The Back of Beyond (1954)

Director:

John Heyer

Writers:

Janet Heyer, John Heyer,

Stars:

Tom Kruse, William Henry Butler, Jack the Dogger

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tom Kruse
William Henry Butler
Jack the Dogger
Old Joe the Rainmaker
The Oldfields of Etadinna
Bejah
Malcolm Arkaringa
Vallis Barlow
Georgina Barlow
Douglas Stewart	...	Narrator (voice)
John Heyer	...	Narrator (voice)
Helen Barlow
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kevin Brennan	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

---

Plot Keywords:

australia

---

Taglines:

This 1954 classic follows an outback mailman as he travels along the Birdsville Track.

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Details

Country:

Australia

Release Date:

1954 (Australia)

Also Known As:

A Carrier Called Kruse

Filming Locations:

Betoota, Queensland, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

£12,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shell Film Unit Australia, Shell Film Unit

Technical Specs

Runtime:

65 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original working title was "A Carrier Called Kruse".

---

Connections

Featured in 40,000 Years of Dreaming (1997)

User Reviews

Real life in the Australian Outback

This is a movie that shows what half a century ago, life was in the outback of Australia's desert.

A hostile location at anytime but back then an old Leyland truck, a flying doctors radio (antique design) was the way those hardy soles lived their lives. It's about life on the Birdsville Track as it was then. Tom Kruse and his 1936 Leyland Badgermail truck feature along with many of the people living along the track at that time.

Later in 1999 another movie "Last Trip from Birdsville" was made to commemorate Tom Kruse the truck driver in the 1954 movie, his last mail run, a re-enactment in 1999.

The Back of Beyond (1954), directed by John Heyer, was made by the Shell Film Unit. 3 The Shell Unit was set up in 1948 with Heyer in charge. Earlier Heyer had been a senior producer with the Federal Government's Film Division (later called the Commonwealth Film Unit, now Film Australia) - and indeed had been instrumental in its setting up in the last months of the second world war. Heyer was given a brief by Shell to make a "prestige" documentary that would capture the essence of Australia. He chose as his subject a weekly Birdsville Track mail run.