Calling Sydney Harbour

From the Film Australia Collection. Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit 1960. Directed by Malcolm Otton. Step into one of the most iconic harbours in the world. The Port of Sydney is crowded with ships from every maritime nation. This 1960s snapshot of life on Sydney Harbour is taken from the tug master’s point of view. We explore the Harbour in a tugboat at work - bringing the Neptunia in to berth and taking the Oronsay out through the Heads. Calling Sydney Harbour also shows the bustling wharves and new construction work being carried out by the Maritime Services Board.

[@pierodavies9508]

Arrived two years after this was filmed on the 'Orion'. Sydney was pretty well still exactly as shown here. Amazing to see those sights as they were again.

[@michaelloughry8035]

Love these old Australian films, especially the ones shot around Sydney Harbour.

[@ktkt9982]

Thank you. I enjoy these historical records very much.

[@NFSAFilms]

You're welcome, thanks for letting us know.

[@ktkt9982]

@@NFSAFilms keep up the good work folks.❤👍🏻

[@russelllewis3177]

Thanks for the upload. Any links to any merchant footage of past Australian trading ships? Ex ANL etc. Cheers

[@kayjenkins731]

So do i

[@jamesgraham446]

What a difference 60 years makes....all of the docks are now apartments owned by overseas residents and empty all year. The times when Australia actually cared about commerce and not just selling property taxed by the state government. Real progress......good job.

[@ThePerson1959]

I'll always watch anything like this. I find stuff like this so interesting and love seeing Australia way back when. Keep them coming as others have said. We will keep watching your amazing films. As close as we can get to a time machine back to the good old days.

[@deslynnsporne8684]

A nice image of the SS Oronsay.🚢☺💞👍

[@sirsillybilly]

Growing up on the Harbour as a kid I used to tune my walkie talkie in to the ships bandwidth to listen in to their call signs.

[@tyroniousyrownshoolacez2347]

Awesome! Great old 16mm Kodak stock with the warm natural color. Thanks for sharing. 👉👊

[@3CShannon]

I’m amazed at how much smoke was in the air, coming from the power stations and various factories. Sydney air is much cleaner now

[@jamesgovett2501]

To think Sydney harbour bridge was only completed 28 years before this film was made! I love how Australia was back then l suppose l am lucky to to remember these times! Keep these time capsules coming (a bit more down here in Victoria would be good too)

[@NFSAFilms]

Thanks James. Will do but just in case you haven't seen all of these Melbourne films kzbin.info/aero/PLYjU0Xph-Gj42hfvfKhmtQLa7U7MvpXUt

[@mathewtoll6780]

Upload as much of these as possible!

[@NFSAFilms]

Ok!

[@mathewtoll6780]

@@NFSAFilms ok good

[@danrobinson572]

@@NFSAFilms great upload more of these if you got them.

[@PiersLortPhillips]

When Sydney was a working harbour.

[@amp279]

No doubt some of the Italians on Neptunia would go on to work at Cockatoo Island. It's sad that outsourcing ripped the guts out of our dockies & Patrick stevedores lock out was a massive nail in the coffin.

[@masteryoda498]

The good old days, when life was simpler and happier.

[@newcastlerabbit]

Fantastic

[@NFSAFilms]

Thanks

[@onesimpleclik]

A simpler time. Wish I born in this era!

[@glennsuckling5478]

Great stuff

[@pagano126]

Beautiful, thanks for the entertainment. My father and uncle uncle came to Sydney in 1954 abord the m.s Australia. Sister ship to the Neptuneia. They were beautiful liners

[@Ross1il]

Sailed from here on the Oriana in 1962 on a cruise with mum and bro. The opera house was just starting to be built. A yank asked what is that building being demolished!

[@fuzzjunky]

OMG the beautiful look of this film. it's gorgeous

[@milkybar06]

Back in days when we exported to many countries.

[@Ross1il]

And zero trade with China! We actually made stuff in Oz!

[@lachlancox5]

Incredible, cheers

[@chilbury]

The old days were the best real Aussies

[@ryanclarke2161]

Sad there is no films being made that are similar to this about life today.

[@Ross1il]

You could make a film about life today and it could look just great if it focussed on the positives. Just like the 60s sounds great in this one, but it doesnt show the negatives... life for the marginalized was crap and I feel priveleged that I wasnt one of them!

[@idiotbox8291]

Wonderful as usual!

[@haroldmclean3755]

Very interesting 👍 Kudos

[@trevor6513]

That was great. Really enjoyed it.

[@vickidianacoghlan8946]

The good old days. Wheres the time machine when you need one. Burrrrr.

[@NFSAFilms]

We are your time machine :)

[@vickidianacoghlan8946]

No no no I want to be there in Sydney in the 1960s. 2020 SUCKS. corona sucks, the BS NWO crap, PC crap. A much better time the 1960s YES PLEASE!!!!!

[@bigbillbroonzy992]

@@NFSAFilms There's a Three Degrees TV Special on youtube from 1970 filmed by an Australian film producer Reg Robertson. Filmed in and around Hyde Park,Sydney. Alot of the surrounding buildings are gone. A fountain in part three on Macquarie Street opposite the back entry of the Botanical Gardens , now gone.

