The Story of the Kelly Gang

The world's first full-length narrative feature film...what's left of it.

I saw this film on my EPG the other week and immediately decided to record it. It was broadcast on 27/04/2025 at 11:25pm on ABC TV. It's the story of Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous/iconic bushranger (a robber who commits crimes beyond populated areas). It should be noted that Australia was not yet a nation when he lived. Ned Kelly has been depicted many times in various forms of art and literature to this day.

Perhaps this was the film’s premier on any form of TV?. I viewed and reviewed most of it the next day. The remains of the film are bookended by NFSA notes at the start and its signage at the end. From the start of the former to the end of the latter, the running time of the broadcast is 31:50 minutes. The film proper would have a running time of 30 minutes from start of intertitles to the end of the last.

I’ll provide a selection of the notes on the broadcast which introduce the film below:

“This print is from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Introduction

The 1906 film The Story of the Kelly Gang is believed to have been one hour in length. Only fragments are known to survive.: 296m or 971 feet which totals almost fifteen minutes of screen time when projected at 18 frames per second.

This study version aims at reconstructing the film’s narrative based upon the best evidence provided by the original footage and intertitles. Combined with additional titles and other associated material, postcards, the poster, the original program booklet, a more complete sense of the structure of the original production is created...The original titles are shown as they are in the film. Reconstituted titles are based on text from the original program booklet (Melbourne, 1906) and appear in normal text.

Additional narrative titles have been created where no intertitles exist. They appear in italics to clearly distinguish them.”

A longish sequence of intert...