This story was written by Joy and Norman Wogan

Charles and Elsa Chauvel are recognised as pioneers in the Australian Film Industry.

Charles Chauvel was the second of five children born on a country property near Warwick, Queensland, in 1897. He had a comparatively hard life with duties which included helping out with the milking before riding four miles to school on his pony. His childhood was a blend of hard work tinged with humour, and strong family ties and values. At the outbreak of WWI Charles, aged seventeen, managed the family property, Summerlands, while his father, Major Alan Chauvel, was serving with the Australian Light Horse under the command of his brother, Harry Chauvel.

Upon the return of his father to head the property, Charles moved to Sydney to study art. It was in Sydney that he met ‘Snowy’ Baker, who had starred in a number of movies made in Australia by American film companies. Charles acted in three movies in 1920, these being Robbery Under Arms, Shadow of Lightning Ridge and Jackeroo of Coolabong. When these companies went broke and headed back to America, ‘Snowy’ and Charles followed to Los Angeles where they performed a vaudeville act together. Charles also became a riding extra in Hollywood Westerns and in one movie galloped a horse from right to left as a Red Indian in one scene and in the next scene galloped after the Indian (himself) on the same horse, dressed as a cowboy. He had minor acting roles in three films, Fly by Night in 1921, The Man from the Desert and Strangers in the Night in 1922. It was while he was in ‘Tinseltown’ that Charles learned the art of film making.

However, the call of home was too strong and Charles Chauvel returned in 1923. Still in his twenties, he became Australia’s youngest producer / director / scriptwriter, with the making of the film Moth of Moonbi in 1926, which was followed in the same year by Greenhide. It was while casting for this feature film that Charles met Elsa Sylvaney, a young and pretty South African actress, who was appearing in a musical at the Cremorne Theatre in Brisbane. His search for the leading lady in Greenhide ended when Elsa passed the screen test.

Elsa was born in Melbourne in 1898. She was the second child of Queensland girl Ada Worrill, and Edward Wilcox, an Irish actor who changed his name to Sylvaney because foreign names were popular with the audiences at that time. They had met and married in Ada's country town when Edward was performing there in a travelling theatrical group. Elsa and her older brother Kyrle were performers from an early age, being introduced to the stage when a scene called for a child or baby in arms. Following his dream, Edward Wilcox (Sylvaney) took his family to South Africa where he sank all of his money into establishing a travelling company to take drama to the Dutch farmers who spoke not a word of English. At the end of her father's entrepreneurial endeavours in 1909, the family returned to Cape Town where Elsa's younger brother Terry was born. The family took whatever stage work was available and at one time worked as acrobats in an international circus featuring ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody.

Elsa's big chance came when both the leading lady and her understudy, performing with the American Dramatic Company, became ill with influenza twenty-four hours before the opening of The Silent Witness. Elsa was seconded from the African Theatres Trust and was given 24 hours to learn a 50-page script. On opening night a prompter was positioned on the floor of the witness box in case Elsa needed assistance with the lines which, as they concerned a court case, had to be exact. Elsa managed word for word without the need for one prompt, which moved the prompter to exclaim, "Well, I'll be damned!"

Then Elsa's mother, Ada, became homesick. So, with the assistance of funds provided by Elsa and Kyrle, obtained from a successful tour of Basutoland with a small theatrical company formed by Kyrle, the family returned to Australia.

Elsa auditioned for Greenhide and by the conclusion of filming Elsa and Charles were in love. They married in June 1927 in Sydney, with Charles’ brother, the Reverend John Chauvel, officiating, and so began the only husband and wife writing / directing / producing Feature Film team in Australia and perhaps the world. It was during the filming of Greenhide near Warwick, that Elsa discovered that the property owned by her grandfather bordered some of Summerlands, owned by the Chauvel family. Elsa had in fact travelled widely only to eventually marry the boy next door.

Charles and Elsa travelled to America in 1928 in an effort to sell their two movies, The Moth of Moonbi and Greenhide, only to discover that talkies had taken over the film industry there. With no hope of selling two Australian silent movies, Charles and Elsa took whatever work became available while they learned this new technique. They returned to Australia and, while waiting for the new equipment necessary to make talkies, Charles and Elsa moved back to southern Queensland where they built a cottage, which they named ‘Misty Mountain’, on a hill above Stanthorpe.

