Rabaul, New Britain is sitting on a time bomb. It's hard for the Tolai inhabitants to cope with the constant threat of volcanic eruption as they wait and prepare for the next big one. The last time this happened was between 1937 and 1942, when an estimated 500 people died. Historical footage showing the luxuriant lifestyle of German colonialists pre-World War II and then the occupation of the Japanese army, as well as contemporary scenes of the easygoing Tolai lifestyle is interspersed with full-blown evacuation exercises and scientific excursions into the craters of active volcanoes.

Postscript: Ten years after Waiting for the Big Bang was made, two active vents – Tavurvur and Vulcan – erupted in 1994 with cataclysmic effect. The township of Rabaul was completely buried under a deep layer of thick brown volcanic silt. The citizens were forced to abandon their town and move to Kokopo 20 kilometres away.

(1983, 44 minutes)

© National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.