New England Story - the making of Captain Thunderbolt

This is the story of a film seen through the eyes of a child. I was too young to remember the making, but I did go to the premiere. I also grew up on stories of the film. Like all child-hood memories, indeed all memories, the story is an imperfect one. Still, it might be of interest.

Armidale, June 1955. Crowds gather outside Armidale's Capitol Theatre for the world premiere of the first  major film made in Armidale. It is very much a local affair, with locals gathering in an air of excitement to see themselves on film. We are upstairs; the darkness falls and the film rolls. There is Dad as foreman of the jury, wriggling his nose; next day, students post a star sign on his door. There is Aunt Kay being held up by Captain Thunderbolt.

The National Film and Sound Archives describes the plot in these terms:

Adventurer Fred Ward is sentenced to hard labour for horse theft, escapes, and becomes a bushranger under the name of Captain Thunderbolt. Stealing mainly from squatters, he quickly becomes notorious. Sergeant Mannix is assigned to capture him dead or alive, eventually trapping him. After a long gun-fight, Mannix finds he has killed Thunderbolt's friend Alan Blake, and that Thunderbolt has escaped. Mannix passes off Blake's body as Thunderbolt's but the legend persists that Thunderbolt still roams free.

Local historian Robin Walker rudely remarked that any connection between the film and history was purely accidental! Still, the excitement lingered for days.

Kentucky Creek, 25 May 1870. After a bushranging career that had taken him widely across Northern New South Wales, Frederick Ward (aka Captain Thunderbolt) is shot and killed by Constable Ward in Kentucky Creek near Uralla.

But was he shot or did he escape? The stories abound, gathering strength and confusion with the years.

Early 1951. Armidale. Cecil Holmes and his crew arrive in Armidale to shoot Captain Thunderbolt.

Born in New Zealand (and here) in 1921,Cecil Holmes was a trade unionist and communist with a strong sense of social justice who had made a name for himself in New Zealand as a documentary maker. In Australia, Holmes linked with fellow New Zealander Colin Scrimgeour, whose company Associated TV Pty Ltd was to act as the vehicle for Captain Thunderbolt. Holmes first feature film.

Interestingly since Australia did not yet have TV, the film was intended for international TV release, with a slightly longer cinema version. Heart throb Grant Taylor was to play Fred ward (Thunderbolt), Charles (Bud) Tingwell his friend Alan Blake, Rosemary Miller as Joan Blake, 

The photo shows Ward and Blake poised for action. Unless I am very much mistaken, the shot is taken in the country across Rockvale Road from the Pine Forest. I cannot remember which, but one of them is riding my grandfather's horse! 

The film crew's arrival caused great excitement. Locals lined up to take part as extras, the crew scrounged the countryside to find locations and for authentic kit to use, sand was laid in Armidale streets to disguise the tar.

An article by Max Brown in the Sunday Herald 8 April 1951 described the scene this way:    

I SPENT three weeks with the Captain Thunderbolt Production Unit in real Thunderbolt country 200 miles south of the Queensland border this month and have seen the unit at work in Sydney.

The shooting of "Captain Thunderbolt"- the film, not the man- had the quiet, cultured New England town of Armidale in a buzz for a fortnight.

A notice offering £500 re- ward for capture dead or alive of the outlaw was posted on a board outside the town's erstwhile police station. Horsemen flourishing guns thundered up and down the dirt roads outside the town almost every day chasing mail coaches and buckboards.

The Armidale Court House was turned inside out over one week-end for the trial of the outlaw for horse-stealing, and half the University College faculty, including the vice warden, Dr. James Belshaw, filed into the jury box in period dress.

Armidale folk, riding comfortably on the sheep's back in shadow of the high stone factories of learning which dominate the town (Armidale is the only town in the State with more schools than hotels) were debating again whether the police shot Thunderbolt or his accomplice.

Several approached bearded, frock-coated members of the cast in pubs and in the street and told them that Thunderbolt, for all his law-breaking, was a saint compared with a lot of men in Sydney and Canberra nowadays.

The above photo from cousin Jaimie's collection shows some of the extras with Grant Taylor. In the middle is Kath Vickers (nee Drummond) standing beside Grant Taylor, Shirly Barratt (Paul Barratt's mum) front below Kay, Mr Craigie back right,, Frank Holloway (German lecturer) with the black glasses next to Kay, Mrs Blake (wife of the editor, Armidale Express) and Des Vyner with the gun.

