[Raymond Penington Home Movies: Reel 1]

The Raymond Penington Home Movie Collection is a collection of 16mm colour and black-and-white films made between 1938 and 1965. Dr. Raymond Penington (born 1903) was a medical doctor from Melbourne, Victoria. He and his wife Edith lived in Papua New Guinea in the late 1920s before returning to Melbourne in 1931 and settling in Canterbury. They had three children, Margaret, Vivienne and Jocelyn. His home movies focus on family life in Melbourne and holidays in regional Victoria.

This film shows the Penington family visiting several animal sanctuaries in Victoria, Australia. The film is a good example of animal captivity and fashions of the 1940s.

The film begins at Melbourne Zoo with the zoo entrance (built in 1939). The famous elephant Queenie who gave rides for over 40 years is shown. This would have been shortly before she killed her trainer by accident in 1943 leading to her being put down.

There are a number of scenes with the three Penington girls, Margaret, Viviene and Jocelyn, feeding animals. Scenes of monkeys and wallabies amongst other animals are also shown.

The film then moves to Balwyn Wildlife sanctuary with scenes of a monkey circus, pony and dog show. A baboon in clothes doing tricks appears to be the main attraction.

The film then moves to Badger Creek Sanctuary (later called Healesville sanctuary) where platypuses, emus, eagles and koalas are seen.

The film finishes with seals playing in their enclosure.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:04:00 Melbourne Zoo Entrance
00:00:17:00 Mrs Penington, Margaret, Viviene and Jocelyn walking along garden path at the zoo. Mrs Penington is pushing an old fashioned stroller.
00:00:25:00 Penington girls feeding a number of different animals, riding Queenie the elephant and on the Merry-go-round
00:04:59:00 animals being directed to perform tricks by man with a stick including monkeys, dogs and monkeys riding ponies
00:06:08:00 TITLE: “Wild Life – Balwyn.” followed by numerous animals of the Sanctuary
00:07:12:00 monkey circus
00:08:21:00 baboon in clothes rocking in a rocking chair and rides a bike
00:09:17:00 lyrebird foraging in the forest with sparrows, Badger Creek Sanctuary
00:10:18:00 koala with baby eating in a eucalyptus tree
00:10:54:00 platypuses being hand fed in enclosure
00:12:12:00 seals in enclosure playing