting his recipe in 2015 in time for the Ekka honour.

The Royal Queensland Food and Wine Awards are a precursor to the Royal Queensland Show, or Ekka for short, which attracts over 400,000 visitors each year.

The story segues into another ice cream winner – Olympic silver medal-winning pole vaulter Tatiana Grigorieva, who at the time owned an ice cream shop in Brisbane, and finally the stiff competition for the finest cheese in Australia.

Bill McDonald presents the story reported by Eammon Atkinson for Seven News Brisbane. Broadcast 8 May 2015.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Re-enactment of an Aboriginal man moving with spear in hand is intercut with historical photographs of Aboriginal men.

Voice-over narration tells us about the geological impact upon the formation of the Brisbane and Moreton Bay regions. The rising of the waters after the last ice age meant that many Indigenous sites disappeared beneath the ocean. This clip introduces us to the Yaggera or Jagera people.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This clip shows historical photographs and drawings of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and townships are intercut with contemporary images of Brisbane.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

The city of Brisbane, Queensland as seen through the eyes of European migrants in 1975.

Produced by the Department of Labor and Immigration. Part of the NFSA’s Film Australia Collection.

Amateur filmmaker Neville Govett talks about his footage of Brisbane at the end of the Second World War in September 1945.

It is powerful to hear him narrating the silent colour footage of crowds walking down Queen Street that he shot decades earlier. This is a great example of the importance of home movie and amateur footage in capturing significant historical moments.

Govett’s footage is cut together with black-and-white newsreel footage. Together they effectively show the jubilant atmosphere in Brisbane that day.

An account from war nurse Sadie Newton of the unemployment faced by many returned soldiers is overlaid with footage of boats filled with hopeful soldiers returning home to Brisbane. The decision to include both perspectives evokes a bittersweet image of the time.

The next segment in this clip touches on European migration and the housing shortage after the war. It features footage from multiple sources and includes examples of the distinctive Queenslander architecture which Brisbane is known for.

This sequence is a good example of a timeline compilation program. It doesn’t go into detail about any of the events it covers which can be frustrating at times, but overall it gives a satisfying overview of major moments in Brisbane’s history.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Content warning: this video contains disturbing footage of an effigy of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo hanging from a building.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Matilda the Kangaroo, mascot of the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane, winks at the crowd during the opening ceremony of the games. After Matilda makes her way into the QE II Stadium (now the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre), children in kangaroo suits emerge from Matilda's massive pouch. The Australian flag and a map of Australia (minus Tasmania because it 'didn't fit') are created by over 6000 school children with coloured boards and fabric that blow about in the wind.

We see the teams from Canada, Jersey, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu and Australia marching out while the crowd cheers. This is an excerpt from All That Glitters, 1983, The Official Film XII Commonwealth Games Brisbane 1982. Film Australia Collection © NFSA.

Notes by Beth Taylor

A look inside an early childcare centre located in Brisbane in the late 1940s.

Produced by the Department of Information and the Australian National Film Board. Part of the NFSA’s Film Australia Collection. 

Fed up with being excluded from drinking in public bars just because they were women, in March 1965 Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the bar of the Regatta Hotel, Brisbane in protest.

This act was a defining moment in Australian feminism and resulted in the repeal of section 59A of the Queensland Liquor Act in 1970.

Archival news footage of the protests is essential to the impact of this clip. This footage is a fine example of the importance of local news outlets who capture events that later become important moments in Australia’s history.

It is also powerful to hear comments from Merle herself, as well as her daughter, actress Sigrid Thornton.

Merle was awarded an honorary doctorate for her contribution to Australian society by the University of Queensland in 2020.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This actuality footage shot in 1899 shows electric trams in Queen Street, Brisbane, with the Treasury building and Victoria Bridge in the background.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

This actuality footage shows a train pulling up to Roma Street Station, Brisbane in 1899. Commuters disembark and exit the platform via a side gate or walk up the stairs towards the camera.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit Brisbane in 1954, just two years after Elizabeth became Queen of England and the Commonwealth.

The introduction of dramatised first-hand accounts from people in the crowd that day feels jarring when there is already a voice-over in place in addition sync sound from the footage.

Footage of the Queen and Prince Philip in an open-topped vehicle driving past huge crowds conveys the excitement of the day and evokes another era.

The Queen’s 1954 visit was documented in the first colour feature made in Australia, The Queen in Australia (1954), produced by the Australian National Film Board.

The second part of this clip covers the opening of Chermside Drive-in Shopping Centre (now Westfield Chermside) on 31 May 1957 by Queensland Premier Vince Gair.

The edit transitions on the year intertitles date the special, and the brevity of each segment can be unsatisfying, leaving the viewer wanting more information.

The strength of the clip is its juxtaposition of carefully chosen archival footage and commentary to create a sense that a lot has changed but some things remain the same – such as the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and Australia’s addiction to shopping centres.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

For more about Queen Elizabeth II's connection with Australia see our curated collections on The Queen in Australia and The Royal Family in Australia.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Episode 1 of the Life in Australia series.

This series was made to encourage immigration to Australia and to highlight the various social activities, employment and educational opportunities and lifestyles of the various cities and regional centres throughout Australia.

This film shows an idyllic picture of life in the Queensland capital of Brisbane in the mid 1960s.

Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit 1964. Directed by Robert Parker and now available in 4K HD. 

Film Australia Collection © NFSA. Buy a copy of Life In Australia: Brisbane or of the whole Life In Australia series at the NFSA online shop.

A portrait of the sub-tropical city of Brisbane, Queensland in the mid 1950s. Queensland's capital city lies near the sub-tropical parts of Australia and its way-of-life has a more leisurely tempo.

Outdoor life provides a colourful pattern and night life has its gay spots. Made by the National Film Board 1954.

