Eureka Stockade
Directed byGeorge Cornwell
Arthur Cornwell
Production
company
Australasian Cinematograph Company
Release date
19 October 1907 (Melbourne)[1]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles
Budget£1,500[2]

Eureka Stockade is a 1907 Australian silent film about the Eureka Rebellion. It was the second feature film made in Australia, following The Story of the Kelly Gang.

It was made by George Cornwell, and his brother Arthur, who was a motor mechanic.[3]

Synopsis

The surviving seven-minute fragment (original length unknown) shows street scenes of Ballarat is believed to be part of the 1907 film, the second feature film made in Australia (after the 1906 production, The Story of the Kelly Gang). Other scenes in the lost reels of the film were believed to have included gold seekers leaving London; the issuing of licences; the rush at Canadian gully; the arrival of the first women at the goldfields; licence hunting; diggers chained to logs and rescued by mates; the murder of Scottish gold digger James Scobie; diggers burning Bentley's Hotel; the Rebellion; Peter Lalor addressing the miners; burning the licenses; building the stockade; troops storming the stockade; the stockade in ruins; and a look at Ballarat 55 years later[4]

Release

The film was first screened in the Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne on 19 October 1907. It impressed critics of the time and was found to be a stirring portrayal of the events surrounding the Eureka Stockade, but failed to connect with audiences during the two weeks it was screened. The Cornwells wound up their film company in March 1908. The movie was forgotten until Ealing Studios decided to make a film about the story in 1946.[5]

The surviving 307 feet (94 m) of the 35mm film (5 mins @ 18fps) is stored at the National Film and Sound Archive.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Advertising". The Argus. Melbourne. 19 October 1907. p. 15. Retrieved 24 August 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press, 1989 p 25.
  3. ↑ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 7
  4. ↑ "Eureka Stockade (1907)". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  5. ↑ "Eureka Stockade Film Was Made In 1906". The Argus. Melbourne. 14 December 1946. p. 3. Retrieved 14 February 2012 – via National Library of Australia.


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