The next photo is an actual still from the film, taken around the time of the extras' shot. It shows Mrs Blake and Aunt Kay being held up. You can see that the clothes are the same.

There was a long gap from filming in 1951 to limited cinema release. This reflects the distribution problems that have so often plagued the Australian film industry. The film did finally make a profit, but this took so long that Colin Scrimgeour's production company was forced to close.

The film was something of a Robin Hood affair. The National Film and Sound Archives describes it in this way:   

The feature Captain Thunderbolt is made with an originality and intelligence that separates it from most Australian features made to that time. Having a strong political undertone, it takes a stand on such issues as championing the underdog, mocking the colonial aristocracy, satirising xenophobia and racism, and exposing the blinkered brutality of power.

I am not sure about that. I think that there is a tendency to read back into films views formed by later history. Perhaps more precisely, when I saw the film as a ten year old and then again a little later at school, it fitted pretty well into the Robin Hood/underdog frame that was already deeply entrenched in Australian thinking.

Certainly I didn't see it as an explicit political statement, nor (I think) did those locals who took part in its  making or watched it. Certainly I have never heard comments along those lines. It was just a film, part of our history.

I would love to see it again.     

Postscript

I failed to mention in this post the search for the discovery of the original movie that in fact started this post. See Search for Captain Thunderbolt for the story.

Election campaign ignores New England

I don't think that I am alone in saying that I find the current marginal seat focus annoying. I find it especially annoying because there is no focus on New England. But, then, New England does not exist!

The following table lists New England Federal seats by the swing required to change party. Of the eleven seats, six are Labor, two each independent and National, one Liberal. Three of the eleven seats are marginal.

Seat	Party	Swing Required
New England	Independent	24.4%
Lynne	Independent	23.9%
Newcastle	ALP	15.9%
Hunter	ALP	15.7%
Shortland	ALP	14.7%
Parkes (part)	National	13.5%
Charlton	ALP	12.9%
Richmond	ALP	8.9%
Page	ALP	2.4%
Cowper	National	1.2%
Paterson	Liberal	0.6%

Looking at the list, its hard to believe that New England outside the Lower Hunter and Lake Macquarie was once National Party heartland. Indeed, one of the strongest ALP arguments against self-government at the 1967 plebiscite was that it would leave the ALP as a permanent minority party within New England!

The problem with the marginal seats approach is that it means that those who stay loyal are in fact penalised. The problem with the lack of formal structure for New England means that there is no mechanism for looking at or forcing consideration of broader issues. Tasmania's five seats, South Australia's eleven seats, get far more attention than New England's eleven seats. Further, New England has no senators, so instead of attracting attention here, the New England vote just gets subsumed in NSW.

You can see these things work themselves out all the the time. New England is resource rich, but this is largely ignored. Key issues such as decentralisation are largely ignored.

The one sleeper this election is the possibility that the three amigos, the three independents in the House of Representatives, may end up with the balance of power either alone or in conjunction with the Greens. Two of the three independents are from New England, while the third (Bob Katter) is a strong New States supporter   

Belshaw's World - memories of political battles past

My last column began one Sunday in 1919 when twenty-nine year old Inverell share farmer David Drummond was asked to stand for the newly formed Progressive Party in the multi-member Northern Tablelands, Legislative Assembly seat.

Drummond agreed to stand and then threw himself into organising for the new party. Early in 1920, the Party’s electorate council met in Glen Innes to consider the eight nominations that had been received. Party rules dictated that any member in good standing could run, but it was clear that only two candidates could be successful.

There was immediate pressure on Drummond to withdraw. He refused, and the candidates were packed off to the Municipal Council Chambers to decide among themselves who should withdraw.

Just before lunch it was proposed that the candidates should have a ballot among themselves to select the three or four most likely to succeed. Drummond rejected this.

Immediately after lunch the candidates, with Drummond dissenting, asked the Electorate Council to indicate which four were most likely to succeed. The Chairman, Colonel H.F. White, refused on the grounds that 'it would be really pre-election selection which they had come into existence as a Party to destroy'. The candidates returned to the Council Chambers.

The pressure was intense. 'We are getting nowhere', one candidate said angrily, 'Drummond is a beggar to argue'. As a number of candidates needed to catch the 5 pm southbound 'Glen Innes Mail', the other candidates agreed that they should hold a ballot among themselves to select the most likely four, but that the result should not bind Drummond. Drummond, 'heartily sick of playing a lone hand all-day', agreed, as did Council Chairman White. One candidate, Fleming, withdrew, leaving seven candidates in the ballot.