The first edition of The Courier-Mail newspaper was published on 28 August 1933 as a result of a merger between the Brisbane Courier and the Daily Mail.

This short clip includes stills and footage of the newspaper headquarters. It is interesting to see how footage of many behind-the-scenes processes – originally filmed to show how modern the paper was – feature technologies that have been superseded by computers and other digital innovations.

This is a good example of how TV news and documentary reporting pieces together archival footage with context from a voice-over to tell stories about the past and present.

Technologies featured include old camera equipment, photo development, teletype machines, typesetting machines, printing presses, typewriters, telephones and newspaper delivery carts.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited acquired control of the paper in 1987.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This actuality footage was taken by the official photographer of the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Frederick Charles Wills, and his assistant, Henry William Mobsby in 1899. Crowds line the streets to watch the First Queensland Cavalry Contingent parade just before it departs for the Boer War in South Africa.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

This clip of actuality footage was shot in 1899. It shows Queensland politicians boarding the paddle steamer Lucinda, moored at a wharf on the Brisbane River. The parliamentarians walk the gangway onto the boat, which moves away from the wharf. A waterside worker tidies the ropes.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

This is a moving portrait of the charity work of the Brisbane City Mission for the poor at a time when many people struggled financially because of the Depression.

A volunteer worker lays out blankets and quilts fashioned from donated materials, and then displays them to the camera. In another room, blankets and rugs are stacked in preparation for redistribution to those identified as needing the service. Women (some mothers with young children) collect the blankets from volunteers.

Summary by Poppy De Souza

This short silent clip shows a rollerskating carnival at a rink in Brisbane.

It was produced by West's Pictures and is probably the Glideway Skating Rink in Melbourne Street, South Brisbane, which opened in 1909.

It shows men, women and a few children rollerskating, women playing a form of skating hockey and what appears to be a game of musical chairs.

Officers of the Queensland Mounted Infantry lead some reluctant horses down a ramp to board the SS Cornwall on 31 October 1899 in Brisbane, prior to departing for the Boer War.

Summary Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

This footage from 20 March 1938 is from the Maryborough Railway employees’ picnic held at Scarness, Queensland.

Children and families from Gympie, Bundaberg, Kingaroy, Childers and other south-east Queensland areas all attend. It includes scenes of children boarding trains at Maryborough, their arrival at Scarness train station, the grand parade and marching bands, the ‘Belle of the Beach’ beauty contest and happy children eating ice-creams supplied by Maryborough Railway.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

The boys at Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in Queensland’s southeast sleep in open wards.

The dormitories are connected to a main dining room where they gather for meals. The superintendent and his wife keep watch over the Home’s inhabitants. The boys are encouraged to participate in outside sports to maintain contact with the community and are responsible for their own garden plot, from which they sell vegetables and flowers.

The boys are also taught agricultural skills and dairy farming in this self-sufficient farm home.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

Over a montage of slum housing in the city of Brisbane, a voice-over talks of the plight of the poor and ‘indecently housed’. A group of hungry men wait outside the Mission’s premises where they gratefully receive their food parcels.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

Late 1940s in the industrial centre of Ipswich, Queensland. A look at everyday life featuring railway workshops, woollen and timber mills, coal mining, schools, housing, food, local shops and sports.

Produced by the Department of Information and the Australian National Film Board. Part of the Film Australia Collection.

Trams recorded at the corner of Adelaide and Wharf Sts, Brisbane, Qld in May 1967.

This recording is part of the James Eric Bird Collection of Steam Trains of NSW, even though this one is neither a train, nor is it in NSW. Mr Bird was the first manager of the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum, and recorded numerous trains around NSW in the 1960s.

His family would be delighted if his recordings were used and appreciated, so they are downloadable under a Creative Commons licence and we would love to hear of any use or re-use you may find for them.

Champion racehorse Bernborough wins the 1947 Ahern Memorial 10,000 at Doomben.

Produced by the Department of Information and the Australian National Film Board. Part of the NFSA’s Film Australia Collection.

At Eventide, the government-run home for the aged and infirm, a Brisbane City Mission welfare officer pays a visit to those within the ground’s hospital wards.

The nursing matron is shown while the voice-over narration highlights the importance of her role. This clip includes shots of Eventide’s extensive grounds, including streets, living quarters and gardens.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

This short film is actuality footage of Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland, arriving by horse-drawn carriage to open Queensland Parliament on 18 May 1899. The carriage is escorted by members of Queensland’s Permanent Artillery on horseback. A guard of honour awaits, and then salutes, the governor’s arrival. After he exits, the carriage departs.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

The Brisbane tramway network served the city between 1885 and 1969.

The music accompanying the archival footage of the 199-kilometre tram network and its routes is an attempt to evoke a wistful sense of loss in viewers.

Much of the footage appears to have been shot by an amateur enthusiast and its super-8 aesthetic adds to the charm of the clip.

The tone of the segment shifts abruptly from misty, colour-saturated memories to black-and-white news footage of the somewhat comic aftermath of buses driven by tram drivers crashing throughout the city.

This jarring change in mood exemplifies the limitations of working with archival footage from different sources in a production of this kind.

This excerpt comes from the Seven News Brisbane special Queensland: Flashback 150 Years, broadcast on 30 May 2009. It was produced for the 150th anniversary of the state of Queensland. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859.

Notes by Beth Taylor

This actuality footage from 1899 shows workers carrying away rubble in wheelbarrows from a demolition site. As a man on the site watches, the wall they’ve just been working in front of crashes down.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

This actuality footage from 1899 shows the unloading of timber spars from the SS Katoomba at a busy wharf in Brisbane.

Gwen Ryan and Claude Carnell’s Orchestra – Coolangatta’s Souvenir Record MX54594.