Sheepmates

Hatfield's novel was published in 1931. It concerned an Englishman, Atherton, who goes to Australia and gets a job on a sheep station.

The Bulletin said "The writer knows what he is

talking about; knows the men he is writing about, their soil, and the way they talk and think."{{Citation

| title=The Red Page Out Among the He-men

| journal=The Bulletin

| volume=52| issue=2676 (27 May 1931)

| location=Sydney, N.S.W

| publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-607848786

| id=nla.obj-607848786

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Another review said "The novel is not a Bush story in the generally accepted sense, and is almost womanless; but it is an arresting picture of Central Australian outposts that men, at least, will relish."{{Citation

| title=Let's Talk About Books

| journal=The Australian Woman's Mirror

| volume=7| issue=27 (26 May 1931)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=The Bulletin Newspaper

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-418827470

| id=nla.obj-418827470

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

The novel would be read out on radio in 1939.{{Citation

| title=TUESDAY ... JAN 2

| journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal

| volume=34| issue=41 (December 30, 1939)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Wireless Press

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-729750253

| id=nla.obj-729750253

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}{{Citation

| title=THURSDAY ABC NATIONAL

| journal=ABC Weekly

| volume=1| issue=5 (30 December 1939)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=ABC

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1353626767

| id=nla.obj-1353626767

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Thring bought the rights to Hatfield's novel in mid 1933.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16976471 |title="SHEEPMATES" TO BE FILMED. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=22 June 1933 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}} He paid the author a reported £300.{{Citation

| title=Counting the CASH in Australian Films. "Selection Nets Rert Bailey £14,000 What Others Cost and Lost—Stars' Salaries and Story Prices.

| journal=Everyones.

| volume=14| issue=772 (12 December 1934)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577835346

| id=nla.obj-577835346

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128482273 |title=Film Industry in Australia. |newspaper=The News |location=Adelaide |date=11 June 1935 |accessdate=17 March 2015 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} By that stage the book had sold 20,000 copies.{{Citation

| title=Efftee Buys "Sheepmates"

| journal=Everyones.

| date=14 June 1933

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-560282169

| id=nla.obj-560282169

| access-date=14 August 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Tom Holt, Efftee's manager, stated that:

The production of 'Sheepmates' is a decided departure from our policy of adhering to comedy. It is a truly remarkable drama of out back Australia, artistically in a class above anything we have yet attempted. Though it may not prove as popular as a Wallace comedy, we are satisfied to produce it merely as an example of our ability to handle this class of subject. No woman appears in the cast, and for this reason it may be described as 'A Journey's End of the Bush'.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147260999 |title=Talkies that Only Australia Can Make. |newspaper=Table Talk |location=Melbourne |date=24 August 1933 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The movie was meant to be the first shot at Efftee's new studio at Wattle Path Palais, St Kilda, Melbourne.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38011456 |title=EFFTEE'S PROGRAMME. |newspaper=Western Mail |location=Perth |date=7 September 1933 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=30 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{Citation

| title=Thring Makes Big Production Move: New Studio & Theatre.

| journal=Everyones.

| volume=13| issue=696 (28 June 1933)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-560299009

| id=nla.obj-560299009

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Hatfield himself wrote the script. There were no female characters in the movie, as had been the case with the book.{{Citation

| title=Wallace's Third Comedy Starts in July

| journal=Everyones.

| volume=13| issue=696 (28 June 1933)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-560299776

| id=nla.obj-560299776

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}} Thring also signed Hatfield to write a stage version.{{Citation

| title=F.W.Thring Has Ambitious Plans Ahead for Efftee.

| journal=Everyones.

| volume=13| issue=695 (21 June 1933)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-560293152

| id=nla.obj-560293152

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Thring stated, "1 shall present a cast of male actors many of whom are already familiar on the English screen, such as Frank Harvey, Henry Wenman, Claude Flemming and Harold B. Meade. This will undoubtedly be of value in marketing the picture in Great Britain. "{{Citation

| title=The Future of Australian Films as seen by...F.W.Thring

| journal=Everyones.

