Australian TV Plays: Abandoned film - Return Journey (1961)

Australian film about the Burke and Wills expedition. It was directed by William Sterling and written and produced by John Sherman.

Cast

* Edward Brayshaw as Wills

* Peter Carver as Burke

* Syd Conabere as King

* David Mitchell as Gray

Production

John Sherman originally submitted the script to the ABC who rejected it.

In 1961 filming began with a cast of four and a crew including Sterling and cameraman Gerry Vandenberg. Filming took place near Alice Springs. They had $12,000 in funds. The plan was to film it on 16 mm and blow it up to 35mm. Associate producer - Jack Russell.

Filming was difficult - there was trouble with the camera, colour stock and sound track.

The filmmakers did not have enough money to complete the feature film so it was recut as a documentary.

Crew. Associate producer - Jack Russell. Continuity - Nancy Yeates. Production assistant - Nevil Thurgood.

In 1966, when John Sherman died, Colin Bennett claimed he had seen three different versions and said the best was a 30 minute documentary version. However at that stage the film had not yet been released.