More than a million train passengers a day go through the gates at Flinders Street Station, Melbourne. Claimed to be the largest one station traffic in the world. Control of passengers and freight trains, in and out of Flinders Street and on time, is a masterpiece of precision planning. Made by National Film Board 1953. Directed by Eric Thompson.

Travelling around Sydney using a variety of public transport. Examines the morning traffic build-up to peak hour as workers in Sydney set out by train, ferry, bus and car for their daily work. 

Made by The Commonwealth Film Unit 1971. Directed by Brian Hannant. Film Australia Collection © NFSA

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.

Jim McKenzie is a taxi driver from Perth in Western Australia. He owns his own cab and has been in business about four years. Jim likes his work, but it is an odd sort of job: the hours are long but you meet all sorts of people. But a man is his own boss; for blokes like him, that's important. Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit, 1972.

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

From an elevated position above Central Square (now Railway Square) in Sydney, the camera films the bustle of the streets at rush hour where people transfer from trams to trains and suburban trams to take them out of the city.

The camera observes the people in the streets, some of whom notice they are being filmed. It pans to the left to capture trams coming in from the other direction, before panning back to show one of the trams circling around an intersection.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

At Anzac Parade Junction, trams carry crowds from the racecourse to Circular Quay and from the Sydney Showground to Central Station.

The busy intersection is a bustling chaos of trams, buses, cars and pedestrians all of which are kept in order by the adept directions of traffic police.

The camera films from a slightly elevated vantage point at one corner of the intersection, following the movement of the traffic as it flows across the junction.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

This actuality footage shows a steam ferry docking at the Milsons Point Ferry Wharf in 1899. Workers prepare to receive the ferry as passengers on board ready for disembarkation.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

This actuality footage from 1899 begins with a shot of commuters on a Sydney railway platform approaching an incoming train. A man holds a folded newspaper, while one woman carries a parasol. The clip cuts to the view from the back of the moving train after it has passed under an overhead bridge and is pulling into the station.

Summary by Elizabeth Taggert - Speers

Two young siblings plot to change the energy habits of their parents.

In a humorous and slightly anarchistic way Madison and Mitchell demonstrate in five commercials that small changes can make a big difference to the environment. All over Australia, suburb by suburb, family by family, Australians are making positive changes to shape a better future. As Madison and Mitchell say, 'if we can do it, you can too'.

This film was made for Film Australia's Change the World in 5 Minutes project. 

This recording was made on 27 March 1966 at central railway Station, Sydney, NSW. It features the whistle of Mikado 59 class engine 5914 leaving Central for Katoomba, preceded by an announcement.

The recording is part of the James Eric Bird Collection of Steam Trains of 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 from SoundCloud under a Creative Commons licence and we would love to hear of any use or re-use you may find for them.

In this 1920 newsreel, work commences at Victoria Parade for the electrification of the cable tram system of Collins Street, Melbourne.

At the conclusion of the final race in the Sydney Cup at Randwick Racecourse, a large crowd is marshalled out to waiting trams.

Thousands of people stream onto the platform and pile in before they travel out of shot and onto their destination. In the upper background of the frame, another section of the crowd can just be seen climbing the steps to the footbridge which passes over the trams below.

Notes by Poppy De Souza

Before the Bridge – Sydney in the Silent Film Era (1896–1929) is a series of silent film highlights that screened at Martin Place during the 2012 Sydney Film Festival.

Scenes:

Dame Nellie Melba arriving at Central Station, Sydney in 1909. This is the earliest known surviving footage of the famous Australian soprano.

Intertitles: Melba arrives in Sydney.

Excerpt from a 1919 Australasian Gazette newsreel. The Hopetoun Quays residential complex now occupies the former site of the Balmain Colliery, which closed in 1945.

Intertitles: Sydney, NSW. A Difficult Job. Hauling a 30-ton Boiler up a Steep Hill from the Balmain Colliery. Twenty-six horses each doing their bit.

Dramatic footage of the Pastoral Finance Association's Woolstore ablaze at Kirribilli Point in December 1921. A well-known landmark at the time, the destruction of this 7-storey building remains one of inner-Sydney's largest fire disasters.

Film of opening round matches of the 1924 NSWRFL (now NRL) season.

Intertitles: Sydney. Rugby League kicks off. Football season promises to be greatest in history of the game. South Sydney has good, hard-fought triumph over Western Suburbs. At Sports Ground Easts have narrow win from Newtown.

Excerpt from a 1928 documentary on Sydney's busy tramway system. Filmed as huge crowds depart Randwick Racecourse.

Intertitles: A glimpse of the Sydney Cup at Randwick Racecourse. Marshalling hundreds of cars for the return Racecourse Traffic. After the last race the rush commences. An exceptional feat in Tramway Transportation. Trams move the huge crowd at the rate of 1,000 per minute.

Images from the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive curated by Simon Smith.

Before the Bridge – Sydney in the Silent Film Era (1896–1929) is a series of silent film highlights that screened at Martin Place during the 2012 Sydney Film Festival.

Scenes:

Footage filmed on top of a Sydney tram heading south down George Street in 1906.

American boxer Jack Johnson filmed training at Rushcutters Bay in December 1908, in preparation for his World Heavyweight Championship title match at Sydney Stadium against Canadian Tommy Burns.

Daylight saving is introduced to NSW on 1 January 1917. Swimmers flock to Bondi Beach.

Rugby League representative game, SCG, 5 June 1922. New Zealand Maori vs NSW Second Thirteen. This is the earliest known surviving film of rugby league action in Australia.

Excerpt from a government sponsored documentary on the major landmarks of the city of Sydney, circa 1927.

Images from the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive curated by Simon Smith.

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.

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

A Glen Iris tram causes chaos when electric tram wires fuse, with the wire cutting into the road and tramlines. Passers-by stop to look.

A group of men stand in front of the body of a newly constructed single-decker bus. The bus is pulled along the street by a small tractor while two men walk beside it. The next sequence shows another bus (which has an open frame) pull out of the depot onto the street. A double-decker bus then comes out onto the street and drives past the camera. A young boy waves out a side window as it passes by.

The bus-rail hybrid was designed to service minor rail lines in Sydney that did not have enough passengers to justify the larger rail motor.

This silent historical footage filmed by Millard Johnson and William Gibson captures the opening of the Prahran-Malvern Tramway, Victoria, on 30 May 1910, at a time when few people had seen moving pictures let alone a film camera. 

Genni Batterham protests at the opening of Bondi Junction railway station in 1979 about the lack of accessible transport options for people with disabilities.

Genni was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1978 and she was incapacitated very quickly. Angry about being 'consigned to the world of the disabled' she tried anything and everything to halt the progress of the disease. 

'Pins and Needles', made with her husband Kim, was one response arising from this anger. Funded by the Australian Film Commission's Women's Film Fund, and directed by Barbara Chobocky, it was translated into five languages and won first prize at the 1980 Canadian Film Festival and second prize at the 1980 New York Film Festival. 

The 1979 Bondi Junction protest was an important moment in the history of the Disability Rights Movement in New South Wales. The Premier, Neville Wran, later said that the experience led him to developing the Disability Taxi Service, the first public transport system designed for people with disabilities to be launched in Australia. 

Excerpt from Pins and Needles (Kim Batterham, Australia 1980). Courtesy of Kim Batterham.