| date=13 December 1933

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-576887161

| id=nla.obj-576887161

| access-date=15 August 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Filming began in September 1933. After completing some studio scenes, the crew departed to the Queensland and South Australian border for six weeks of shooting around various cattle stations, notably at one owned by Sir Sidney Kidman near Coopers Creek{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1121896 |title=CATTLE SCENES. |newspaper=The Courier-Mail |location=Brisbane |date=22 September 1933 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} and at Naryilco Station near Tibooburra.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48445204 |title='SHEEPMATES'TO BE FILMED. |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |location=Broken Hill, NSW |date=3 October 1933 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=1|edition=HOME|via=National Library of Australia}}{{Citation

| title=EFFTEE STARTS "SHEEPMATES" ON LOCATION

| journal=Everyones.

| volume=13| issue=710 (4 October 1933)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-576863611

| id=nla.obj-576863611

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

The crew initially consisted of Thring, Hatfield and some assistants, plus various camera and sound men; actors did not come until they finished appearing in Thring's stage production of Rope in Melbourne on 7 October.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1124993 |title=CATTLE SCENES. |newspaper=The Courier-Mail |location=Brisbane |date=30 September 1933 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} There were a number of scenes shot involved cattle mustering.{{Citation

| title=Melbourne

| journal=Everyones.

| volume=13| issue=714 (1 November 1933)

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-576255804

| id=nla.obj-576255804

| access-date=8 March 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Shooting was difficult. Thring suffered from exhaustion, several crew members narrowly escaped death in a tent fire, and cattle mustering scenes were delayed due to communication difficulties.Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press, 1989 p. 122 Hatfield also claimed that the stage commitments of the actors made finishing the film hard.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64288808 |title=HALF-CASTE PROBLEM. |newspaper=Portland Guardian |location=Vic. |date=8 April 1935 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=3|edition=EVENING.|via=National Library of Australia}}

On the unit's return to Melbourne, studio shooting was postponed to January because the St Kilda facilities were not ready. However all the scenes involving actor Henry Wenham had to be filmed because he was returning to London.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17026631 |title=AUSTRALIAN FILMS. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 November 1933 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{Citation

| title=MEN OF THE MEG NO. 1....F W Thring

| journal=Everyones.

| date=18 July 1934

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577446441

| id=nla.obj-577446441

| access-date=15 August 2024

| via=Trove

}}

In June 1934 Thring announced he would make Desert Saga from a script by Hatfield, and when that was done would recommence Sheepmates.{{Citation

| title=Efftee Prepares Saga of the Australian Desert.

| journal=Everyones.

| date=13 June 1934

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-582880481

| id=nla.obj-582880481

| access-date=14 August 2024

| via=Trove

}} Thring was also going to film another story by Hatfield, Ginger Murdoch.{{Citation

| title=Melbourne

| journal=Everyones.

| date=10 January 1934

| location=Sydney

| publisher=Everyones Ltd

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-579005269

| id=nla.obj-579005269

| access-date=15 August 2024

| via=Trove

}}

Thring later decided to abandon production (and postpone all his other planned movies) due to uncertainty about whether the Goveernment would introduce a quota for Australian pictures."Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p. 164

In 1936 Thring announced Sheepmates would be one of several novels he was taking with him to Hollywood, with a view to having American writers adapt them into screenplay form, suggesting he still intended to use the footage he had shot.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25132525 |title=AUSTRALIAN FILMS. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=29 February 1936 |access-date=5 January 2012 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}} However, Thring died soon after he returned to Australia in June and Sheepmates was never completed.

• Frank Harvey as Richards
• Campbell Copelin as Atheron
• Claude Flemming
• George Wallace as Fawkner
• Guy Hastings as Lindsay
• Victor Fitzherbert
• Henry Wenham as Fritz
• Harold B Meade as Braithwaite
• Marshall Crosby as Ryan
• Darcy Kelway as Pants, the steward

{{reflist}}

• [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=no;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Sheepmates;querytype=;resCount=10 Sheepmates] at National Film and Sound Archive

{{F.W. Thring}}

Category:Australian drama films

Category:Films directed by F. W. Thring

Category:1930s unfinished films

Category:1930s English-language films

Category:1939 Australian radio dramas

Category:1930s Australian films