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The Screen Guide

This is a film about ordinary people in a small town caught up in big events. As Australia’s only purpose-built defence village, Woomera has been famous for its rocket range, as home to Americans from the Nurrungar base and, most recently, for its controversial immigration reception and processing centre. But the centre has closed and the town is in danger of closing too. Once heralded as a model of suburban living then reviled as a “desert jail”, this film looks at Woomera from the inside and follows the town’s struggle to stay alive. As a government town however, its future is not necessarily in the community’s own hands. Now marketing of the range has been contracted out to a multinational company, with potential to capitalise on escalating global interest in weapons development.

  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
  • Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive

Cast & Crew & Production Details

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Director
Steve Thomas
Writers
Steve Thomas
Producer
Kim Anning  Steve Thomas
Executive Producers
Anna Grieve
Dir. of Photography
Philip Bull  Peter Zakharov
Cast
Simon Burke (narrator)
Production Completion
2004
Genre
History and national identity, Social contemporary
Production Company
Film Australia Limited