2/43rd Australian Infantry Battalion organised a carnival on the 8th August 1945 for the native children of Beaufort, British West Borneo. The 2/43 Battalion entrant Miss Liew Kui Yun is presented with a sash bearing the title 'Miss Beaufort' by VX133 Brigadier Selwyn Havelock Watson Craig Porter, DSO, ED, Commander 24th Australian Infantry Brigade. The children enjoyed all the fun of a carnival; slides, swings, games and native dances. Included in this number is 16mm Kodachrome footage taken by Military History Section photographer, SX16312 Sergeant Keith Carr Rainsford of the same subject; also shows the 2/16th Australian Field Company, RAE building a 140 foot Bailey Bridge spanning the Bongawan River on 9th August 1945. Also identified is VX89030 Lieutenant Colonel William Edward Hanley Stanner.
The SR.N5 (Saunders Roe Nautical-5) was powered by a single Rolls Royce turbine. It provided forward propulsion (via a large propeller mounted on the back of the craft) and downward air pressure which caused the machine to rise above the surface on its rubber skirts.
The technology was tested in the creeks and rivers of Tawau in North Borneo (Sabah).
A Trip through British North Borneo serves both as an example of the early film travelogue -- featuring familiar types of shots, such as the 'phantom rides' shot from a train -- and also of the sponsored, industrial documentary.
In representational terms, the film is a rare and valuable record of the development, industries, and customs of the local communities, showing local sites (such as the Padas River and the Darvel Bay tobacco estates) and in particular, the relationship between the local -- as workers, convicts and at leisure -- and the colonial administrators.
As a film sponsored by the British North Borneo Company, it promotes the company's administration and seeks to encourage further investment. This is achieved first through the film's emphasis on travel -- following the expedition by train, and across the river -- which affirms an ideology of colonial exploration, adventure and discovery and encourages the viewer to identify with those developing the country.
Secondly, the film shows the social work of the company -- reports noted its role in bringing peace and order and it is shown, for example, providing food to convicts -- and thirdly, it emphasises the commercial possibilities and ongoing development within the area. The varied industries of the region are shown, including rubber, tobacco and manganese, and this chimes with both the company's own emphasis on increasing the export trade, and with the broader imperial rhetoric of increased productivity within the colonies.
The British North Borneo Company evidently recognised the pedagogical and commercial value of film in promoting the company's development plans and in generating further investment. Indeed the company's engagement with film is an early example of a colonial administration using film, not only as a tool for imperial governance, but effectively as advertising, as a means of encouraging direct investment from the viewer.