The interviews were conducted across the landscape of each person's life and so are of significant length - most ran for six hours, many others for eight or nine. A major principle of the methodology was that the relating of an individual's war experience is most valuable when viewed in the context of their entire life; so the brief for the interviewers was simple - detail, always detaiI.
That meant not only details of training and battles, but details of home life, of meals, of social behaviour and relationships. It was the Archive's view that the particulars of, for example, farm life in Gippsland in the 1930s were as important as a country boy's first impressions of jungle warfare. That how men dealt with death on a battlefield was as important as how they died.
Consequently, the Australians at War Film Archive is not only a diverse and exhaustive collection of personal, military histories but a remarkable, historical resource of information about Australian social and cultural life.
Let's say an historian, a film maker, a researcher or a student wanted to examine El Alamein. They would find new and valuable material in the 98 interviews the Archive holds with men who were involved in that battle, but they would also discover significant holdings across a wider canvas, including how those men were educated, what their parents were like, what characterised the relationships between men and women in Australia at that time and what all that meant to each of the 98 individuals interviewed.
Taking a somewhat longer view, one could even trace the changes in the social fabric of this country over the last 100 years, just from the Archive's interviews.
From the beginning, diversity and comprehensiveness were the main goals of the collection. Researchers conducted initial interviews with over 6,500 potential interviewees before the final choices were made. Included were individuals from every kind of civilian and military service experienced during wartime as well as service personnel and civilians who were in some way involved in Australia's conflicts and peacekeeping missions.
The Archive encompasses the battlefront, the home front, media and entertainment, children, teachers, wives, workers and clerics. From signaller to Spitfire pilot, from SAS soldier to stoker, even those who fought with us and against us; as long as they were now Australians, then their service was represented.
Interviewers have spoken with people for whom the war ended 86 years ago and those who came home from their war 14 days before their interview. Among our interviewees on the first day were a Lancaster pilot in Bomber Command who was shot down over France and spent the remainder of the war committing acts of sabotage alongside the French Resistance, a POW from the Thai-Burma railway who, upon his liberation, lay on a beach in Singapore, looked up at the stars and realized it was his 19th birthday; and a rifleman from the 6th Division, who enlisted in 1939 and finally returned home to Balmain, six long years later, never to be the same man again.
Among our interviewees on the last day were men and women serving in the Australian Defence Force, including a doctor from the Australian medical team in Rwanda who endured the massacres in a camp called Kibeho; a young aircraftswoman from the RAAF who flew into Denpasar on Operation Bali Assist in October 2002 and tended to the damaged and the dying on the long flight home to Darwin, and a Blackhawk chopper pilot who flew the SAS into Afghanistan at the beginning of the War Against Terror.
Produced by:
MULLION CREEK PRODUCTIONS PTY LTD
Project Director:
