The Great Strike (1917)

The Great Strike is a rare censored film documenting one of Australia’s largest industrial conflicts. This footage, last seen in 1917, is a unique insight into a crucial moment in the history of the Australian union movement, as well as early 20th century Sydney.
The footage has been restored especially for the 100th anniversary on 2 August 2017, and reconstructed by combining two surviving fragments of the original motion picture.
With an original running time of an hour, The Great Strike was released in October 1917 in the dying days of the strike. But it was screened only once in its original form before it was embargoed, censored and given the rather dry new title of Recent Industrial Happenings in NSW. The film’s censorship was largely driven by the concerns of politician Walter Wearne, who had organised volunteer labour while the paid workers were on strike.
In bringing the film to life for a new audience in 2017, City of Sydney and National Film and Sound Archive staff undertook extensive research. As the film was only ever screened once, it’s believed that no more than one or two prints would ever have existed.

[@Ageispolis11]

What an amazing project. Thank you NSFA for being a shining light for historical research on Australia, so that we might learn from the past!

[@NFSAFilms]

Thank you for your kind feedback. Glad you enjoyed the film.

[@chilbury]

We need those men and women today!! ASAP

[@elhombre2711]

The boy at the 3 minute mark looks a lot like my grandfather, age and looks are right and he worked for the NSW railways his whole life.

[@wazzazone]

Marvelous time, we must thank the trade unions, else we would be in a similar situation as the US.

[@chilbury]

Nice little freemason handshake 15:02 lol

[@TheOztvshow]

yes i see that mmm WOW back in 1917 nwo :(

[@ComradeHellas]

Conspiracy theory bullshit

[@joeconrad9147]

Awesome architecture for a bunch of criminals

[@chasethecat3839]

@@joeconrad9147 stolen from those who came before them

[@chilbury]

@@ComradeHellas You're a fucktard

[@Ekyllier]

13:52 the IWW !

[@MooKau_]

Oh nice, i was about to check if there was mentions of the Wobblies in it, as we seem to be removed from so much of event that we where definitely in!

[@kennethhakanson8246]

Interesting, you can only push people so far, the survival of the British Empire at stake, many thousands of men being slaughtered in Europe, ghastly times. Good to see video played back in normal time, my dad over there among the battles, excellent quality!

[@taraxshow3059]

The NFSA have digital film restoration software. Why don't they use it with these old films? It would largely remove the dust and scratches and jitter and flicker and bring much more clarity to the images. There is a film of Hiroshima in the 1930s which was recently digitally restored and looks fantastic.