Orange, NSW c1927

1927, 35 Minutes

This charming 35-minute film captures a unique insight into Orange life and businesses between the two World Wars. The silent black and white footage includes aspects such as the local flour mills and bakeries, the ladies of the Country Women’s Association, members of the Orange Municipal and Canobolas Shire council, and well–known contemporary local identities such as Henry Hansen, the founder of Hansen’s Jewellery.

The footage was donated to the NFSA by Alan Press, a projectionist for Snider and Dean’s Orange Cinemas who helped clear out the building when the cinema ceased operations in 1964. In one of the cupboards he discovered a few spools of film, including the nitrate negative of footage of the town. He nearly sent it off to the tip, but instead decided to keep it. In 2006, Press heard on ABC radio about the restoration work being done by the NFSA on another feature film. Remembering the nitrate film he had saved so long ago, he decided to contact us to see if we were interested. And indeed we were!

Closer inspection of the reels revealed beautiful, clear images of a mid-1920s Australian town, its inhabitants and businesses. With assistance from staff at the NFSA, Alan was able to identify that most of the film was shot in Orange and the surrounding district. But the identity of the filmmaker still remains a mystery. Alan and other members of the Orange Historical Society thought the film may have been shot by, or for, a family named Passlow, who were connected with cinemas in Orange or Wellington.

© National Film and Sound Archive of Australia