Sons of Matthew

Sons of Matthew is a 1949 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel. The film was shot in 1947 on location in Queensland, Australia and the studio sequences in Sydney. Sons of Matthew took 18 months to complete, but it was a great success with Australian audiences when it finally opened in December 1949.

Sons of Matthew is a legendary film in the history of Australian cinema, partly because of the adverse conditions in which it was made. Maxwell Dunn wrote later in his book How they Made Sons of Matthew that, during filming, it was the wettest season in 80 years in Queensland. For UK and US release Universal-International cut the film by 30 minutes, added some American narration and renamed it The Rugged O'Riordans.

Irishman Matthew O'Riordan and his English wife Jane raise a family of five sons and two daughters on their farm in the valley of Cullenbenbong in northern New South Wales. They battle drought, flood and fire. The wife of neighbour Angus McAllister dies and they help raise their daughter Cathy.

Years go by and the children grow up. Eldest brother Shane is inspired by his uncle Jack, who tells them about virgin rainforest on Lamington plateau in southern Queensland. They decide to move there and establish a farm. They are accompanied by Angus and Cathy McAllister. By this stage Cathy is engaged to the second son, Barney.

The O'Riordan brothers clear the land and start building a slab hut. Cathy realises she is in love with Shane and he falls for her. A huge storm hits the farm and the brothers fight. Barney knocks out Shane, hurting his spine.

Shane recovers, Barney earns his forgiveness by working hard. Shane and Cathy are married.

Chauvel had long wished to make a movie about the O'Reilly family, who had settled in the mountains in south east Queensland. In the mid-1940s he bought the rights to two books O'Reilly had written about his family, Green Mountains (1940) and Cullenbenbong (1944) and announced plans to film them. Grant Taylor was mentioned as a possible star.

Chauvel commissioned Maxwell Dunn and Gwen Meredith to write a script about the O'Reillys and Bernard O'Reilly's rescue of survivors from the crash of a Stinson aeroplane in 1937. (An event filmed in 1987 as The Riddle of the Stinson.) James Bancks also worked on the script. Eventually Chauvel decided to make an original story of pioneers.