57 Films & TV Shows Set In Australia During The 19th Century

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  Capt. Grant's Family

  Scotland England 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🇦🇷 Argentina 🇦🇺 Australia Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean The 1860s

  The son and daughter of a lost-at-sea captain recruit help to find him on the basis of an incomplete note found in a bottle, and encounter adventures in Patagonia, Australia, and New Zealand... Based on Jules Verne novel.

  Released in 1936 • 83 minutes
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  Stingaree

  🇦🇺 Australia The 1870s

  With the world at her feet, she threw away gold and glory to be crushed in his lawless arms. — A young lady named Hilda who works as a servant for the wealthy Clarksons, sheep farmers, and dreams of being a great singer. An upcoming visit by Sir Julian, a famous composer arriving from London, drives jealous Mrs. Clarkson (an interfering biddy who fancies she can sing - but can't) to send away Hilda, so he doesn't hear Hilda has a good voice. Meanwhile, an infamous outlaw named Stingaree has just arrived in town and kidnaps Sir Julian, then poses as him at the Clarksons, where he meets Hilda a few hours before she is to leave.

  Released in 1934 • 77 minutes
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  The Birth of White Australia

  New South Wales The 1860s The 18th Century

  An early Australian silent film depicting historical events on the Young district goldfields, then known as Lambing Flat. During the gold rush of 1861, tensions between Australian miners and immigrant Chinese led to rioting, with Chinese miners attacked and driven from the diggings. The film portrays these events as being the genesis - or birth - of the White Australia policy, a significant political issue of the day.

  Released in 1928 • 103 minutes
• For the Term of His Natural Life

  Tasmania The 19th Century

  A convict, wrongfully accused and sent a harsh prison colony, attempts to escape.

  Released in 1927 • 101 minutes
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  For the Term of His Natural Life

  🇦🇺 Australia The 19th Century

  Adaptation of a classic Australian novel about life as a convict, this was the third feature film produced in Australian history. It is now considered lost.

  Released in 1908 • 60 minutes
• Eureka Stockade

  🇦🇺 Australia The 19th Century

  The surviving seven-minute fragment (original length unknown) shows street scenes of Ballarat is believed to be part of the 1907 film, the second feature film made in Australia (after the 1906 production, The Story of the Kelly Gang). Other scenes in the lost reels of the film were believed to have included gold seekers leaving London; the issuing of licences; the rush at Canadian gully; the arrival of the first women at the goldfields; licence hunting; diggers chained to logs and rescued by mates; the murder of Scobie; diggers burning Bentley's Hotel; the Rebellion; Peter Lalor addressing the miners; burning the licenses; building the stockade; troops storming the stockade; the stockade in ruins; and a look at Ballarat 55 years later

  Released in 1907 • 7 minutes
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  The Story of the Kelly Gang

  🇦🇺 Australia The 19th Century

  The Most Sensational, The Most Thrilling and Interesting LIVING PICTURES EVER TAKEN. — Just as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) is testimony to German silent film art, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) symbolises both the birth of the Australian film industry and the emergence of an Australian identity. Even more significantly it heralds the emergence of the feature film format. The Story of the Kelly Gang, directed by Charles Tait in 1906, is the first full-length narrative feature film produced anywhere in the world. Only fragments of the original production of more than one hour are known to exist and are preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. (unesco.org)

  Released in 1906 • 32 minutes