In 1928 a short film was filmed in Eltham called “Borrowed Plumes”. Local houses for the on location film shoot and local people were featured in the film according to press reports in “The Advertiser”. It was produced by local resident Mr E. C. Lyall and his Kooringarama films company probably named for an Eltham property, property owned by Mr and Mrs Boake. The Cast included Clifford Cumming, Raoul Conyers, Norman Mayes, John Cornwall, Beatrice Chennery, Marie Bucknall, Elizabeth Tippetts, Rene Dudfield, Grace Loukes and Clare Lynwood.
The Company also made a short film of the Eltham Fire Brigade
The first ever feature film in the world was The Story Of The Kelly Gang which was released in 1906 and is said to have been filmed in St Kilda (indoor scenes), Eltham, Greensborough, Heidelberg, Mitcham, and Rosanna. 11 minutes of the film remain. A number of clips of the film can be viewed on YouTube or view via Internet Archive.
It has been suggested that the sandstone building “Charterisville” in Heidelberg matches one of the images in the film.
Alan Marshall in ‘Pioneers and Painters: one hundred years of Elthan and its Shire’ [1971] states that “serious film making” in Eltham began in 1929 with the the one hour film “As Ye Sow”. Principals in the cast included Jack Cornwall, Norman D’Arcy, Marie Bucknall, Gwen Pritchard, Rene Dudfield (later Mrs H. A. Davies).
Later Mr Tom Burstall, an Eltham resident became a prominent film maker.
References
The Advertiser (Hurstbridge) 10 February 1928,
The Advertsier (Hurstbridge) 17 February 1928
The Advertiser (Hurstbridge) 2 March 1928
The Advertiser (Hurstbridge) 21 March 1930
Access via TROVE
Marshall, Alan Pioneers and Painters: one hundered years of Eltham and its Shire], 1971 p. 100
Marshall, Marguerite Nillumbik Now and Then, 2008 p. 164
Burstall, Tim Memoirs of a young bastard, Melbourne University Publishing, 2012
Update December, 2020 See also: Borrowed Plumes
