Another Sunny Day – Australian Summers in Film

It’s just hitting 33 degrees Celsius today in Canberra. 42 degrees in Adelaide. Summer time, and the living is sweaty. Actually it’s nowhere near as sweaty here as it is up north. Humidity is only 24% today in Canberra, compared to 61% on the Gold Coast and 66% in Cairns. My first 39 summers were largely spent in New Zealand, which meant they were short and sweet, spent down at the local creek, the school swimming pool and maybe once a year at the beach. Ever wondered what the Aussie summer looked like 60 years ago? The YouTube Map My Summer project commissioned film archivist Richard Carter to create this mash-up of summer footage from the 1940s -1970s using only film, music and audio from the Screen Australia Library. Notice the prevalence of beaches, rivers, swimming pools.

Another Sunny Day features clips from over 40 film classics including Advance Australia (1951), After Cook (1969), Another Sunny Day in Western Australia (1961), At the Beach (1971), Australia Now (1965), Australia’s Greatest River (1951), Australian Food Parade (1958), Australian Scene (1964), Australian Weekend (1960), Big Island (1970), Centennial Park (1979), Chase that Dream (1979), Christmas in Australia (1958), Clockwork Lemon (1979), Country Jazz (1971), Day at the Beach Junior Social Studies (1956), Dear Mum (1975), Five Bells (1978), From the Tropics to the Snow (1962), Gentle Strangers (1972), Growing Up: Weekend (1977), Life in Australia: Perth (1966), Life in Australia: Sydney (1966), Living with Disaster (1975), Mountain Domain (1975), Music Camp (1949), Norfolk (1963), North of the Centre (1960), Nullarbor Hideout (1955), Paper Run (1956), Play Safe (1948), Surf Beach (1965), The Australian Way (1969), The New Ipswich (1947), The Water Dwellers (1967), This Land Australia (1958), Three to Go: Judy (1969), Timber Town (1972), Turn the Soil (1948), Viewpoint on Brisbane (1975), Viewpoint on Sydney (1975), Way we Live (1959), Weekend Fishing (1966), Where are we Heading? (1971).