Boomtown is set in the little mining town of Zeehan on the remote west coast of Tasmania. It focuses on a group of local characters as they fight to save their town from self destruction. 
The local tin mine, the life blood of the town, had closed down for many months as the company "restructured" it’s labour force. During this prolonged industrial action, shops were forced to close and many people left. Eventually the unions gave way and accepted the companies demands. The mine reopened but with half the work force on reduced wages. The residue of the experience lingered on: the community was divided and a feeling of despondency and depression settled over the town.

 

A small group of concerned locals decided to do something about it. The town needed some thing to bring people together to rekindle their spirits and give them a sense of purpose and a belief in their community. They decided to put on a play. Not just any old play but a play about the west coast its mining history and its colourful characters. A play specially written, a musical melodrama set at the turn of the century when Zeehan was a boom town.

 

 

The play brings together an unlikely collection of characters, including Kevin Atkinson - an unemployed timber worker.

He and his cohorts receives an arts grant to stage the play, along with a street parade and the erection of an historical sculpture in the town square. And an assortment of local characters are swept up in the vortex of the biggest production to be staged in the old Gaiety Theatre since Houdini played there last century.

Then there are the sometimes bemused outsiders: Bob Daley, the director from Adelaide: and his assistant Kalyna Flowerpot, community artist and greenie both working long hours on a play in a town where conservationists are commonly seen as the enemy. And there’s a Dutch touring party, come to see some of what a famous son of Holland, Able Tasman, discovered in the 17th century. The film is a snap shot of a community in changing times, as the familiar and once lucrative past gives way to an uncertain future.

 

BOOMTOWN is available on VHS and DVD

contact lsptv@teegee.com.au or steveb@teegee.com.au