Some familiar names behind latest documentary production from WA’s Mago Films – ‘The Waler: Australia’s Great War Horse’

Several people well known to the ad industry here were involved in the latest production from Marian & Alun Bartsch’s Mago Films, The Waler: Australia’s Great War Horse.

Directed by Russell Vines, an all WA crew and post on the documentary included DOP Torstein Dyrting  and Editor John Carozzi. First Light Digital’s Bruce Flint did the Visual Effects and MDS’s Tim Count & Keith Van Geyzel composed the music.

Watch the Trailer.

The Waler: Australia’s Great War Horse was a finalist at the recent Cinefest Oz for the $100,000 major prize – the only feature length documentary to make the last six of the competition.

Producer Marian Bartsch explained a passing comment from a school friend about wild horses roaming a remote cattle station in Western Australia’s Pilbara was the start of an “amazing journey.”

“She mentioned that previous generations of these wild outback horses were rounded up and sent to the Great War. I was instantly intrigued, so I approached researcher/writer Barry Strickland to investigate further. Barry’s research revealed that the horses that Australia sent to the Great War were popularly known as Walers and that they had their origins in early colonial inter-breeding in New South Wales.

“When we realized we had the basis of an extraordinary Australian war horse story, I approached the director, Russell Vines and together with Barry and a camera man, we travelled to Juna Downs station to see if we could locate these wild horses in the outback and film a trailer in order to attract interest from a broadcaster. On the first day of filming, with the assistance of station manager John Sanders (who also appears in this film), we were very fortunate to locate a reclusive mob of majestic wild horses galloping in the vast outback.

Once the film was commissioned by the ABC, the director’s vision in the treatment included tracing the footsteps of Australian Light Horse in the Middle East. The film crew and I travelled to Jerusalem, and at the main gate while filming part of the historic city for pick-up shots, two mounted police entered the city as if on cue. They allowed us to film the horses riding through this ancient city with the director dressed as an Australian Light Horse soldier holding the reins. We could not have planned this scene better! We were very fortunate indeed with the access we secured in Istanbul and Israel because of the high esteem the Australian Light Horse is held in the Middle East.”