form y separately published work icon Walkabout series - publisher   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 1959... 1959 Walkabout
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A television documentary series produced and narrated by Charles and Elsa Chauvel, Walkabout follows their travels throughout Australia, largely the outback regions.

The thirteen episodes were 1. Sydney; 2. The Great Divide; 3. Outposts; 4. The Ghan; 5. Droving; 6. Coober Pedy; 7. Rum Jungle; 8. Adelaide River; 9. Homesteads; 10. Picnic Races; 11. Buffalo; 12. Alexandria Downs; and 13. The Last Walkabout.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

The Two Walkabouts Leo Siegel , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: New York Review of Books , 12 January - 8 February vol. 59 no. 1 2012; (p. 34-35)
'Strangely Clad' : Enclosure, Exposure, and the Cleavage of Empire Liz Conor , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , June vol. 35 no. 2 2011;
This paper theorises a discourse of settler homelands in which a dichotomy of lived interior and exterior was transferred to ideas of racial difference. Settlers depended on a range of perceptual relations, of looking, documenting and publishing, to convey a notion of racial asymmetry through the divide of built and ‘undeveloped’ surrounds. Settlers carefully observed the ‘landmarks’, or spatially-grounded signs of difference, often blind, or unable to assimilate the marks of Indigenous habitation to their systems of knowledge. These perceived differences of dominion were central to legitimating a discourse of settler homelands and to discrediting Indigenous tenure.
Gothic Definitions : The New Australian "Cinema of Horrors" Jonathan Rayner , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 91-97)
This paper examines ‘ the pervasive presence of horror materials, in both thematic and stylistic terms, within the Australian feature film industry from its re-establishment at the end of the 1960s to the present.’ (p. 91)
form y separately published work icon Chauvels' Walkabout Sydney : ABC Television , 2004 Z1922123 2004 single work film/TV Includes an extract from the Walkabout series and a short interview with Susanne Chauvel Carlsson.
y separately published work icon Featuring Australia : The Cinema of Charles Chauvel Stuart Cunningham , Sydney : Allen and Unwin , 1991 Z808336 1991 single work biography
y separately published work icon Chauvel and the Centring of the Aboriginal Male in Australian Film Colin Johnson , Perth : Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University) , 1996 Z1627620 1987 single work criticism

Colin Johnson examine's the construction of Aboriginal identity in Charles Chauvel's Jedda, arguing that the film is not a realistic depiction of life, or of conflict between European and Aborigine as it is often taken to be, or a mishmash of 'Hollywood' images and romanticism transferred to Australia. Instead it is a film constructed from the ideological position of Chauvel - a position Johnson refers to as 'ideological authenticity.' A number of contradictions arise from his position, he writes. 'One such contradiction involves the positioning of the Aboriginal male in Australian film. From the book, Walkabout, it may be seen that Chauvel had ideas on what constituted a 'true' Aborigine, and this 'trueness' had little basis in reality, but in his holding such notions as 'the noble savage' - a stereotype familiar to us from Tarzan films.' However, while Chauvel sought to project the idea that he had made a quasi-documentary film, a 'true' story though clothed in action, showing what happens when the Aboriginal enters the white world and how it leads to tragedy, the flatness of his European characters, and the strength of Tudawali's role enables us to read the film as an Aboriginal text.'

'When reading the film as an Aboriginal text we see that its central conflict, the stealing of women and its resolution, is an old problem inherent in Aboriginal society. This central conflict enables Aboriginal men to strongly identify with Marbuk. 'Identification' is extended to Aboriginal women, too, especially mission women and station women, in that Christian indoctrination forbade them to have anything to do with such savage myalls as Marbuk. The mission inhabitants, predominantly women, were forced to forego their Aboriginality at least consciously. Only in dreams was it allowed to emerge, and it did. Forbidden, the savage, or the free Black Man became a fascinating sexual object for those women. Chauvel unwittingly transcended his film, for when he depicted the lure of Marbuk for Jedda, he was depicting the lure of Aboriginality for mission blacks... What makes his film rise above a B Hollywood film is not a plot so much as his casting of a black man in the leading role. Tudawali's acting ability and charisma dominates the film.'

Gothic Definitions : The New Australian "Cinema of Horrors" Jonathan Rayner , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 91-97)
This paper examines ‘ the pervasive presence of horror materials, in both thematic and stylistic terms, within the Australian feature film industry from its re-establishment at the end of the 1960s to the present.’ (p. 91)
The Two Walkabouts Leo Siegel , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: New York Review of Books , 12 January - 8 February vol. 59 no. 1 2012; (p. 34-35)
'Strangely Clad' : Enclosure, Exposure, and the Cleavage of Empire Liz Conor , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , June vol. 35 no. 2 2011;
This paper theorises a discourse of settler homelands in which a dichotomy of lived interior and exterior was transferred to ideas of racial difference. Settlers depended on a range of perceptual relations, of looking, documenting and publishing, to convey a notion of racial asymmetry through the divide of built and ‘undeveloped’ surrounds. Settlers carefully observed the ‘landmarks’, or spatially-grounded signs of difference, often blind, or unable to assimilate the marks of Indigenous habitation to their systems of knowledge. These perceived differences of dominion were central to legitimating a discourse of settler homelands and to discrediting Indigenous tenure.
form y separately published work icon Chauvels' Walkabout Sydney : ABC Television , 2004 Z1922123 2004 single work film/TV Includes an extract from the Walkabout series and a short interview with Susanne Chauvel Carlsson.
Last amended 27 Aug 2010 13:51:29
Subjects:
  • Australian Outback, Central Australia,
  • 1950s
Settings:
  • c
    Australia,
    c
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