On a new film, though, Port Phillip Bay comes across as the sparkling playground of the rich and poor alike, and at the same time, a potentially treacherous place for those who fail to read its changing moods. ScreenSound Australia, formerly the National Film and Sound Archive, is this week releasing Bayside Reflections, a 131-minute compilation of the best available 20th century film footage of significant aspects of the southern section of Port Phillip Bay.
Work is also under way on the film history of the northern sector.
The project's director, Mr Ken Berryman, who made the video Riverboats Remembered about the Murray River paddle steamers, set out several years ago to repeat the performance for the paddle steamers that plied Port Phillip Bay for 50 years from 1880. He succeeded in compiling fascinating footage of the enormously popular excursion boats, the Hygeia, the Ozone and the Weeroona, which took trippers, and sometimes even visiting royalty, on luxurious voyages to such exotic destinations as Geelong, Queenscliff and Sorrento. The films show them to look none too stable, but people ate and danced their way across the bay, remembering the good times so well that they would ultimately turn up to purchase memorabilia at auctions of the ships' chattels. The ships are shown nearly colliding. Ultimately, the popularity of the motor car put the boats out of business, although the seaside towns continued to boom.