Set in early 'sixties coastal Australia and based on real events, this elegiac movie directed by George Ogilvie about pristine bush threatened with extinction by development is told from the viewpoint of feisty young Ellie (Tushka Bergan) an environmentalist before the word was invented.
The film opens as Ellie arrives at Kilkee with her widowed father (John Hargreaves) in expectation of another summer holiday in the usual vein - he goes fishing, she paints water colors of the local flora, and they both stand back when the extended family arrives for Christmas. Enter Margo (Heather Mitchell) fresh from five years in England.
The screenplay by producer Hilary Furlong based on the book by Jane Hyde captures a lost time when large families bundled into flimsy beach houses with primitive amenities for weeks at a time in boiling hot weather.
Cinematographer Jeff Darling captures the heart of the story, the incomparable landscape, in wide uninterrupted shots which editor Nicholas Beauman has the sense not to cut, while Chris Neal's subtle music and the director's unafraid use of silence act as counterpoise to Ellie's mounting rage, the fractious noise of her younger cousins at play, and the roaring, cracking bush as it submits to a storm.
A recent (2014) screening of the film at Sunshine Coast University in Queensland, where it featured in an exhibition called Fibro Coast about the beach architecture and culture of that era confirms The Place at the Coast as an Aussie classic.
