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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

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The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Chips Rafferty and Helen Grieve

c. 1947
Max Dupain OBE

gelatin silver photograph on paper (image: 20.3 cm x 24.2 cm, sheet: 20.3 cm x 25.9 cm)

Chips Rafferty MBE (1909–1971), screen actor, was born John Goffage in Broken Hill and nicknamed 'Chips' as a boy. He worked in a number of jobs including as a shearer, miner, drover and pearl diver before making his film debut in Dad Rudd, M.P. (1940). Director Charles Chauvel saw his potential and cast him in a lead role in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940), for which he adopted the screen name Chips Rafferty. The success of the film brought him to public attention. A year later, during the Second World War, Rafferty enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was released to act in propaganda films for the Department of Information, including The Overlanders (1946), which was a hit in Australia and in Britain. Rafferty made a foray into Hollywood for The Desert Rats (1953), and was briefly marketed as Australia's answer to Cary Grant, but he was more in his element playing the lean and laconic bushman. Variations on this character appear throughout Rafferty's career, and his films contributed to the popular notion of Australian masculine identity: The Rats of Tobruk (1944), Bush Christmas (1947), Eureka Stockade (1949), Kangaroo (1952), Smiley (1956), Smiley Gets a Gun (1958), The Sundowners (1960) and They're a Weird Mob (1966). His final film was the classic Wake in Fright (1971), filmed in his hometown of Broken Hill.

Helen Grieve (1931–1981), child actress, was born in Sydney. Her first film role was in The Overlanders (1946), opposite Chips Rafferty. Shot on location in the Northern Territory, the film was seen by an estimated 350,000 Australians, then the most popular Australian film of all time. Grieve's second, and last, film was Bush Christmas (1947), again with Rafferty. Filmed in the Blue Mountains, it was popular in Australia and Britain and seen in 41 countries. A 1951 newspaper article in Brisbane's The Worker announced that Grieve was retiring from acting to study science at Sydney University, as there was very little film work available in Australia. As Grieve's daughter Janie Joseland-Bennett recalled in a 2019 National Geographic article: 'After seeing The Overlanders, Dad's dream was to meet my mother, work on the land and have that rural life.' David Joseland and Helen did end up getting married and together they ran a property in remote South Australia. Grieve died in 1981, and her grave is inscribed with: 'Her life was devoted to the outback and its people.'

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Max Dupain OBE (age 36 in 1947)

Chips Rafferty MBE (age 38 in 1947)

Helen Grieve (age 16 in 1947)

Subject professions

Performing arts

Donated by

Danina Dupain Anderson (47 portraits)

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency