This early 1930s black and white travelogue film “Southern Cross Ways” Sydney is part of the Port o’ Call series by William M. Pizor and his Imperial Distributing Corporation. It is recorded on a Powers Cinephone system, which was an early 1930s cloned version of the Phonofilm system. A bird’s eye view is given of Sydney Harbor, with the wire of the plane wing visible (:50-1:10). The Sydney Harbour Bridge (opened in 1932) is shown still under construction (1:11-1:28). Bungalow homes are seen through a plant-covered arch (1:41). A woman wearing white short shorts, sleeveless blouse, and large sun hat walks up a street where 1920s cars are parked (1:54-2:07). Bondi Beach is shown, complete with band. Male teams of the Volunteer Life Saving Clubs wear one-piece bathing suits and participate in a competitive life-saving exhibition (2:08-4:22). A bird’s eye view is given of a large floral clock with moving minute hand at the Taronga Zoological Gardens. The zoo also showcases black swans swimming (4:24-4:49), Australian seals (4:57-5:03), the front and back of a peacock with its feathers extended and the same with a white peacock (5:04-5:32), emu (5:34), flamingos (5:42), a platypus and its various body parts shown up-close (5:46-6:05), a dingo (6:06), and kangaroos, one with a joey in its pouch (6:12-6:35). An Aborigine man throws a boomerang, which returns and is shown up-close before being thrown again (6:36-7:05). A koala bear sits in a tree. Another koala climbs up a tree with a baby on its back. A metal band on a tree discourages koalas from climbing higher or eating from it and the koala backs down the tree. A close-up of it eating with the baby hugging the mother’s back is shown. A man holds multiple koala bears (7:07-8:15). The film screen is covered with sheep and then many large pens are panned from above. The wool is spread apart by hand to show how deep the white staple is (8:16-8:59). Cattle move into a pond and herded across land (9:00-9:15). A line of camels wearing packs walk up a road (9:18-9:35).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com