Webb family trip to Alaska (1977)

In January 1977 our family went to Alaska to visit Dad’s relatives. We lived in Australia so this would be a big trip even by today's standards... back then it was even more of an expedition! I've pulled together a collection of old Super8 footage from that trip, mostly featuring us playing in the snow. Dad skis, we all toboggan, a car gets stuck, we watch a dog-sled race, I find an iceberg and we see lots of scenery of fir trees in the snow... As with other of the super8 films, I've added on an audio commentary from Mum. To make it easier to upload, I had to split it into two films:

Part One(sledding, scenery)



and Part Two (ski-ing, cars, dog sledding).



On the way back to Australia, we had a day's stopover in Hawaii while changing plans. This is some footage - part filmed by Mum, part from a tourist roll she bought. It's a bit of a tourist whirlwind view but interesting in a kitsch kind of way. It begins with film out the plane window as we flew over Pearl Harbour. It's also got some footage from Pearl Harbour of the actual battle which Mum filmed at the exhibit. Mostly though it's just nice scenery.

Mum's 21st birthday (1968)

Mum had two 21st birthday parties – one for family and the other for friends, as they couldn’t fit everyone in otherwise. This film contains footage from both parties. It was originally filmed on 8mm with no sound, but I’ve now added a commentary by Mum. Among other things she names all the people there who she remembers, many of whom are her friends from the East Kew Baptist Church. The parties were held either in her parents house (my Gran and Grampy) at 40 Belford Road, East Kew in Melbourne Australia and at the church hall.



Family included are Kevin & Nola, Ken, Aunty Evelyn & Uncle Garvin, Grandma Olga & Grampy Lindsay Hunter, & “Da’, my great grandfather.

Mum’s friends who came included: David Lawrence (who taught Mum how to film), Ian & Sue Ponton, Marg Hall, Sue Herald, Angela & Gavin Finlay, John & Geoff Woods, Libby Church, Ian & Andrew Gillard, Sue Black, Norm Cobain, Helen Stephens and Penny Price.

Mum & Dad in Guam (1969)

My Mum and Dad used to live on Guam. Here's some film they took which we’ve just unearthed. It was 8mm film, so no sound, but when we watched it for the first time I gave Mum a microphone to record a commentary. It makes it a little more interesting when you know what’s being shown! Unfortunately I messed up on the volume levels so you’ll have to turn up your speaker to the max to hear it.



There’s a real mix of footage here, including:

***Mum and Dad’s house – the outside area and inside. They lived right near the Bayview Baptist Church and the serviceman’s club which you can see in the footage.

***A social picnic / volleyball game – organised by the club & church.

***Lovely white beach, near Anderson Air Force Base

***Driving round the island on Dad’s motorbike. This includes driving through the capital Agana… overall, the whole place seems very unspoilt and beautiful.


In terms of timeframe, the film is in 2 parts.

The first section is various footage taken during the second half of 1969 (June onwards). My Mum and Dad - Dawn and John Webb - had just been married in Australia and returned to Guam where Dad was based (he was in the US Navy during the war). For the first six months or so of their marriage they lived on Guam. Mum then returned early to Australia at the end of 1969 when she was pregnant with me, and Dad stayed on until he was let out of the military and then came to join us.

The second section is footage from Mum’s visit in early 1969, when Mum went to Guam to meet Dad for the first time. I didn’t switch the order because it would have messed up the commentary, but this is at least 6 months earlier than the first section. It’s an amazing story actually… Mum and Dad were penpals through their churches and Dad proposed to Mum in a letter before they’d even met! Mum went to Guam from Australia to meet Dad before she accepted properly and this is that trip, which was a pretty intrepid thing to do in those days. I think my favourite bit of this footage is of Dad shimmying up a palm tree, obviously trying to impress Mum!

Gran & Grampy (1968)

This is a collection of clips of my Grandma Olga (known to us as either 'Gran' or 'Grannilumpkin') and Grandpa Lindsay (known as 'Grampy').



First, there's a clip of Gran getting out of the family car - which was shared by my Mum and Grampy - going into East Kew State school. Mum says she's pretty sure this was Gran on her way to do her cleaning job there.

Then, a short clip of Gran, Grampy and some unknown lady in Gran's lounge. We think this is at their house opposite the old fire station in East Kew (40 Belford Road). I can even recognise some of the chairs and the curtains in this clip as they were kept and re-used at Gran & Grampy's retirement house!

A small interlude of some of Grampy's roses - of which he was very proud - and finishing on one of my favourite clips... This shows Grampy, who died when I was 10, feeding a wild bird he'd befriended in the front garden at the Belford Road house. The film reel says the bird is 'Larch' but whether this was the bird's nickname or breed, I don't know. This clip is special because there are so few clips of Grampy as he hated being filmed. You can also see the family car in the background.

Grampy's garden (1968)

Grampy didn't like being filmed much but he was very proud of his garden. This is some film Mum shot back in around 1968 of some of his favourite plants in the garden at Belford Road, East Kew in Melbourne Australia. I decided to send it to Google for easier sharing with family as well as safe storage. One day I'd like to work out what the plants are and plant some all together as a garden in his memory. (Unfortunately this only shows closeups of plants, no view of the overall garden, and there's no shots of Grampy himself but hey it's better than nothing!)

Ellinis docking in Melbourne (1968)

This is some film of a big ship called Ellinis docking at Station Pier in Melbourne sometime during 1968. Mum can't remember taking this but we know it is this from the label on the filmreel. Our guess is that it is either meeting someone who was a friend of a friend migrating to Australia; or simply Mum being creative on a church youth group outing. She said going to see a ship arrive is one of the things that people did back then for fun. Besides the Ellinis, there is also a cameo appearance by a tugboat called Batman.



I like this clip partly just 'cos it seems like a totally different world, very different arriving by ship to arriving at the airport! Mum's also been quite creative with her splicing together of various clips in this. I thought I'd share it on Google just in case anyone who sailed on it stumbles across it... I can imagine it'd be a nice family heirloom to have a clip of the ship you migrated to Australia on.