Capturing the hearts and minds since the inception of steam trains in the 1800s, trains and railways became the primary form of mechanized land transport over the next 300 years. Symbols of power, danger and romance, trains enraptured audiences and provided many a film with a theatrical backdrop, from Alfred Hitchcocks dark, sinister depictions of chance meetings in North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train, to the whimsical of the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter.

Employing a vast number of people in their hey-day, train and railway construction was a huge industry with many people living their lives on the periphery of railways. Stunt-Love, directed by Matthew Bates tells the epic story of Jack McGowan, the son of an engine driver who worked at the Eveleigh workshops in the early 1900s and who later became a hollywood director specializing in railroad themed cinema. The festival will also be featuring a selection of Jack McGowans films, including the Lost Express (1926) and the Hurricane Express (1932) and some restored and discovered footage such as Building a Railway Engine (1925) and Lost Australian Films, expressing the the romance, excitement and development of railways.

Exploring the social context of railways, Bombay Railway looks at the impact of rail on the city of Bombay in India, while the AFI award-winning 1977 film Island Shunters shows a day in the life of a shunting gang at Darling Harbour railway yards, depicting the mateship and communication between the workers involved in this dangerous railway operation at the time.

The Eveleigh Railway Film Festival 2012 aims to provide a forum for discussion and education about the significant contribution of railways with informative and thought provoking documentaries and commentaries. Bound for the Future and The Engineering Connection, examine the bullet-train in Japan and the technology associated with it. Shooting through Sydney, explores Sydney's light rail system, while China's High Speed Rail shows the massive, high-speed rail network that is currently being built in China.

The Eveleigh Railway and Film Festival 2012 will take place as part of the Australian Technology Park’s Open Day being held on Saturday 25th February 2012. The Australian Technology Park mainly occupies the former Locomotive Railway Workshops in the heritage Railway Workshops at Eveleigh. The area to be featured at the open day contains the still operating the Blacksmith Workshop and the Large Erecting Shop home for many years of the 3801 steam locomotive.

To download a copy of the 2012 program, click here.

Filmmakers

A large number of filmmakers and their associates who have been devoted for some years to recording railway related events. These people are the backbone of the Eveleigh Railway Film Festival and in what we envisage will be an explosion of film footage concerning rail transport in this historical era. Donations of their films are greatly appreciated particularly those that examine the social and cultural aspect of railways, a topic we wish to make a regular feature of railway film festivals. The contribution of the Australasian Railway Authority aided the organisers of the ERFF greatly.

In the early stages in establishing this festival we sorted through many sources of content related to modern high speed train technology and the modern use of light rail in cities like Sydney. Like many others, the Australasian Railway Authority did not have film footage on these subjects available when we first approached them but quickly saw the need for such films to be available for universities and others who teach and research modern transport issues in Australia.

RedWATCH

REDWATCH, a local community organisation comprising of residents from the South Sydney suburbs of Redfern, Waterloo, Eveleigh and Darlington has been instrumental in support for the film festival. Redwatch is no ordinary resident’s action group and unlike any other that can be found in Australia.

The area has had a colourful history, first with Indigenous Australians and later the first fleet’s contact with Australia, the establishment of Sydney University, the first steam railway and of course the Eveleigh Railway Workshops. Through all the pressure of modern living people in this area have retained a song sense of community and a collective approach to defending a very diverse grouping of people. They have learnt in their own way how to defend the many heritage sites contained in the area and how to deal directly with local and state government bodies and the university, who has not always displayed an understanding of local residents needs.

REDWATCH members have an understanding of the heritage and cultural value of the Eveleigh Railway Workshop and were among the first to join the National Trust, 3801 Ltd, Wrought Artworks and the Trade Unions to declare that the heritage value of the workshops should be recognised and protected from multi-story developers and that other ways to keep the area alive should be found.

The influence of REDWATCH should be noted in dealings that have occurred with The Australian Technology Park and the Redfern Waterloo Authority who the ATP open day and the Eveleigh Railway Film Festival is part of.

Australian Technology Park and RWA

The inaugural Eveleigh Railway Film Festival would not have been possible without the support of the Australian Technology Park and the Redfern Waterloo Authority (both NSW Government bodies). The relationship of the many organisations with long term heritage interests in the future of the old Eveleigh Railway Workshops has been occasionally shakey and many issues on the future development of the area remain to be dealt with.

However these two organisations in the recent period along with Rail Corp are now responsible for some significant heritage works in locations like the Blacksmith Workshop and the Large Erecting Workshop that is required for overhauling and maintaining sections of the NSW rail heritage fleet of locomotives and equipment. In recent weeks rezoning of the Large Erecting Workshop has been announced which is an indication that it will now be retained for rail heritage activities.

The management of the Australian Technology Park with the support for the Eveleigh workshops and the Eveleigh Railway Film Festival by providing two film theatres and equipment is a very important contribution. Above all it recognises the heritage connection that the former railway workshops had with arts and cultural skills of early industrial Australia. The Australian Technology Park residents although not directly connected to railway technology remains the largest gathering of companies and government research teams located in a single area. It makes for an ideal launching area of annual railway film festival something that will have to be discussed in the near future.

Rail Tram and Bus Union

The Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) we are pleased to say have become a very important sponsor that has made the Eveleigh Railway Film Festival possible. This trade union’s association with the heritage of Eveleigh and the Railway industry is very noteworthy. An amalgamated union body from 1993 all of its earlier industrial affiliates have histories that can be traced back through the 1800’s to the building of Australia’s first steam railways and tramways.

T he RTBU has a long and proud association with the Eveleigh Workshops, as a place of major significance in the working lives of many thousands of rail workers and union members. Eveleigh holds a special place in our collective memories and the development of our union, as a vital industrial, political, social and cultural centre - from the robust meetings in Red Square and the worskshops gates, through to the theatrical and musical performances, as well as the myriad social and cultural activities, which were at the heart of work at the workshops.

The union is proud of the contributions of rail workers at Eveleigh to the growth of the NSW railways as well as the industrial and political growth that was felt well beyond the workshops and throughout the railways workforce. More detail of this association can be found at On Wooden Rails history (particularly Chapter 4) on the RTBU website.