MELBOURNE
LOCATIONS
SCENES
1-8
1.
THE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG (1906)
The former Chartersville Estate,
now part of Heidelberg, VIC 3084
page 10
2.
MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE: QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH (1910)
Flinders Street Station, corner of
Flinders and Swanston Street, VIC 3000
page 12
3.
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS (1932)
Her Majesty’s Theatre,
219 Exhibition Street, VIC 3000
page 14
4.
THOROUGHBRED (1936)
Flemington Racecourse, 400 Epsom
Road, Flemington, VIC 3031
page 16
5.
ON THE BEACH (1959)
Williamstown Naval Dockyard,
Williamstown, VIC 3016
page 18
6.
NINETY NINE PERCENT (1963)
Gold Street State School, Clifton Hill
(now Clifton Hill Primary School),
185 Gold Street, Clifton Hill, VIC 3068
page 20
7.
NED KELLY (1970)
Old Melbourne Gaol, 377 Russell Street,
Melbourne, VIC 3000
page 22
8.
THE NAKED BUNYIP (1970)
Luna Park, 18 Lower Esplanade,
St Kilda, VIC 3182
page 24
| THE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG (1906) The former Chartersville Estate, now part of Heidelberg, VIC 3084 __________ |
THE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG was a bold undertaking. At the turn of the twentieth century, films were generally at most ten minutes in length. The Story originally ran for an hour, and is thought to be the world’s first narrative feature-length film. The film is classically Aussie in how it ‘bats for the underdog’. The Kelly gang are good blokes with a bit of cheek, protecting decent citizens from corrupt police, ‘larrikins’ who take the time to remove their hats for ladies. The film advertised itself as being shot on location at the ‘real’ Glenrowan Inn, where the ‘real’ Kelly gang had been overpowered and seized. In actual fact, most of the film was shot on a property owned by the Tait family, known as the Chartersville estate, now part of the suburb of Heidelberg. A replica of the inside of the Glenrowan Inn was built for the film’s iconic showdown. In this scene, the police set the pub alight to smoke out the Kelly brothers hiding within. As the pub cinders the film is dyed a violent pink. Inside, two of the gang accept their fate. Outside, Ned, dressed in homemade armour, is shot and seized. Over the past century, Melbourne’s expansion has consumed the leafy Chartersville estate and pushed rural life in general to the outskirts of the city. The film is a relic from some of our enterprising ancestors, the energy of whom made Melbourne the dynamic metropolis it is today.
Emtna Jane McNicol (Photos ©Amber Moriarty)
Directed by Charles Tait
Scene description: The showdown at the Glenrowan Inn
Timecode for scene: 0:10:16 - 0:15:50
Images ©J. & N. Tait / Johnson and Gibson
| MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE: QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH (1010)
Flinders Street Station, corner of Flinders and Swanston Street, VIC 3000 ____________ |
FLINDERS STREET STATION is undoubtedly one of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings. Posed on one of the city’s busiest intersections it has a wonderful baroque grandeur that seems to rise above the bustle beneath. The front steps, topped with clocks announcing the next departing trains, remain a popular meeting place for tourists, estranged friends and suburban teens. Yet the story goes that Flinders Street Station is not very Melbourne at all. Rumours suggest the plans for the building – built between 1905 and 1910 – were actually intended for Mumbai. A mix-up when the plans were posted from London resulted in a piece of East Indian architecture becoming the principal landmark in Australia’s cultural capital. Even if Melbourne’s true train station did wind up thousands of miles away, it is understandable that Marvellous Melbourne would feature the Flinders Street landmark. Filmed the year the building was created, the short documentary is keen to show off the city’s wealth, with footage lingering over rooftops and admiring such structures as the Royal Exhibition Building – built three decades earlier – which here seems to rival the grandest European palace. Part of a journey that takes us along St Kilda Road and up onto the Swanst...