Free for educational use
An Outback Policeman's Life
Year of production - 1952
Duration - 1min 39sec
Tags - Australian History, see all tags
How to Download the Video Clip
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Premium MP4 outback_pr.mp4 (12.2MB).
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You can buy this clip on a compilation DVD.
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An Outback Policeman’s Life is an excerpt from the film Outback Patrol (20 mins), produced in 1952.
Outback Patrol: This film, narrated by Chips Rafferty, follows the annual patrol of outback policeman Robert Darkin. If there is a spot of lawbreaking, Darkin can convene a court but in this job he’s also collector of public monies and protector of Aborigines, Commonwealth electoral returning officer, commissioner for affadavits for the Supreme Court, postmaster, inspector of stock, and registrar of births, deaths, marriages, mines, motor vehicles and dogs. He checks that there is water in the government bores for the drovers and keeps an eye on the lone prospectors who roam the trackless hills and parched plains. Other horse and camel teams, operating from scattered police stations, patrolled the whole Northern Territory.
Outback Patrol is a National Film Board Production. Produced by the Department of the Interior.
Reading standard: Students read and view imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that explore ideas and information relating to challenging topics, themes and issues. They explore the ideas, themes and issues explored in these texts, and provide supporting evidence to justify their interpretations. They produce personal responses, for example, interpretive pieces and character profiles.
Writing standard: Students produce, in print and electronic forms, texts for a variety of purposes, including speculating, hypothesizing, persuading and reflecting.
Speaking and listening standard: Students express creative and analytical responses to texts, themes and issues. They identify main issues in a topic and provide supporting detail and evidence of opinions.
The activities in this learning module are relevant to the Interdisciplinary Learning strand of Level 5 Communications (Listening, viewing and responding standard; Presenting standard) and Thinking Processes (Reasoning, processing and inquiry standard; Creativity standard).
The activities are also relevant to the Physical, Personal and Social Learning strand of Level 5 Interpersonal Development (Building social relationships standard; Working in teams standard) and Personal Learning (The individual learner standard; Managing personal learning standard).
This material is an extract. Teachers and Students should consult the Victoria Curriculum and Assessment Authority website for more information.In remote areas of Australia police periodically need to go on long patrols to come into contact with remote communities and to be seen to be implementing the rule of law.
The list of policing and civic duties in earlier times was extensive including delivering the mail to convening a bush court. The remote far northern region of Australia is a vast area to cover and the policeman would often head off on horseback for three months at a time with the assistance of an Aboriginal stockman or two.
These days, there are more roads and police patrols can be more easily carried out by four- wheel drive. In some remote regions, alcohol and substance abuse are becoming serious problems in communities, with Indigenous Australians being particularly vulnerable.
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- List at least six of the jobs done by outback police identified in the video clip.
- List the personal qualities and physical skills the policeman demonstrates.
- Briefly describe what you think are the best and worst aspects of this job.
- The video clip was made more than fifty years ago. In small groups, discuss and write answers to the following questions.
- What is the message(s) about the role of an outback policeman in the video clip?
- What visual images does the filmmaker use to get these message(s) across to the viewer?
- What problems are identified in the video clip as being problems found in the outback?
- What images are shown of Indigenous Australians? Are these images positive or negative? Give reasons.
- Construct a careers information brochure or poster about becoming an Outback policeman for people in the 1950s. You must use at least two visual images and 300 words of text.
- Include the following headings; qualities needed, job description, what you can expect. (Remember to use bullet points, clear font, numbers and arrows if necessary).
- Write captions for any visual images used.