“I Don’t Serve Scabs”: Sunday Too Far Away

Depending on whose narrative is believed, Gil Brealey, producer and director/chairman of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), either saved or damaged Sunday Too Far Away (Ken Hannam, 1975). The film was born out of a complex set of government-initiated circumstances. Established in 1972, the SAFC would stand as the first of six state government production bodies to be established over eight years. Under the stewardship of Brealey, the SAFC had by 1975 produced 60 documentaries, two pilot episodes for television series and a one-hour dramatised documentary, Who Killed Jenny Langby? (Donald Crombie, 1974).¹ Sunday Too Far Away would be the first feature produced by the SAFC. 

Writer John Dingwell had pitched the idea to Brealey – initially titled ‘The Shearers’ – on the great Queensland shearers strike of 1956, in which his brother in-law had been involved. Brealey felt it could be ideal material for the up-and-coming star, Jack Thompson.² Dingwell was commissioned to write a screenplay based on this premise for a running time of approximately 90 minutes to meet its agreed $300,000 budget. The problems began when Dingwell produced a script comprising of 191 scenes that would have run closer to twice as long. However, instead of Dingwell being given an opportunity to rewrite and reshape his own script, several key scenes were omitted, especially those from its first third. 

Foley (Jack Thompson), a ‘gun’ shearer, joins a crew working on a remote station, where initial unity is forged through the common enemy of a demanding station manager and the bond of drinking. The shearers take collective strike action after the government reneges on a promised ‘prosperity payment’, marking a significant assertion of workers’ rights within the pastoral industry. The film presents unionism not merely as a political mechanism, but as a vital source of identity and solidarity among isolated workers. Though historically set, it resonates most profoundly with the broader political climate of the day, offering a clear nod to then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s pro-union stance and the broader Labor platform, which championed improved working conditions, increased worker benefits, and the integration of unions into the political policymaking process. 

As this film would receive a lot of attention as the first SAFC feature – and dependent on box office and critical success – it does seem surprising that Brealey offered the material to Ken Hannam to direct. Hannam had previously relocated to London to mostly direct television episodes (The Troubleshooters [1965-1972], Colditz [1972-1974], Dr Finlay’s Casebook [1962-1971]). With no feature credits to his name, Hannam jumped at the offer from Brealey to direct his debut in Australia. With a script written for a hot and dry climate, the shoot took place between March and May 1974 over the most severe Autumn torrential rain and subsequent flooding in the region since, ironically, when the film was set. This added an additional two weeks of shooting to make up for lost time. Most challenging was the scene of Foley flipping his car. Because the road was so wet and bogged, the tyres on one side were deflated to allow stunt driver Ian Jamieson to roll the car by driving at speed, which he eventually succeeded at after three attempts. As with Hannam, it was cinematographer Geoff Burton’s debut feature, having previously worked on television and TV movies including The Drover’s Wife (Gian-Carlo Manara, 1968). Burton drew inspiration from Australian artworks such as Tom Roberts’s 1890 panting “Shearing the Rams” – evident in the film’s effective documentary style of the shearers at work – while also recreating, as Colin Bennett remarked, the “almost claustrophobic isolation of the terrain.”³

Sunday Too Far Away’s fictional township is known as Gimal, which seems to be a fun word play combining the letters of the first names of key creatives Gil Brealey, Matt Carroll and Malcolm Smith. The filming locations included the dramatic landscapes of the Flinders Ranges region, specifically around Quorn, Port Augusta, in addition to the Carriewerloo Station. With the crew boarding in Quorn and occupying all available rooms in the four hotels, the decision was made to build a pub (with running beer) in the basement of the Port Augusta Town Hall, to allow them five days of consecutive filming for the pub bawl that concludes the film. The location for the sheep station at Carriewerloo, South Australia, joins a line of other films that used this same station: Robbery Under Arms (Jack Lee, 1957), Bitter Springs (Ralph Smart, 1950), Kangaroo (Lewis Milestone, 1952) and The Sundowners (Fred Zinnemann, 1960). Zinnemann’s film draws the strongest visual comparison. However, as Helen Frizell mentioned in her review, the narrative that draws the obvious comparison was indeed the 1955 play Summer of Seventeenth Dolls (later adapted into a feature film in 1959 directed by Leslie Norman) which involves a similar plot around the rivalry of canecutters vying for the title of ‘ringer’ – the one who runs rings around the other cutters.⁴