[@ttm2609]

Lovely and thank you for posting. I love the sirens tugs used to have, including mine which was removed many years ago.

[@NFSAFilms]

You're welcome

[@TonyFromSydney]

Just like then/now, those/these times are the best of times and the worst of times...

[@dave1001]

Wow how Sydney Harbour as changed sibce this was filmed

[@sanctuaryism]

this was before my era by about 25 years but funny to see the low(er) over- pass still that ran over circular quay... I never got to see it like that. not that I could remember anyway.

[@AlanBondFilms]

When Australia was Australia......

[@Squibbiot]

wdym we're still australia bro we arent going anywhere

[@guyh9992]

Apart from a few cruise ships and the Navy Sydney is no longer a working harbour. The main port handling facilities are in Botany Bay these days. Wheat is exported from Newcastle. The harbour is also much less polluted without all of the industry on its shores.

[@sailingkarma6772]

I remember those timber gangplanks

[@nicoleforsyth-viola8340]

Thanks NFSA. Are you able to curate a future online exhibition around the Australian directors/film editors/ composers/session musicians who created the photography, editing & sound tracks of these Commonwealth Film Unit/Film Australia advertisements? The juxtaposition of the intensely conservative government parameters for the storyline or the vision of these 'advertisements' (often for immigration) with the often extremely avant-garde sound of the soundtracks, editing and art direction (Life in Australia series, perhaps especially?) is really interesting - and often with female composers/film editors too. It's a wonderfully subversive look at what was going on in another layer of Australian culture and society - inside the arts and film industries...Thanks!

[@NFSAFilms]

An interesting idea - will pass it on. There are well documented tensions between the government and the film makers (even between old guard and newer film makers).

[@NathanChisholm041]

Fasanating! Have you got any on Perth WA where I live? Cheers...

[@NFSAFilms]

Hi Nathaniel. Have a look at this WA playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PL45EE375716CAA187

[@NathanChisholm041]

@@NFSAFilms Ok thanks!

[@thomaselliott573]

From days when Australia was Australia. Wonderful times in an idyllic paradise before it was torn apart by utterly useless politicians, developers and, worst of all, smart-arsed ideologists. Thankfully people back then may not have been stylized intellectuals but were just very simple unaffected folk who knew how to have a laugh and be happy. True freedom. I watched "They're a Weird Mob" recently for the first time. It was quite close to the mark and nothing like the bunch of stereotyped creeps they are made out to be today.

[@bigears4014]

I think the Sydney Cove worked in Hobart years later

[@jeffkeeley4594]

Was that HMAS Sydney or HMAS Melbourne ?

[@johnlarkins2755]

Interesting

[@qlder0284]

7:43 What's the country that the narrator says after the United Kingdom?

[@NFSAFilms]

Really not sure it's hard to catch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@BOpal-cl6of]

Eire. The old name for Ireland.

[@drunkdunc8738]

Eire (Ireland)???

[@NFSAFilms]

Our viewers are smart, knew they would come to the rescue.

[@qlder0284]

Cheers everyone.

[@danrobinson572]

What year was this ? Great video when men were men!

[@Ross1il]

1960 - it shows a diary

[@albertbatfinder5240]

People living in the moment. Not a twenty foot equivalent unit intermodal freight container in sight.

[@markf3229]

Yes. The wharfies demise. Couldnt at the end of the shift go to the local pub and sell gear that fell off a pallet. Accidentally of course

[@colinbm2010]

Ah ha, the way we were, wasn't it great......

[@peterm1826]

Wharfie had the best jobs I watched them unload a ship in the 70s. One slowly walked into the cargo area comes out 1 suitcase another walks into cargo area walking out with 1 suitcase 5 wharfie all walkout of ship with 1 suitcase each talk about bludging

[@judlar4352]

You might not have realised what you were seeing, they might not have been genuine workers, but people coming into Australia discreetly, this is just one way folks got in through the back door (so to speak) in those days, they'd dress them up in workers garb, then when the coast was clear, they'd be told to get their bags & be taken to a safe place. It's just one consideration, not all dock workers were lazy.

[@tyroniousyrownshoolacez2347]

Nice!👊 Bless you me Union Wharfie mates 👉!

[@Ross1il]

You could make a film about life today and it could look just great if it focussed on the positives. Just like the 60s sounds great in this one, but it doesnt show the negatives... life for the marginalized was crap and I feel priveleged that I wasnt one of them!

[@SlCKB0Y-sb1kg]

Right.. the comments on most of these videos irritate me greatly with their rose coloured viewpoints of the past. Of course there is always the hint of racism in these comments, longing for a time when Australia was completely Eurocentric.

[@peterdixon7705]

I had the.great fortune to be in the shipping industry in Sydney in the 1980s and beyond .its do different today a play ground and apart from cruise ships not many freighters and working berths around . Symtomatic of our major problems . We can not make a canoe ,and China knows it .

[@MrJohnnybe123]

Sadly most of these people are no longer here

[@lostinspace699]

You could live and own a house for not much and when being Married was good welfare ...

[@SunRise-ul7ko]

When Australia was not a divided country.

[@marleyvonhoffstein3193]

It's not a divided country what are u on about?