This video incorporates 50 mins original 16mm movie footage, and a 10 min selection of photographs, to capture a remarkable image of agricultural methods in the 1930's.

The first 10 minutes portray the development of Australian agriculture with full commentary, providing the background for the movie footage. A contrast between horse and mechanised farming methods in the Riverina is depicted in the next 30 minutes of the video. The stages of construction of a 180 ton thatched hay stack is shown in the final 20 minutes. The remarkable workmanship that goes into building the stack, and the retention of quality in the hay even after 10 years is a tribute to the pioneers of early Australian agriculture.

Specifications: VHS Format B/W & Colour Running time 60 minutes

National Film & Sound Archives, Canberra, November 1992.
Dr Jeff Brownrigg
What we have here is a time capsule, a record of a vanished way of doing things.
"This is outstanding footage, 16mm home movie stuff we normally don't look at, but it has the quality of the great American photographers of the 1930 and 1940's. It has something of that documentary quality that is extraordinarily rare".