MICHAEL CAULFIELD
Producer:
LIZ BUTLER
Consultant Historians:
PROFESSOR JOAN BEAUMONT
DR MICHAEL MCKERNAN
DR JOHN REEVE
DR RICHARD REID
DR PETER STANLEY
DR ALAN STEPHENS
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Production Supervisor:
KYLIE FLEMING
Production Managers:
BRYONY KING
ANNELLA POWELL
TRACEY SHARP
Production Coordinators:
TANIA HORNE
ANNELLA POWELL
TRACEY SHARP
WENDY TRUELOVE
CORINA YIANNOUKAS
Production Accountant:
JOHN RUSSELL
Production Assistants:
LISA CAMILLERI
LEAH GIBSON
JOANNE MARTIN
JADE SUINE
LUCY WATERER
LOUISE WHALLEY
KRISTY WILSON
Researchers:
BRETT BARLOW
PHILLIPA CANNON
VICKI ESLICK
SARAH GURICH
BRADLEY HAMMOND
ANGELA HAMMOND
SERENA PORGES
BRONWYN REED
ELIZABETH HALLORAN RICHARDS
Dubbing Officers:
BARRY ELVERD
KIEREN ROBISON
Senior Supervising Editors:
DIANNE BRAMICH
MICHAEL CAULFIELD
MICHELE CUNNINGHAM
DR WAYNE GEERLING
Supervising Editors:
DIANNE BRAMICH
KEN BURSLEM
KIT CANDLIN
MICHELE CUNNINGHAM
CATHERINE DYSON
CHRISTOPHER ELEY
KATE HABGOOD
RON HARPER
CHRISTOPHER HOUGHTON
CHRISTOPHER KEATING
HILARY MCGEACHY
MYLES MCMULLEN
JEANETTE RIMMER
JOHN ROBBINS
JOANNE STEWART
CRAIG TIBBITTS
LEONARD HARRY WISE
Transcription Editors:
GEMMA BATTERSBY
KATE BATTERSBY
DALE BLAIR
PHILLIP BRADLEY
DIANNE BRAMICH
KEN BURSLEM
COLIN CAIRNES
KIT CANDLIN
MICHELE CUNNINGHAM
KIRSTY DE GARIS
CATHERINE DYSON
LUCINDA EDSELIUS
DARREN ELDER
CHRISTOPHER ELEY
ROD FAULKNER
KATE HABGOOD
MAT HARDY
RON HARPER
ROSALIND HEARDER
CHRISTOPHER HOUGHTON
DR JUDITH JEFFERY
CHRISTOPHER KEATING
JOHN KERR
MATTHEW LIBBIS
CHRISTOPHER LINKE
IAN MACKAY
HILARY MCGEACHY
MYLES MCMULLEN
JAMES MORRIS
LOUISE PASCALE
TRISH PATON
CATHY PRYOR
JEANETTE RIMMER
JOHN ROBBINS
KATHY SPORT
JOANNE STEWART
VANESSA STUART
CRAIG TIBBITTS
JOSH WADDELL
ALAN WILSON
LEONARD HARRY WISE
Camera Training Consultants:
PETER COLEMAN
KATHRYN MILLISS
Transcribers:
SUE BARTIMOTE
MATTHEW BIENEK
ELLA BOWMAN
MARJORY BRADLEY
ALISON BRUCE
ALISON BURGE
HELEN CARVER
MELISSA CAULFIELD
BARBARA DADD
AMANDA DRAKE
KRISTINA GOTTSCHALL
ANGELA GRAY
GRAHAM JOHNS
SHARON JOHNSON
CLAIRE JONES
KERRY KLEMENS
DAVID MARTIN
DARRYL MASON
RACHEL MEEHAN
FRANCES MILLER
LOUISE MUDDLE
KIM O'DONNELL
JESSICA RICHARDS
KAREN SIMS
KATE SMITH
MARYANNE SMITH
MONICA STEFFAN
JUSTINE WILLIAMS
Additional Transcription Services
CLEVER TYPES
THE LAST DRAFT PTY LTD
Film Digitisation:
DAMSMART
LINK DIGITAL
Logo Design:
GEORGIE HAWKE
INTERVIEWING TEAM:
The Archive interviews were conducted by two person teams in every
state and territory of Australia. Each team interviewed in 'tours' of eight
weeks, filming three hundred hours of material per team, per tour. The
number next to each name is the number of tours each interviewer completed.
Interviewers:
JULIAN ARGUS - 3.5
MARTIN BALL - 1
REBECCA BARRY - 2
MICHAEL BENNETT - 3
DENISE BLAZEK - 3.5
COLIN CAIRNES - 4
ELLEN CARPENTER - 2
LOUISE CHARMAN - 1
KIRSTY DE GARIS - 1
SERGEI DE SILVA-RANASINGHE - 5
SIMON DIKKENBERG - 2
CATHERINE DYSON - 4
CHRISTOPHER ELEY - 5
KEIRNAN FITZPATRICK - 4
ISABEL FOX - 2
ROSEMARY FRANCIS - 1
KYLIE GREY - 1.5
ZELDA GRIMSHAW - 1
MATTHEW HARDY - 2
NAOMI HOMEL - 3
CHRISTOPHER HOUGHTON - 3.5
IANTO KELLY - 2
SEAN KENNEDY - 1.5
STELLA KINSELLA - 2
ANNIE LETCH - 1
DAVID LEVELL - 1
DENE MASON - 1
CLAIRE MCCARTHY - 1
NICOLE MCCUAIG - 2
MYLES MCMULLEN - 2
COLIN MOWBRAY - 2
KRISTEN MURRAY - 1
PATRICK NOLAN - 1
KAREN NOBES - 1
ROBERT NUGENT - 2.5
LOUISE PASCALE - 2
HEATHER PHILLIPS - 2.5
CATHY PRYOR - 2
SOPHIE RELF - 1
SUE ROBERTS - 1
CHRISTOPHER SALISBURY - 1
GRAHAM SHIRLEY - 2
KATHY SPORT - 5
VANESSA STUART - 2
MICHELLE WARNER - 2
KYLIE WASHINGTON-BROOK - 1.5
JOHN WELDON - 1
PETER WELMAN - 3