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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'An interesting new series of plays for the boys and girls, telling them something of the romance, history and adventure that have gone to the making of the Australia that they know today. Some of these plays will deal with Australia as the children of today know it, and some with the Australia of their fathers and grandfathers.'
Source:
'Radio Highlights', Illawarra Mercury, 30 August 1940, p.5.
Notes
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List of episodes (currently incomplete)
1. Treasures of the Deep (1 September 1940)
'The owner of a pearling lugger, in the Timor Sea, off the Northern coast of Western Australia, is badly hurt during a storm, and his son, a boy of 16, decides to take his father's place to get the lugger to sea. The crew agree to go with him. Luck is with them, and a profitable haul of mother-of-pearl is the result.' ('Australian Adventure Plays', Kilmore Free Press, 5 September 1940, p.6.)
2. Wrecker's Island (8 September 1940)
'It is another great adventure story of an Australian boy who played a heroic part in the fight against a band of cut throats who, from Kangaroo Island, were luring passing ships to their doom and plundering cargoes.' ('Australian Adventure Plays', Kilmore Free Press, 5 September 1940, p.6.)
3. The Bold Buccaneer (15 September 1940)
4. [Title unknown] (22 September 1940)
5. A Brave Australian (29 September 1940)
6. The Flying Doctor (6 October 1940)
7. A Modern Moses (13 October 1940)
8. The Last of the Pirates (20 October 1940)
'"The Last of the Pirates" is a thrilling story of the way in which a white man and a native risked their lives in order to expose one of the most desperate traders who was bringing unwilling natives from the South Sea Islands to this country and making a great deal of money out of it. This scoundrel eventually came to a bad end through their efforts, and his death put an end to the trading.' ('Tales of the Southern Cross', Kilmore Free Press, 17 October 1940, p.8.)
9. [Title unknown] (27 October 1940)
10. [Title unknown] (3 November 1940)
11. [Title unknown] (10 November 1940)
12. [Title unknown] (17 November 1940)
13. [Title unknown] (1 December 1940)
14. The Seven Sisters (8 December 1940) (final)
'On this occasion it will not be the usual Australian historical story, in which some boy has figured as an actor, but a legend of the aborigines [sic] concerning the Pleiades' ('Broadcasting Features from the National Stations', Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser~, 29 November 1940, p.2)
Production Details
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Broadcast on 2FC in Sydney between 1 September and 8 December 1940 (and then rebroadcast on various regional and interstate stations).
The run was not entirely uninterrupted: the Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser notes, for example, that the instalment that would normally fall on 24 November had been delayed, because 'there is a standing rule that on the last Sunday of the month the A.B.C.'s large and happy family of children must have a fairy play' (15 November 1940, p.7): a version of 'King Thrushbeard' was broadcast instead.
For a (currently incomplete) list of episode titles and broadcast dates, see Notes.
