Beechworth at a clip!

A SILENT National Film and Sound Archive moving picture of ‘Back to Beechworth’ in March 1932 - including its street parade - is worth seeing again as Beechworth heads into this weekend’s Golden Horseshoes Festival 2026.

The ‘Queen City of the North’, as The Ovens and Murray Advertiser described the town, put on a five-day celebration to mark its second win in The Sun newspaper’s Ideal Town competition.

The footage shows panoramic views of Beechworth, Stanley and the Alps and a Ford Street parade including the town band, re-enactments of the Kelly Gang bailing up the gold escort, Sydney Harbour Bridge’s interrupted opening (which had taken place only nine days earlier), various horse-drawn vehicles including what looks like the O’Neil family’s Stanley-Beechworth omnibus, and other floats moving towards a welcome arch at the Camp Street intersection outside what is now Beechworth Gold.

The Advertiser reported that the parade also included a person acting as Captain James Cook who ‘gravely carried out the handing back of Australia’ to First Nations people.

‘Moving pictures of these set pieces which had been well-arranged were taken and will be screened at both Beechworth and Melbourne,’ the Advertiser recorded.

Read the newspaper’s extensive coverage of the celebrations, including sports and a ball with descriptions of women's gowns. (Source: National Library of Australia / Trove)

19320330 trove OMA back to beechworth.pdf

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