Castlemaine’s Unveiling of the ‘Forgotten Australian Story’ in Documentary Screening

Castlemaine’s Documentary on the Dillon Voyage

A documentary revealing the journey of the first crew to summit Australia’s highest peak almost 60 years ago will screen in Albany next week. Michael Dillon’s film ‘Great White Whale’ will play at Orana Cinemas next Tuesday, following the adventures of the 10-man crew that left Albany in 1964 to climb Big Ben — the 2745m mountain rising out of Heard Island.

The Journey and Its Legacy

The mountain, which lies 2000km southwest of Albany, is Australia’s highest, standing 500m taller than Mt Kosciuszko. The film features interviews with eight of the 10 men who completed the expedition — a diverse crew of doctors, engineers, authors, and school teachers with differing amounts of sailing and mountaineering expertise.

• The men recount the building of their boat, a Tasmanian crayfish schooner called the ‘Patanela’ in Sydney.
• They describe the harrowing journey of arriving and trying to climb the mountain in subarctic conditions.

Dillon describes three members of the group’s first disaster-stricken attempt to climb the peak in 1963, emphasizing their ‘Moby Dick-Captain Ahab’ like obsession to reach the summit at whatever cost.

A Film Years in the Making

Though he started filming 14 years ago, Dillon’s part in the story actually began at its inception, volunteering to help repair some of the crew’s rubber lifeboats when the ship was still docked in Sydney.

Having created adventure documentaries for the past 50 years, Dillon said he couldn’t finish his career without telling this story. “It’s this amazing, forgotten Australian story,” he remarked, noting his unique perspective from the beginning as one of many who volunteered to get the boat ready to sail.

A Local Connection and Recognition

Albany is essential to the expedition’s story, serving as the last land port before the 2.5-month-long voyage to Heard Island, with half a metre of the town's railway track welded to the Patanela’s anchor. Dillon thought some of the town’s older residents might remember when the boat set sail in November of 1964. The film has won several international awards, including the Grand Prize at the International Mountain and Adventure Film Festival in Bilbao, Spain last December.

The film will be screened at Orana Cinemas at 6.30pm on Tuesday, September 17. The trailer for the Great White Whale can be seen on Michael Dillon’s website.