[Nixon Family Home Movie Collection]

The Nixon Family Home Movie Collection tells the story of a suburban family in 1960s–1980s Geelong, Victoria, with Mum (Dorothy) and Dad (Les) and the two kids, Karen and Stuart. Les and Dorothy lived at Herne Hill, Geelong, where the films show the two children growing up. Particularly Karen, from when she was a newborn baby up to her 21st birthday and first car.

Captured over ten movies, initially on Standard 8mm and then Super 8mm film, most of the footage was taken by Les but occasionally when he appears on screen, we know Dorothy was behind the camera.

Through these family films we see the children grow up, the fun of beach holidays, fancy hats worn at family weddings, games played at birthdays and special holiday destinations. Some of the loveliest footage shows the simple pastimes of children: ‘dinking’ your baby brother around in the back of the tricycle at home, burying yourself up to the waist in the sand at the beach and jumping over a sprinkler on a hot day in the backyard by the ‘Hills Hoist’.

The large extended family also feature in the films and they would often holiday at their cousin’s beach house at 8th Avenue, Point Roadknight, on the Surf Coast of Victoria. In 1966, the family also spent some time in the sandy yard of a home in Alice Springs, from where they visit Amoonguna, an indigenous community 15kms southwest of Alice.

Visits from “Nana and Pop”, playing tennis, visiting a farm and family picnics also feature. Forget ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’, this family collection spanning over twenty one years is far more enlightening and endearing.

This collection of home movies was donated to ACMI by Karen Corry.