15 Films & TV Shows Set In Australia During The 1930s
-
High Ground
Northern Territory The 1930s The 1920s The 1910sAustralia's untold history — In a remote corner of the wild country, a bloody war rages. Travis is a bounty hunter with one last hope of redemption. Gutjuk is a young Indigenous man trying to save the last of his family. Together they embark on a manhunt, which unravels a secret that ultimately pits them against each other.
-
Australia
Northern Territory The 1940s The 1930sWelcome to Australia! — Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
-
Frost/Nixon
California District of Columbia New South Wales The 1970s The 1960s The 1930s The 1920s400 million people were waiting for the truth. — For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harboured doubts about their boss's ability to hold his own. But as the cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted.
-
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Western Australia The 1930sFollow Your Heart, Follow the Fence — In 1931, three Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a trek across the Outback.
-
Sirens
New South Wales The 1930sIn the 1930s, an artist and his models scandalized a nation with their controversial paintings. For a young couple, meeting them was the experience of a lifetime. — In 1930s Australia, Anglican clergyman Anthony Campion and his prim wife, Estella, are asked to visit noted painter Norman Lindsay, whose planned contribution to an international art exhibit is considered blasphemous. While Campion and Lindsay debate, Estella finds herself drawn to the three beautiful models sitting for the painter's current work, freethinking Sheela, sensual Pru and virginal Giddy.
-
The Tale of Ruby Rose
Tasmania The 1930sThe year is 1933. Ruby Rose (Melita Jurisic) is an Australian woman living with her Welsh immigrant husband Henry (Chris Haywood) in the Tasmanian highlands. Cut off from her superjudgmental family, for whom Henry had once worked as a humble farm hand, Ruby remains isolated in her tiny house. Superstitiously terrified of the dark, she begins developing her own folklore about the inky blackness that surrounds her each night; this folklore eventually develops into Ruby's own personal religion, created to ward off the evils that she imagines lurk in every corner. Only by venturing out of her house and rekindling her relationship with her embittered father is Ruby able to exorcise her fears. Almost hypnotic in its stark beauty, Tale of Ruby Rose is proof enough that writer/director Roger Scholes deserves to be far better known.
-
The Riddle of the Stinson
Queensland The 1930sIn 1937, a routine passenger and mail flight crashes during bad weather on a flight between Brisbane and Sydney. A local bushman begins a search, and finds the wreckage and two survivors ten days after the crash.
-
The Umbrella Woman
🇦🇺 Australia The 1930sIn pre-WWII Australia, a love triangle develops between a man, his wife and the man's brother.
-
For Love Alone
New South Wales England The 1930sTeresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her poverty-stricken Latin tutor Johnathan Crow, without realising he merely considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, and eventually follows him from Sydney to London. En route she meets the gentle banker James Quick. Whilst navigating her relationships in London, including with a political poet bound for the Spanish Civil War, she experiences a transformation in her understanding of love. Based upon Christina Stead's best-selling Australian novel.
-
Lousy Little Sixpence
Victoria New South Wales The 1930sTells of Aborigines' removal from their families to be sent to work as servants for white people and the rise of the first Aboriginal organisations in the 1930's, in particular the Aborigines Progressive Association.
-
Fatty Finn
New South Wales The 1930sThe time is the 1930's. Australia like the rest of the world is in the grip of depression. For Aussie's one man lifted their spirits, Don Bradman. Arguably one of the greatest sportsmen of any sport, The Don's cricketing prowess was a ray of sunshine to all Australian, especially to one Hubert "Fatty" Finn. He had a dream, to own a crystal set ( very early radio receiver) so as to listen to Bradman flay the Pom's ( English) in the upcoming Ashes Test match. However that took money to buy and times were hard. Fatty uses his enterprise to raise money and promptly loses it as misfortune strikes time and again. Then of course his arch rival Bruiser Murphy is also plotting Fatty's downfall. If he can only win the goat race again he will have enough to pay for the crystal set; or will Bruiser Murphy gazump him? With his band of friends plus Trumper the frog and Hector the goat Fatty sets out to win the day. Hurray for Fatty Finn. Oh yes and Bradman made a record score in the test.
-
Weekend of Shadows
🇦🇺 Australia The 1930sIn the 1930s, a farmer's wife in a small town is murdered. Suspicion falls on a Polish labourer and a posse is formed to catch him.
-
Caddie
New South Wales The 1930s The 1920sshe's loved, dumped, kissed and kicked around...but mostly loved — Life's tough enough for a woman alone, but with two kids and the depression... it's a bugger! - but not for... CADDIE.
-
The Man from Down Under
🇦🇺 Australia The 1930sTHRILLS! FUN! ACTION! — An Australian blowhard raises two orphaned children as his own in the years leading up to WWII.
-
They Flew Alone
England 🇦🇺 Australia The 1930sSHE LED THE PARADE FROM SILK TO KHAKI! -- This girl who bolted a white-collar job to win her place in the air force...it's the amazing story of Amy and her Jim -- The Flying Mollisons. — The story of flyer Amy Johnson the girl from Yorkshire who won the hearts of the British public in the 1930s with her record-breaking solo flights around the world. Her marriage to fellow aviator Jim Mallison was less noteworthy.
