Kids, a joey, and a stolen canoe: Outback noir before Australia knew it had style.
Bored during the summer holidays and escaping the heat, a group of kids (and their joey!) from Cook, on the Nullarbor Plain, discover a limestone cave with a huge underground lake. Meanwhile in town, a detective is called in from Port Augusta to investigate a stolen car and some sinister kangaroo shooters. When the kids discover their tucker and canoe have disappeared, they decide to do some investigating of their own. An Australian black and white short film written and directed by Tim Burstall (Alvin Purple).
Direction
Burstall's early knack for tension in mundane spaces.
Cinematography
Limestone caves shot like alien cathedrals on zero budget.
Practical Effects
Real kids, real joey, real Nullarbor heat radiating off screen.
Director
Tim Burstall
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of the earliest narrative films shot on the Nullarbor, capturing a landscape that would later become shorthand for Australian desolation in Wake in Fright and Mad Max.
Burstall made this between his documentary work and his infamous 'ocker' comedies — it's essentially the missing link between serious Australian cinema and whatever Alvin Purple was.
AU