It was while they were living here that their daughter Susanne was born, and Charles wrote the script for his first talkie, In the Wake of the Bounty. As a boy, Charles took a keen interest by way of books in the tale of the mutiny on the Bounty, a ship captained by William Bligh. He was also fortunate enough to have access to one of Bligh's hand written log books, which was in the possession of the family of a neighbouring property, the Bligh-Nuttings.

In 1933 they presented In the Wake of the Bounty, followed by Heritage in 1935, Uncivilised and Rangle River in 1936, Screen Test in 1937, Forty Thousand Horsemen in 1940, Soldiers Without Uniform and Power to Win in 1942, A Mountain Goes to Sea, While There is Still Time and Russia Aflame in 1943, Rats of Tobruk in 1944, Sons of Mathew in 1949, Making Films in 1951 and Jedda in 1955.

Letters home from his uncle General Sir Harry Chauvel, who was in command of the First World War desert campaign, inspired the young Charles to take a keen interest in the deeds of The Australian Light Horse. This led to his making the films Forty Thousand Horsemen and Rats of Tobruk which both portrayed the staunch loyalty to their mates displayed by Australian soldiers in WW I and WW II, as well as the heroic stand made by the soldiers in Tobruk. To this day, these two movies are shown regularly throughout Australia on Anzac day.

Sons of Mathew was filmed in Numinbah Valley and Lamington National Park (Queensland) and was inspired by the pioneering family, the O'Reillys. While not an exact account of their story, it tells of the day to day trials and tribulations of the early Irish settlers in this part of Australia. The cyclone sequences were filmed at Natural Arch and actor Michael Pate recounted how he had come close to drowning while rescuing actress Wendy Gibb during the re-enactment. The Chauvels met the O'Reilly family on a visit they made to check on locations. In those days there was no road to the top, so Bernard O'Reilly, with saddle- and pack-horses, met them halfway to lead them up the narrow track through the dense rainforest. As a result, Charles Chauvel negotiated with the Queensland Government who then built the road through to the top of the plateau, which enabled the Chauvels to take their heavy camera and lighting equipment to the site of filming.

Jedda was a first in Australian films in that actual Aborigines were hired to play themselves. Charles Chauvel worked with Bill Harney to learn the Aboriginal culture in order to create an authentic story for this Australian feature.

Charles Chauval Productions was established to make this film as the companies that had produced his earlier movies were either no longer in existence or not willing to back such a risky venture. Petrol and technical assistance were supplied by the Australian Government, while private finance was afforded by Avondale Studios of Sydney, and post production funds were provided by Columbia Pictures. This funding was vital as Jedda had exceeded the £10,000 limit placed in 1951 on capital costs of non-essential industries by the Board of the Department of National Development in an endeavour to reduce inflation.

A series of thirteen episodes of Australian Walkabout was the last project of Charles and Elsa Chauvel. Charles delighted in making this as he was able to show the country he loved in his own special way without his backers looking over his shoulder to tell him what they thought the Australian public wanted.

This series was shown on British TV in colour in the mid 1950s and in black and white when TV came to Australia. Australian Walkabout, which was commissioned by the BBC, gave Charles and Elsa the opportunity to travel to outback Australia, often on unsealed roads in the family Holden, to meet colourful and unusual folk and to discuss their way of life and experiences. During travel in the Northern Territory, they once became stranded in the middle of the crocodile infested Roper River at night when the engine of the barge stopped. Rescue, in the form of a missionary from the Roper River Mission, arrived at 2a.m.

The first episode covered the preparations in Sydney while the second looked at Australia's unique fauna and the Great Dividing Range. Successive points of interest included the Northern Territory and the Kimberleys, the Ghan train, the opal fields of Coober Pedy, picnic races, buffalo hunting, a one man cattle and sheep station on the banks of Lake Eyre, Rum Jungle and The Royal Flying Doctor Service.

This was a fairly new concept at the time and was the forerunner of the travel documentaries we see today. Charles had a deep and abiding love of his country and his passion is evident in the films and documentaries he and Elsa made.

For the souvenir programme presented at the premiere screening of his film Moth of Moonbi, Charles wrote:

This is the creed upon which the Chauvels based their film making.

Charles died in 1959 at the age of 62 after a heart attack, while Elsa passed away in 1983 in Toowoomba, Queensland, at the age of 85. Charles and Elsa Chauvel are recognised as pioneers in the Australian Film Industry and left a lasting legacy for the people of this country .

Written by Joy and Norman Wogan

Reference: Charles and Elsa Chauvel by Susanne Chauvel-Carlsson