<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The state of New South Wales banned the screening of any films about bushrangers on November 30, 1912.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The move was done as police and public moralisers fretted about the booming popularity of the genre of films.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The regulation banned "scenes such as would have a demoralising effect on young persons; successful crime, such as bushranging, robberies, or other acts of lawlessness which might reasonably be considered as having an injurious influence on youthful minds".</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The previous year, 52 narrative movies had been made in Australia, most of them about bushranging.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It is believed that at the time, Australia was making more feature films than anywhere else in the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But a ban on bushranger movies in three states – NSW, Victoria and South Australia – had a dramatic impact on filmmaking nationwide.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The number of films made in Australia plummeted.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/today-in-history--november-30-what-happened-on-this-day-bushranger-film-ban/c134b5f0-b73d-44ad-b68d-eedcf7e759df" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>By the end of World War II, the local film industry had been almost completely usurped by Hollywood.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The subject of bushranging was controversial, still fresh in the mind of older generations in rural Australia.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Despite the massive success of </span><em><span>The Story of the Kelly Gang</span></em><span> in 1906, the film was banned in towns like Benalla and Wangaratta.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em><span>The Story of the Kelly Gang</span></em><span> is considered to be the first feature film made in the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But the film that spurred a push for a general ban was </span><em><span>Dan Morgan</span></em><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Despite the bushranger Dan Morgan finding his comeuppance at the end, critics were reviled by the film's violence.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The ban would be informally lifted in 1942, at the height of World War II.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The chief secretary of NSW argued the crimes depicted in bushranger films were nothing compared to "the unbridled horrors of war".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But by that time, demand for bushranger films had passed and Australians had by and large lost interest in seeing locally made movies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Australia would not beat its 1911 output of local films until 1975.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The country is now producing substantially fewer movies each year.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" target="" title="For more from our Today in History archive, click here."><strong><span>For more from our Today in History archive, click here</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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