Based on letters home by two Cornish boys from west Cornwall who emigrated to Australia in 1864, Letters from Australia is set to launch at Adelaide Fringe.

Following the boys’ journey of their mining and farming skills as well as their culture and deep chapel faith, the film is based on letters handed down through the generations until Martin Eddy, their current custodian and three times great grandson of John Charles Osborne, received them after the death of his aunt. This is where the Letters production story begins.

As tin prices plunged and famine devastated Cornwall, the diaspora of the 19th century saw 250,000 people leave Cornwall, fleeing poverty and seeking opportunities across the globe, with approximately 10% of South Australians having Cornish ancestry and areas sometimes referred to as ‘Little Cornwall’

“Martin says ‘”We hope that through our involvement in the Fringe we discover long lost relatives and connections to the original Osbornes, 160 years after they left Cornwall,” Martin says.

Screening in a 360 degree immersive dome in the Grand Hall at the Dom Polski Centre from 21st February to 23rd March, the film documents the recently discovered letters, which cry out with homesickness, loneliness and separation, and the everyday challenges and triumphs of their pioneering life in an evolving nation.

In this age of the internet, email and immediate communication, it’s easy to forget the importance and vital communication role letters played in the past, as a reassuring link home and source of excitement, knowledge and awareness of a world, and life, far away.

Martin found the letters difficult to read due to the cursive handwriting, so he enlisted help from his local village historians group to decipher the letters, where a conversation with creative designer Dave Hotchkiss sparked the realisation that the letters could be the inspiration for an immersive experience.

Nick Hart was brought in as songwriter/composer to develop a script and Letters from Australia started to take shape.

“Letters from Australia immerses us in a largely forgotten world, reminding us that the emotions our ancestors felt are not so different from our own today,” Lindsey Hall, CEO of Real Ideas Organisation says.

Letters from Australia will be screened as part of the Adelaide Fringe, from 21st February to 23rd March, in a 360 degree immersive dome in the Grand Hall at the Dom Polski Centre.

Book HERE