‘Lights, camera …’

deansimpson7
May 9
2 min read

The first Governor General of Australia, Lord Hopetoun (centre), shown departing the rotunda after the signing of the Federation documents. It was filmed by Staff-Captain Robert Sandall (the first time the ‘birth’ of a nation had ever been captured in a motion picture).

BY BARRY GITTINS

It was on 9 May 1901, 124 years ago, that The Salvation Army’s Limelight Department was on hand at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne’s Carlton Gardens to capture the first-ever session of the new nation’s Federal Parliament*.

Things kind of went slightly bung at that point.

A camera being set up for filming of the first Parliament.

While the Limelighters were skilled and keen, ready to record on film the ceremonies by which the future King George V (then the Duke of Cornwall and York) would do the honours, the Salvationists hadn’t reckoned on the cavernous ceilings and dimly lit innards of the magnificent Exhibition edifice.

Put simply, the lighting technology of the day and ‘flash guns’ were not up to the demanding task.

Not to worry! Leading Australian painter Tom Roberts’ pictorial record saved the day.

The opening of the Parliament of Australia on 9 May 1901, as depicted by artist Tom Roberts. Photo: wikipedia

And, undeterred, the Limelight crew shot ‘the breaking of the flag’ ceremony on the building’s domed roof.

Having won the tender as the new nation’s largest motion picture company, The Salvation Army’s cinematographers had already been out and about in Sydney on 1 January earlier that auspicious year to shoot the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Some of the Limelight staff in 1904, featuring Brigadier and Mrs Joseph Perry, Sidney Cook, John Brodie and Mira Whiteman.

Mounted platforms allowed The Salvation Army auteurs to film more than 10,000 citizens, visitors, firefighters, soldiers, police, dignitaries, tradies and civic leaders, with innovative, multi-camera coverage, no less.

The final documentary – the world’s first feature-length film doco – ran for 35 minutes; five times the length of any previous Antipodean movie. It was the most distributed and viewed Aussie film in its day.

*Canberra’s [Old] Parliament House wouldn’t open until 9 May, 1927.