[Gadsden Family Home Movie Collection: Reel 130]

The Gadsden Company has a long and proud history of manufacture, dating back to its foundation by Jabez Gadsden in 1879. The company pioneered tinplate printing in Australia, and produced the first printed can the country had seen. By 1936 the company had twelve factories spread throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The company’s success allowed two generations of Gadsden family men – Stanley Gadsden and his son Ronald – to pursue their interest in amateur filmmaking (a relatively expensive hobby for the time). The two cameramen captured the family’s children, homes, many of its major events and holidays on film.

A collection of the films made by these Gadsden family photographers has been donated to ACMI by Chris Gadsden (Ronald’s son). The films comprise a fascinating assortment of imagery that provides a window into bygone days and customs.

This reel shows the Gadsden children of 1939 at camp, playing ball games, swimming in a river, dressing up for an impromptu pageant in the bush and playing water polo in the river.

The film then changes dramatically to scenes of the State wide bushfires which devastated many parts of regional Victoria on 13 January 1939 and known as ‘Black Friday’.

This film was originally made using 16mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:01:23:00 flames in the bush, onlookers
00:01:49:00 sequence of scenes scanning the aftermath of the fires