Drummond came fifth. Catching the south-bound 'Glen Innes Mail' that night for Uralla where Pearl and the children were staying at nearby Arding, Drummond realized that publication of the ballot result must damage his changes. He therefore decided to return to Inverell where the FSA District Council was meeting the next day to get its endorsement for his action. That decision changed his life, for waiting on the Uralla platform next morning he

.. met a farmer who casually remarked "All the other candidates are going down to meet Central Council tomorrow. I suppose you will be going". In a flash I replied just as casually "Yes I will be going" though it was the first I knew of it.

In many ways this deliberate attempt to exclude Drummond from the field is not surprising.

He almost certainly did not appear a good candidate to party officials. He was young, very deaf (and adequate hearing aids were still some years off); relatively unknown outside his own district and a non-smoker and non-drinker lacking in easy social graces. Equally, his stubbornness at Glen Innes had not endeared him to the other candidates or their supporters.

This stubbornness now came to his aid. He calculated that he just had time to travel to Inverell as planned: north by train to Glen Innes then sixty-eight kilometres across country, get a letter from his District Council stating that they still regarded him as a properly endorsed candidate, then get back to Glen Innes to catch the 5 pm south-bound train.

Next morning Drummond presented himself at the FSA's Sydney headquarters where the Party's Central Council was to meet. The Party's General Secretary (J.J. Price, also General Secretary of the FSA) tried very hard to convince Drummond that he should withdraw. Drummond refused, produced the Inverell District Council letter, and was asked to wait. From where he was sitting, he faced the lift.

At that moment one of the chosen 4 at the GI meeting stepped from the lift. I have often heard the expression "So & So was so surprised he literally tripped over his own feet". This was the only occasion on which I have ever seen it. I had been deliberately barred ... from information that the Central C'ncl would interview candidates that morning and here I was calmly sitting outside the Council room when I was supposed to be 400 miles away in the peaceful countryside.

While waiting his turn to speak to the Council, Drummond decided on his approach. He would 'pull no punches' and therefore delivered a vigorous speech finishing with a final shot that reflected both the divisions in the countryside and Drummond's own position as a small farmer:

You claim to be a Farmer's Party yet every attempt has been made to prevent the one bona-fide farmer from being endorsed as a candidate. At present your team consists of two Graziers, a store keeper & a money lender. If you think with this team you are going to beat the Labor Party which has one if not two genuine Farmers in its team, then I believe you will find yourself badly mistaken.

The appeal was successful. Next day it was announced that Drummond had been endorsed as one of the Progressive Party candidates.

In my next column I will tell the story of that first election campaign.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express on Wednesday 4 August 2010. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010

An earlier New England New State Movement flier

This is a sheet from an earlier New England New State Movement pamphlet.

The arguments really haven't changed. All that has happened is that the need has increased.

When this sheet was prepared, New England was still bigger than WA. Since then, we have just gone backwards.

At the time of the 1967 referendum, those opposed argued that continued membership of NSW would solve our problems.

If only that had proved to be true. It has not.

You see, even if self-government had not given the benefits we hoped, we would at least have been part responsible for our own destiny.

It is hard for those of us who fought then, and have seen the decline since, to accept the simple re-cycling of the type of anti-argument we saw then and again see today.

The anti case has simply failed. Time to let the pro case have a go.

Pressure for North Queensland state increases

According to newspaper reports (here for full story), pressure for a new state in North Queensland is growing. 

Next month, local government leaders in North Queensland will ask their counterparts across the state to give them vital support for a referendum to be held on the issue at the next state election in 2012.

At a recent North Queensland Local Government Association meeting, just two of 100 delegates voted against the motion

Backers including Richmond Shire Mayor John Wharton, Hinchinbrook Shire Mayor Pino Giandomenico, Mount Isa Mayor John Molony and Independent Federal MP for Kennedy Bob Katter hope for a similar reaction when they put the motion to the annual LGAQ conference next month.

"We just need a spark to ignite the fuse," Mr Katter said.

Later

My thanks to Jack Arnold from Armidale for sending a further piece on the North Queensland story from ABC radio - Could North Qld be a separate state?

The story begins:

Demographer Bernard Salt says north Queenslanders have legitimate grounds for secession from Queensland on numbers alone - and their case may become even stronger.

Postscript 11 August

At last count, the comments section on the original story is now up to 124.It's interesting how the old arguments recur. It's also interesting how little history people remember.

In a later post,  An earlier New England New State Movement flier, I gave an example of a much earlier New England information piece, commenting that the anti case had simply failed. It was time to let the pro case have a go.

