[Wallace Clarke Home Movies: Reel 2]

Wallace Clarke was an amateur filmmaker during the 1960s to the 1990s. Wallace was particularly keen on capturing both the Australian landscape and the people who enjoyed it. As well as Australian urban settings and some world travels, Wallace’s films focus on the many hiking and camping destinations that he visited.

Often carrying the credit, ‘A Walkabout Film’, Wallace’s movies indicate that he was part of a nature study and walking group called ‘The Walkabouters Club of Victoria Inc’. The ‘Walkabouters’ formed in 1968 as a result of a Council of Adult Education (CAE), Outback Study Tour to Central Australia’. Some of the attendees decided to start the Club in order to continue educative walks particularly around Victoria. The Club encouraged their resident artists and photographers to capture their activities.

The collection of Wallace’s films was donated to ACMI by his widow Gwenda Clarke.

This film, titled ‘Arnhem Land’, contains scenes from a trip to Arnhem Land and Katherine in the Northern Territory in the 1970s.

Travel is by jeep on dusty roads, boats and walking. Wallace captures the varied landscapes of rivers, rocky outcrops, hills, trees, flowers and the scrub as well as termite mounds. He also films buffalo, lizards and waterbirds. A highlight is the Aboriginal rock art drawings throughout the film.

Originally made using Super 8mm film.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:05:00 titles ‘WHC Presents’ and ‘Arnhem Land Safari’
00:01:08:00 sign for the township of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
00:02:05:00 truck travels along a dirt road with scrub burning-off on either side.
00:02:29:00 truck travelling crossing a river.
00:02:48:00 pictorial map of the Jim Jim Falls area.
00:03:28:00 canvas tents at a campsite.
00:06:55:00 four wheel drive and trailer.
00:07:52:00 water buffalo.
00:08:00:00 very large bird in equally large nest at the top of a tree.
00:14:30:00 sign ‘Northern Territory Administration Aboriginal Reserve’.
00:13:45:00 examples of Aboriginal rock art drawings which appear until the end of the reel.
00:24:50:00 swimsuits of the era while swimming in a river.
00:27:00:00 digging a tourist bus out of a sandy track.
00:28:58:00 skeletal remains in the mouth of a cave.