DVD - THE COOLANGATTA GOLD MOVIE

The Coolangatta Gold is an 1984 Australian film written by Peter Schreck and directed by Igor Auzins about tow brothers competing in an iron man contest on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The film stared Joss McWilliam, Colin Friels and Josephine Smulders who grew up in Kelmscott.
Josephine, born in 1964, attended Madame Gundi Ferris's ballet school in Kelmscott as a child. She was later accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts School of Dance and in 1983 was accepted into the Australian Ballet Company. Josephine at the time was regarded as a highly talented dancer. That same year she gained a role in the film The Coolangatta Gold. While filming a scene for the film in December, where she was required to do a dance manoeuvre, she received a back injury. Josephine continued to feel pain in her back and on 30 November 1984 performed for the Australian Ballet Company for the last time at a performance at the Sydney Opera House. She tried to return to dancing over the next few years but the pain in her back prevented her from doing so.
Josephine would later get married and have two children. In 1992 Josephine sued for damages for the injury against the films producers. The judge after hearing evidence from three orthopaedic surgeons gave weight to the evidence of one surgeon over the others who gave evidence that the injury received on set was 'no more than a temporary exacerbation of a degenerative condition which had existed for some time and that her continuing symptoms were caused by progressive degeneration.' (Appeal No. 148 of 1992 Court of Appeal Supreme Court of Queensland, Between Josephine Smulders and Angoloro Pty Ltd).