Hannam and editor Rod Adamson put together an assembly cut of around 120 minutes. This version focused strongly on a young boy Michael (Gregory Apps) and his admiration for gun shearer Foley.⁵ Jack Thompson declared it one of the best things he had ever seen,⁶ but the producers did not agree. Co-producer Matt Carroll later said: “the long version was pretty boring. The pace was slow, it dragged, the performances in the sub-plot didn’t work.”⁷ Under the guidance of Brealey, the film underwent extensive editing. Scenes were reorganised, with the opening and closing sequences of Foley’s car accident swapped to enhance the narrative flow. Additionally, some subplots were removed to maintain a tighter storyline. This version was dubbed by Ian Stocks as the “producer’s cut of a much more complex narrative”.⁸ Jettisoned were the majority of scenes with teenager Shiela (Lisa Peers), daughter of the station owner. The problem was a preproduction casting decision which changed her from a 30-something divorcee to a naive teenager. Many of Sheila’s scripted scenes, including many with her father in the first section of the film, were entirely cut. The issue in casting is evidenced in a key scene that does remain of Foley mourning the loss of fellow old timer shearer, Ol Garth (Reg Lye). Foley breaks down in tears in front of Shiela who, unequipped to deal with the maturity and delicacy of the moment, simply walks away. Commented on by Adrian Danks, such moments “rarely feel fully integrated into the film, and don’t relate coherently or adequately to our general understanding of the characters.”⁹ The emotional distance between Foley and Sheila is made more striking by the palpable camaraderie among the male shearers. Their bond – rich with humor, warmth, and moments of unexpected poignancy – adds depth to the film’s atmosphere. Lye, Max Cullen, John Ewart, and Jerry Thomas all deliver strong performances that bring the shearers’ dynamic vividly to life.¹⁰

This final 94-minute cut was viewed by the SAFC on 28 August 1974. Although Brealey had issues with the abrupt ending in the new cut, he defended the decision by staying faithful to the ending of Dingwell’s shooting script. By December the film was locked and in the laboratory for printing. Brearley wrote to Richard Brennan in London: “Ken Hannam was disappointed with the final cut but I felt his version needed considerable tightening and this has been borne out by the opinions expressed by people like (theatre, TV and film producer) Storry Walton.”¹¹ The film premiered in Australia on 1 June 1975 at the Sydney Film Festival. As invited guests made their way into the auditorium, the pre-film entertainment included the country’s top Champion shearer, Bimby Martin, in a sheep shearing demonstration staged on a cattle truck outside Market Street’s State Theatre. David Stratton as the Director of the Sydney Film Festival used this opening night film, the first ever Australian film to open the festival, as an opportune moment to include a 25 film retrospective of Australian movies entitled, “Salute to Australian Film”. Before Sydney, the film had premiered internationally on 18 May at the Cannes Film Festival as the first Australian film to be invited into the Director’s Fortnight section playing that year, alongside The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) and Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975).¹²

Sunday Too Far Away received critical acclaim, particularly for Thompson’s performance. “His least mannered, most confident and convincing performance […] has star quality,” declared Bennett’s review.¹³  Sunday Too Far Away dominated the 1975 Australian Film Institute Awards, amongst its four wins included the Golden Reel Prize for Best Film. It had recouped its initial costs through the theatrical seasons in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide alone and consequently launched the careers of several of its talent (Jack Thompson, John Dingwell, Matt Carroll and Ken Hannam). Sunday Too Far Away is arguably not only the best work of their respective careers but to reference John Clancy, writing in Cinema Papers, “the best film to emerge from the Australian film revival.”¹⁴ David Stratton wrote in The Last New Wave (1980) that “it was something of a miracle, in fact, that it [Sunday Too Far Away] turned out so well; but those who had been closest to it still talk sadly about the film it might have been.”¹⁵ According to Stocks, who had unparalleled access to the records of the SAFC, Brealey’s intervention saved both the film and the Corporation who would go on to be the most successful and long lasting of all the six state governments’ production bodies. 

 Sunday Too Far Away (1975 Australia 94 mins)

Prod Co: South Australian Film Corporation Prod: Gil Brealey, Matt Carroll Dir: Ken Hannam Scr: John Dingwall Phot: Geoff Burton Ed: Rod Adamson Mus: Patrick Flynn 

Cast: Jack Thompson, Max Cullen, Robert Bruning, Jerry Thomas, Peter Cummins, John Ewart, Sean Scully, Reg Lye, Graham Smith, Laurie Rankin, Lisa Peers, Philip Ross, Ken Shorter, Gregory Apps, John Hargreaves

Endnotes