The book "They’re A Weird Mob" is as much a love-letter to Australia as it is to the Australian language. The book - and the subsequent movie - are almost a documentary of Sydney and Australia's immigration in the 1950s.
In fact, a behind-the-scenes documentary was shot called "The Story of the Making of 'They're a Weird Mob'" but I couldn't find it. What I did find is a doco of the film's world premiere in Sydney in August 1966, which is about a year in from my own arrival in this big, big country of ours.
Of course, every full-blooded Australian knows the storyline but here's a quick summary for my overseas readers (well, the one! ☺): "Nino Culotta is an Italian immigrant who arrived in Australia with the promise of a job as a journalist on his cousin's magazine, only to find that when he gets there the magazine's folded, the cousins done a runner & the money his cousin sent for the fare was borrowed from the daughter of the boss of a local construction firm. So Nino tries to get a job & finishes up ... laying bricks." As for the rest, well, you'll just have to watch the movie. So get a bottle of sandwiches, sit down and enjoy!