 

Belshaw's World - 1919: an election campaign begins

With the Federal election campaign now underway, my mind was thrown back to an earlier campaign. This is the story of that campaign.

One Sunday in 1919, twenty-nine year old share farmer David Drummond delivered the sermon at the church on a property near Inverell. Inverell stock and station agent Ray Doolin was in the congregation.

“We were looking for new candidates (for the Progressive Party), young men for preference”, Doolin later recalled. "Next day I got a few together … and went out to the farm. Drummond was working on shares ... He was very surprised and said he would give us an answer after he discussed it with Farmers and Settlers members and his friend Arthur Cosh.”

A few days later Drummond said he would stand.

The new party may have had a name, but they certainly had no political organisation. Drummond agreed to take on the role of electorate organiser for the newly created three member Northern Tablelands seat, subject to two conditions.

First, he later wrote, “that my acceptance would not invalidate my right to be a candidate. When I had received their assurance that I would still be eligible to contest at the elections, my next condition was that I would accept no payment for my services apart from out of pocket expenses.”

Drummond threw himself into the organising campaign. During the first six weeks, he covered all the Tablelands except for Tenterfield, where another candidate (Michael Bruxner) was well organised.

Drummond’s efforts met with considerable success except in Armidale, where ill-health (he had badly overtired himself) led to the failure of the first organising attempt. He returned to Armidale on Saturday 24 January 1920, and this time successfully formed a branch. He also met R.N. Hickson, a local architect and former New South Wales cricketer, who was to be his electoral secretary and a key supporter for forty years.

Drummond's speech at the second Armidale meeting was typical of his message.

The National Party, Drummond told his Armidale audience, 'was controlled purely by vested city interests and the Labor Party by the industrial interests of Sydney.' Since Parliament was controlled by city interests supported by the city press, the country had been neglected. Further, the pre-selection systems used by those city parties had degraded government and politics. The only solution was a party that represented country interests, that would provide cross country railways and ports, and stop the drift to the city. Drummond summarised the Party's policy as 'decentralization, development and decent government.'

With the organising campaign well under way, the Progressive's Electorate Council met at Glen Innes early in the year to consider candidates.

In addition to Drummond, seven nominations had been received from the branches: M.F. Bruxner (grazier and stock and station agent of Tenterfield); J.S. Crapp (grazier of Uralla); F.B. Fleming (grazier of Moree); P.R. Little (grazier and storekeeper of Bundarra); G.B. Ring (financial agent of Inverell); George Codrington (journalist of Inverell); and A. Piggot (orchardist and farmer of Inverell).

The meeting was to be a very difficult one for Drummond.

The Progressives, whose slogan was 'No pre-selection or pledge', were strongly opposed to any form of pre-selection of candidates. Any Party member in good standing was entitled to run.

That was fine, but only two candidates could hope to be successful in the three member electorate (Labor was assured of the third seat), while there were also financial problems associated with large numbers of candidates.

An immediate move was made to reduce the number of candidates by excluding Drummond. “It was apparent from the outset”, he later recalled, “that the other candidates ... with perhaps two exceptions ... [felt] that I had had a flying start and ... must be excluded.”

It was to avoid just this possibility that Drummond had gained the assurances from the president and secretary of the Council that his organising work would not invalidate his candidature, and he refused to budge.

The Council then packed the candidates off to the Municipal Council Chambers to debate who should withdraw. Just before lunch it was proposed that the candidates should have a ballot among themselves to select the three or four most likely to succeed. Drummond rejected this: he politely told the group that he had been invited to run, was correctly nominated, and until his Committee asked him to withdraw 'there was nothing doing'.

I will continue this story in my next column.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express on Wednesday 28 July 2010. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010

Hunter Valley 1st New State lunch

Saturday was the first New State lunch in the Hunter Valley, a chance for people interested in self government for New England and who had mainly been communicating by email to meet and talk.

The photo shows from left to right Jack Arnold (Armidale), Merle Rawson (Wangi Wangi), Greg Howley (Eleebana), Mark Zaicos (Kurri Kuri), Jim Rawson (Wangi Wangi), Peter Firminger (Wollombi) and Jim Belshaw (Sydney, Armidale). Nathan Clarke (Mayfield West) was a late apology because his kid suffered a Saturday morning sport injury.

We met at the Sydney Junction Hotel, all a little conscious of the irony of the name, given the subject of the lunch! However, it was a very convenient location. I must also note, however, that the pub does not carry a single Hunter Valley wine! I wouldn't expect it to have wines from elsewhere in New England, but no Hunter Valley wines?

