The North East Film Archive is one of a network of regional film archives established to collect, preserve and show film made in, or about the North East of England. Our collections are non-fiction, and date from the early 1900s to the present day, providing a rich record of life in the region over the 20th century. Many of our films are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Northern Star
A spectacular send off for migrants on board the Northern Star, a new ocean liner built and launched on Tyneside.
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Overview
An enormous crowd give the Northern Star liner an emotional send-off on its maiden voyage from Southampton with a large number of Ten Pound Pom passengers on board. This promotional film for Shaw Savill documents the ship construction at the Tyneside Walker Naval Yard of Vickers Armstrong, launch by the Queen Mother in 1961, fitting out, furnishings and stores in extraordinary detail. The exhaustive load of food and drink on board includes a quarter of a million eggs. [
The modern Northern Star one-class ocean liner, built for the Shaw Savill & Albion Company for new round-the-world services, carried great numbers of working class British passengers to Australia (and New Zealand) on an assisted migration scheme, first started in 1947. They were seduced by the fare of just ten pounds, hence the colloquial name of Ten Pound Poms. Racist Australian laws prohibited mixed race, black or Asian Commonwealth migrants until the 1970s. This film was made by Newcastle-based Turners, who enjoyed a significant presence in post-war sponsored film production for industries and businesses in the North East until 1999.
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