A Girl of the Bush

In eighteenth century France, the evil Prince de Montrale falls in love with Liane, but she runs away from him and seeks refuge in a monastery. The prince finds her and orders the abbot to keep her in custody. A young novice, Brother Paul, is placed in charge of Liane and falls in love with her, despite having just taken his vows of celibacy.

A travelling salesman, Ray Standford seduces country girl Sadie McClure, but forgets about her when she returns to the city and marries Dorothy Graham, daughter of his boss.

Hugh Mostyn is sent from his family station to England for an education and returns to Australia years later as a "gentleman", complete with a white suit and monocle. He seeks work as a jackeroo and is teased by station hands who pretend to hold him up as bushrangers.

John Stofel goes off to fight in the Civil War, in the place of a deacon who gives him the title deed of a farm. John returns from the war wounded and insane. Oil is discovered on the farm and the deacon tries to take the land back.

Two German cruisers escape to the Pacific and begin to raid the Australian coast. They sink one merchant marine ship, leaving a sole survivor, Jack Rawson.

Wallaby Station in the outback is devastated by drought. The sheep are starving, but Jo Galloway (Charles Beetham) and his wife (Nan Taylor) battle on. Their son Gilbert (Rawdon Blandford) falls in with the wrong crowd while studying medicine in Sydney: conman Varsy Lyddleton (John Faulkner) and the seductress Olive Lorette (Marie La Varre). Gilbert forges his mother’s cheques to pay for Olive’s favours, ruining the family. A bank takes ‘friendly possession’ of Wallaby Station. Gilbert’s sister Marjorie (Trilby Clark) keeps her brother out of jail, but he becomes a tramp, after Lyddleton murders Olive and kills himself. Marjorie’s suitor Tom Wattleby (Dunstan Webb) saves Gilbert from a bushfire, just as the drought breaks, restoring the family’s fortunes. Marjorie and Tom can now wed, as the sheep and cattle fatten on rich pasture.

Colour tinted, this early film shows how tourists traveled around New Zealand in the early years of the twentieth century - by boat, horse, and trap, and on foot through bush walks and onto a glacier. The final third of the film shows a tour on Franz Josef Glacier by a group of men, women, and children. The film was filmed by Australian Franklyn Barrett, who was sent to the island by the Pathé Brothers to make a travelogue film about New Zealand.