Discussion ranged quite widely, as you might expect. Not only did group experience vary widely, but so did views on issues. At one point, Greg did a poll of people's political affiliations: the seven present covered five different political groupings! The thing that united everybody was a common belief that the existing system did not work, that only self-government could give the North a true voice and that the loss of the 1967 plebiscite had proved a disaster for New England in general and the Hunter in particular.

Rebuilding something like the New England New State Movement is not something happens overnight. It's not just organisational issues. So much of our historical memory has been lost, the things that united, that an action like this actually depends in part on rebuilding knowledge of history.

There is no top-down drive for New England self-government. This is grass-roots stuff, a person here, a person there. All this takes time, sometimes a lot of time. However, it was interesting that no less than three of us brought cameras to record the lunch because we all felt that it was a historic occasion that should be recorded.

The next lunch will be in about a month's time. If you would like to come or to find out more, please email me on ndarala(at)optusnet(dot)com(au).   

Proposed boundaries for the NSW Local Health Networks

The NSW Government has announced proposed boundaries and operating arrangements for the NSW Local Health Networks required under the Rudd-Gillard national hospitals plan. The following graphic shows the boundaries and towns covered.

At this point I have not had a chance to make my own assessment of the proposals. Those who wish to make their own assessment can find the discussion paper here. 

1926 Murulla Train Disaster

In my post on the Formation of the Armidale Newspaper Company, I said in part:

Competition from the Northern Dailies combined with that from the Sydney press to increase the pressure on the other newspapers still being published on a tri-, bi- or weekly basis. This competition was not all one-sided. In September 1926, for example, Sommerlad wrote to Drummond with glee that the Glen Innes Examiner had

.. got a good one on Tamworth yesterday, in connection with the rail smash. Armidale passed the word on that Tamworth were sending a special edition up, to arrive about 7pm. I got busy & made a fine display of stuff in the short time available. Then hired a motor-bike and sent 350 copies to Inverell, having rung Knapton to get a dodger out in the meantime. The street was blocked with people waiting for copies & we made a great sale - & a great scoop.

Now what I didn't know until Gordon Smith's Old news from Armidale and New England provided the newspaper coverage was that the rail smash in question was one of the worst rail smashes in New England and possibly in Australia. I quote from the Sydney Morning Herald of 15 September 200

The worst railway disaster in the history of New South Wales occurred shortly before midnight last night, when six runaway goods trucks crashed into the north-west mail between the village of Blandford and the Murulla siding.

The goods train had been pulled on to the Murulla siding to allow the north-west mail to pass, when the coupling joining the six rear trucks to the forepart of the train suddenly snapped. It is understood that the guard of the goods train was standing on the side of the line, directing the shunting operations, when the trucks began to move down the line. Although this official made a frantic effort to clamber on to the runaway trucks he was unable to do so, and they disappeared at a terrific speed round a curve in the line.

It was known that the mail train had passed through Blandford station, and those on the siding were sick with fear and apprehension, but powerless to avert the impending catastrophe. A few seconds later there was a deafening crash as the runaway trucks struck, with terrific force, the mail train, and telescoped several carriages. The red-hot coals from the wrecked engine fell on to and ignited several bales of wool with which the trucks were loaded. The flames most fortunately did not reach the smashed carriages, or a much more terrible disaster would have resulted.

The story is quite a graphic one. Today we expect official help to arrive quickly. Not so much then, with the passengers organising the initial rescue efforts.

If you would like to read more, see:

• Train Disaster at Murulla
• Aftermath of Murulla Train Disaster
• Murulla Train Disaster: Inquest Ends

It really is quite a classic story.

Blog stats, reader interests July 10

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been tied up on other things.

The graphic shows visits (yellow) plus page views (yellow plus red) to this blog for the year ending July 10. After a steady increase in traffic, July was down a bit.

Excluding the front page ( I do not have stats for this), the most popular posts in July were:

• The Poetry of Judith Wright - Bora Ring (100 page views)
• Margaret Olley's New England connection (60 page views)
• The Poetry of Judith Wright - South of My Days (55 page views)
• The Power of Imagination (45 page views)
• New England's Kamilaroi people - web search August 08 (40 page views)
• Hunter Valley - Minimbah House (39 page views)
• New England Story - Stockton Beach (36 page views)
• Fossicking in New England (32 page views)
• Belshaw's World - round holes, square pegs and a region cruelled (32 page views).