Wilfrid (Bill) Steller
Bill Steller born in September 1931 spent his early childhood growing up in a protected environment in Bombay, India, until he left his home at 17 years of age and migrated to Australia. This was during tumultuous times in India in 1947 as that country gained its independence from Britain. Steller led a “very protected” life in the European part of Bombay. At boarding school his teachers were Jesuit priests.
Steller credits a man named Cyril Oscar, from the American firm Westrex Sound in India, as nurturing his interest in photography. Under Oscar’s guidance the young Steller cleaned the photographic enlargers after school and he was able to learn the photographic enlarging process, which was quite a change from the little box camera that he owned. Following in the footsteps of his brothers, Tony and Larry, at age 17 Steller and his mother arrived in Australia on December 31, 1948. Further schooling became impossible due to the illness of his father back in India. The family needed Bill to find work in order to send money back home. Steller recalled a less than fruitful visit to the Granville vocational guidance office. Much to his frustration the vocational guidance officer sent him to be a Fitter and Turner’s apprentice with an engineering firm in Merrylands, a suburb of Sydney.
Thanks to a quick mind fueled by drive and determination, he avoided signing a seven-year indenture as an apprentice. Had he done so, his hopes of becoming involved in photography may have been dashed. He then took a job as a darkroom assistant and cadetship in photography with a company called Commercial Advertising. After one month he decided to leave and join Scales & Matthews Camera Repairs, this was a great experience as Harry Scales was a patient man and good teacher. Bill said he then moved to Royston Fairfax Studios in King Street, Sydney and got involved with studio work, portraits etc. While with Fairfax, Bill often had lunch with Bob Gould who was on the ground floor and rented out 16mm & 35mm camera equipment. Gould hired 35 mm gear to the Sydney Water Board and knew the chief photographer of the photo section so put in a good word for him, so Bill started work with the MWS&D Board.
Bill said—”besides still photography I also so did cine work on a Bolex and later an Arriflex and filmed a fair bit of the Dam for the Water Board doco ‘The Dam Builders’ which later helped me get into the ABC. In 1955 I was transferred to Warragamba Dam as resident photographer. One of my jobs other than taking progress shots was to be a kind of PR man. This is how I got to meet Peter Leyden who came up to do a piece for Cinesound and then Bob Feeney for Movietone. As the dam was near completion it was Bob who suggested I contact the ABC. This I did and after a long interview got the job as an assistant cameraman, and started with the ABC Cine-Camera department in October 1960. My early work was mainly on news assisting cameramen Frank Parnell, Bob Feeney, Ron Lowe, Dennis Lankford, Doug Hardy, Peter Leyden, Alf Moyes, Butch Calderwood, George Hobbs just to name a few. My first memorable assignment was in 1961 when I was assistant and 2nd camera to George Hobbs on a doco ‘Ten Million Strong’ about the federation of Malaysia. That was really a great experience and I learnt a lot. The ABC then formed a Unit with Butch Calderwood as cameraman, he took me on as his assistant, and I worked with him for nearly 3 months on Dan Farson’s guide to Australia. Working with Butch was a great experience; he was tough but a great teacher, and always willing to share his knowledge.
In 1963 I was promoted to cameraman and worked mainly on programmes such as Four Corners. I also worked as 2nd cameraman with Lex Alcock on Gil Brealy’s ‘Pipes of Para’ in the Barossa, SA. Gil then got me to film in Israel, ‘After the Miracle’. In 1965 while shooting for 4 Corners in South East Asia we received a Telex to depart immediately for Vietnam to cover the coup that was taking place there, Ki and Thieu were overthrowing Khan. It was a bit of a hairy time in Saigon you didn’t know who was for Thieu or who was for Khan. We covered it the best we could with tanks clanking down the main street, jeeps tearing around with soldiers armed to the teeth, covered skirmishes at the radio station, wharf, and air port. After all that I couldn’t get my film out so I contacted Neil Davis, he seemed to know everybody and for $40 US he got me quite a few customs forms all stamped and signed!!!!! We hung around for a couple of weeks and did a couple of additional stories, sometimes a bit scary!!!!!!”
Steller matured as a filmmaker with the ABC’s growth and development. He say’s how he believed in public broadcasting and the ABC, and that his years as a filmmaker had “been very productive”. This he believes would not have been available had he worked in a commercial atmosphere.
The journey of Bill Steller from being a boy in India, to the young man who migrated to Australia in 1948, to begin a new life. To his work as resident photographer/cinematographer for the building of Warragamba Dam in the 1950s, and to his long career as a Cinematographer/Director/Producer with the ABC TV from 1960 to 1989 is indeed inspiring.
Through his innovation as a filmmaker, Steller’s work was infused with realism and humanity. With his involvement in ABC documentaries, Steller developed his approaches and techniques in the cinema vérité style, documenting the experiences of real people living and struggling within Australia’s social structure; he highlighted themes and topics that were often confronting to Australians at a time when many social, political, and cultural challenges were emerging.
By filming things as they happened with innovative camera angles, and incorporating extreme close up shots that visually underlined the intimate thoughts and feelings expressed by those filmed. Steller, helped urban and rural Australians reveal their fundamental human strengths, frailties, and similarities.
