Movie

Australia's Unknown

“"A wonderful record of a wonderful trip into the wilds of the Never-Never."”

This silent travelogue chronicles Francis Birtles' and Frank Hurley's 6,000-mile motorized expedition through the unmapped Australian wilderness. Filmed over four months in 1914, it serves as a historic natural and ethological study across Central Queensland, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the Northern Territory. The surviving written records detail outback landscapes, swamps, and water-lily lagoons. In addition to flora, it extensively records fauna including crocodiles, alligators, snakes, wallabies, wild boars, camel teams, lizards, pelicans, and various bird species. This documentary also provides footage of Indigenous people and their practices, capturing ceremonial dances, fish spearing, hunting methods, traditional corroborees and a native tree burial. This film is considered entirely lost.

Director

Francis Birtles

Screenplay

Francis Birtles

Director

Frank Hurley

Status

Released

Release date

08/02/1915

Original language

English