Free admission

A fascinating interactive exhibition that examines 100 years of Australian film, television, radio and recorded sound.

Through video compilations and touch screen programs, exhibition visitors can discover the stories of people who have created the 'sights and sounds' of our imagination and our daily lives. Many people have created Australia's audiovisual heritage and helped form our national identity: from amateurs to professionals, ordinary people and actors, inventors to directors, radio personalities to opera singers.

A few of the many stories featured in the exhibition are:

Members of the Limelight Department
Collection: NFSA

• Thomas Rome's early experiments with sound recording in the late 1890s
• The Salvation Army's pioneering efforts incorporating film into their presentations and their filming of the Inauguration of the Commonwealth - Australia was the first nation to have its birth recorded on motion picture
• Little Nipper

Jack Davey and Alan Saunders,
chief announcer of 5DN Radio
Courtesy: 5DN, Adelaide
Collection: NFSA

• International recording artists such as Billy Williams and Nellie Melba
• Ned Kelly
• Damien Parer and Cinesound's award-winning newsreel and Australia's first Academy Award
• Frankie J. Holden
• Jedda
• Little Nipper

The Seekers
Courtesy: EMI Music Australia and Jukebrats Productions
Collection: NFSA

• Profile on Dame Nellie Melba
• Col Joye
• Louise Lovely
• Picnic at Hanging Rock
• Dogs in Space

Nellie Melba broadcasting from the Marconi Works, England, 1920
Collection: National Library of Australia

Peter Weir
Courtesy: Peter Weir
Collection: NFSA

Baz Luhrmann on the set of Strictly Ballroom, 1994
Courtesy: Baz Luhrmann
Collection: NFSA

In addition to works of the imagination, significant events in Australia's history have been recorded and feature in the exhibition, including:

• The birth of the Commonwealth of Australia on film
• The population's response to the declaration of peace at the end of World War II
• The tragedies of Cyclone Tracy and the Thredboe Landslide

Cinesound Productions studio, Bondi
Courtesy: Film World
Collection: NFSA

State Theatre, Sydney, 1956
Collection: NFSA

Some of the exhibition highlights include:

Aunty Jack
Courtesy: ABC Document Archives & Graham Bond
Collection: NFSA

• Thomas Rome's wax cylinders from the 1890s
• Federation film showing the birth of Australia in 1901

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Courtesy: Picnic Productions Pty Ltd
Collection: NFSA

• Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur
• Items from Dogs in Space

Lorrae Desmond
Courtesy: Lorrae Desmond
Collection: NFSA

• Damien Parer and Cinesound's award-winning newsreel and Australia's first Academy Award
• Sound effects desk for radio

Sights + Sounds of a Nation is a window onto the National Film and Sound Archive's extensive collection of audiovisual material as well as over 200 items, including posters, costumes, manuscripts, scripts and objects. Some exhibition items are also on loan from the Powerhouse Museum and individuals.

NFSA explainers are also on hand to provide an entertaining and responsive introduction to the exhibition.

For educational programs for schools and groups, please contact our Education Officer on telephone +61 2 6248 2141.

Jackie McDonald, Ozzie Ostrich and
Daryl Somers in Hey Hey it's Saturday
Courtesy: Somers Carroll Pty Ltd
Collection: National Film and Sound Archive

John Meillon, Charles Little, Ed Devereauz
and Slim de Grey in They're a Weird Mob (1966)
Courtesy: Williamson Powell International Films

Jedda: Ngarla Kunoth (Jedda) leaning over a wounded Robert Tudawali (Marbuck)
Courtesy: Curtis Brown Pty Ltd
Collection: National Film and Sound Archive

HMV Little Nipper
Collection: National Film and Sound Archive