GDay (good day, hello, hi) Hi everyone, Monday 26 January is Australia Day. The day we celebrate everything that is wonderful about Australia.
I was interested to read a Facebook post recently saying that the capital city of Western Australia, Perth, which I live a couple of hours drive south of, is the most isolated city in the world due to its extreme geographic isolation.
Located on Australia’s western coast, Perth is separated from the nearest large city, Adelaide (the capital of South Australia) by more than 2,100 kilometers of sparsely populated desert and scrubland. This distance is not symbolic. It represents one of the longest stretches between major urban centers anywhere on Earth. To the east lies the vast Australian interior, while to the west is the Indian Ocean. From Facebook page - The Broken Map.
There is a lot of desert out there!
However.....it pays to check facts.....I just read this from ID - Informed Decisions.com - If you use 1 million population as the criterion, the most remote city in the world is actually Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland is 2,153km from Sydney, and with no other million cities in New Zealand, Sydney is the closest to Auckland. This is 49km further than Adelaide to Perth. www.id.com.au
"Straya" - Australia - is also geographically isolated from much of the world - down here, down under. We have a unique culture, unique landscapes, and unique animals and unique movies!
For today's post for Australia Day I thought I would write about some Australian iconic movies celebrating the Australian culture, heart, spirit and casual but can-do attitude.
Crocodile Dundee - Staring Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski - you can't get a more Aussie Larrikin than Crocodile Dundee. Made in 1986 - an American reporter goes to "outback" Australia to meet poacher Crocodile (Mick) Dundee and invites him to New York.
We've been to some of the filming locations in Australia - you can see them on my blog here - McKinlay Queensland and Crocodile Dundee
Clockwise from top left - Crocodile Dundee poster, Ubirr lookout in Kakadu overlooking the flood plains, where a scene from Crocodile Dundee, part 1, was filmed, the Boss Croc in Kakadu, Walkabout Creek hotel film set, Walkabout Creek hotel in McKinlay with Mick's 4WD in the foreground, Charlie the Buffalo star of Crocodile Dundee at Adelaide River Hotel.
See the official trailer here -
The Man From Snowy River - made in 1982 and starring Kirk Douglas, Sigrid Thornton and Tom Burlinson, the movie is adapted from the famous AB (Banjo) Patterson poem first published in 1890. It celebrates the ride of the Man from Snowy River and the mountain men to bring in the colt that had joined the wild brumby herd. We hope to see some of the movie locations later this year.
There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from Old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray. ..................
That the colt from Old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray. ..................
Official trailer here -
Mad Max - first released in 1979 and starring Mel Gibson, there have been several sequels. Civilization has completely collapsed as the movies progress.
Filmed in outback South Australia and New South Wales, we have visited several of the filming locations including the one you see below at Coober Pedy South Australia, and the Mad Max museum at Silverton in New South Wales.
The trailer from Mad Max - Thunderdome - the third movie here -
Australia - released in 2008 and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman - this movie is set in the north of Australia and partly in Darwin during the bombing of Darwin in WW2. When her husband is killed before her arrival in Australia, Lady Sarah Ashley is helped by The Drover to bring her cattle overland to the port of Darwin.
See the trailer here -
Gallipoli - released in 1981, starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, two Australian sprinters sign up and are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in WW2, thinking they, like many young men, were going on an adventure.
Below here you can see some of the Lone Pine Cemetery Gallipoli which names more than 4900 Australian and New Zealand service people who lost their lives at Gallipoli, some of whom have no know grave like my Great Uncle Norman Clayden, died at only 19.
See the trailer here -
Storm Boy - Set on the Coorong on South Australia's south coast, there have been two adaptions of Colin Thiele's book Storm Boy - 1976 and 2019 - about a lonely boy and the pelicans he raises when their mother is shot by poachers.
See the trailer for the 2019 movie here -
The Water Diviner - released in 2014 - The movie starring Russell Crowe, follows an Australian farmer, Joshua Connor, who travels to Turkey soon after the death of his wife and the end of World War I to find his three sons who never returned from Gallipoli.
See the trailer here -
Red Dog - released in 2011 - based on a true story set around the mining port of Dampier on Western Australia's Pilbara coast. Red Dog turns up in town one day and is adopted by the men who live in the mining camp. There is a statue in town to Red Dog.
See the trailer here -
Ride Like a Girl - released in 2019 and based on a true story - Michelle Payne, the youngest daughter of racehorse trainer Paddy Payne, faces several challenges on her way to becoming the first female jockey to win Australia's Melbourne Cup on Prince of Penzance in 2015.
The movie features Michelle's true-life brother, strapper Stephen Payne, who has Down Syndrome.
See the trailer here -
Other great Australian movies you might like -
Picnic at Hanging Rock - released in 1975 - a school girl goes missing on a picnic on Valentines Day 1900 in Victoria. Below is Martindale Hall in Mintaro, South Australia, which was the scene of the girls school in the movie.
The Rabbit Proof Fence - released in 2002 - based on a true story - follows three aboriginal girls, who were taken from their families, as they follow the rabbit proof fence in Western Australia from the mission school to get back to their homeland 1600km north.
Below is a photo of a part of the rabbit proof fence in wheatbelt Western Australia.
The Dish - released in 2000 - based on a true story - The Dish is a historical comedy-drama film that tells the story of the New South Wales Parkes Observatory's role in relaying live television of man's first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
The Lighthorsemen - released in 1987 - This Australian war film is about the men of a World War I light horse unit involved in Sinai and Palestine campaign's 1917 Battle of Beersheba.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert - released in 1994 - based on the lives of three drag queens - two drag queens and a transgender woman travel across the Australian desert in a tour bus to take their cabaret show to a remote town.
Strickly Ballroom - released in 1992 - This romantic comedy tells a story of love and conflict of two young people fighting for ballroom dancing artistic freedom against a repressive regime.
The Dressmaker - released in 2015 - A darkly comic tale, Tilly, a beautiful dressmaker (played by Kate Winslet) returns to her small, fictional hometown of Dungatar in Australia to care for her ill mother, Molly. Armed with her sewing machine, she sets out to take revenge on the people who had wronged her.
The Dry - released in 2021 - A federal agent returns to his hometown for his childhood friend's funeral, which leads to a murder investigation that reopens old wounds and threatens to expose the town's hidden secrets.
We of the Never-Never - released in 1982 - based on a memoir by Jeannie Gunn, who in 1902 accompanied her husband, Aeneas, from Melbourne, Australia, to the remote Northern Territory, where he was the new manager of the Elsey cattle station.
Below is a photo of the recreation of the Elsey homestead for the movie, at Mataranka, Northern Territory, and Aeneas Gunn's grave at the Elsey cemetery.
The Sapphires - released in 2012 - Set in 1968, the film tells the loosely based story of four young, talented Aboriginal sisters who are discovered by Dave, a talent scout and lands them in Vietnam to sing for the American soldiers.
And an iconic TV series - Skippy the Bush Kangaroo - first released in 1968 and running for 91 episodes. The adventures of Skippy, the bush kangaroo, who lives in the Waratah National Park along with his friend Sonny, the park ranger's son. Together, they have many amazing adventures. There's not much that Skippy can't do!
You can watch a trailer here -
That's it from me today. Have you seen any of these movies? Did you enjoy them? Perhaps you would like to tell us in your comments.
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