Chips Rafferty plays the father of Charles 'Bud' Tingwell's character, despite being less than 14 years his senior.
The ending was re-shot after reactions from test screenings.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 130 Aboriginal people from Ooldea co-starred in the film and stole the show with their fine acting. The paper reported that this was the first time so large a number Aboriginal people had appeared in a modern film. [SMH, 24 August 1950].
The only indigenous Australian Aboriginal actor who was billed in either the opening or closing credits was Henry Murdock, which is spelled Henry Murdoch, who portrayed Black Jack.
Bitter Springs is set in the Colony of South Australia in the Year 1900, a year before Australia federated and became one nation. At that time, Aboriginal men and women had the right to enroll and vote for the South Australian Parliament and in the referenda that led to Federation. South Australia at that time was the only jurisdiction in the world that allowed women the right to stand for Parliament. The colony had been founded as a free settler colony with no convicts in 1836. Aboriginal men, along with all other adult male British subjects in South Australia had gained the right to vote in 1857, and women by the time of the 1896 colonial election. However, Aboriginal people were generally not encouraged to enroll to vote, and in the 19th and early 20th century many still lived by traditional tribal governance beyond the frontiers of White expansion, and were not aware of any "right to vote". Enrolled Aboriginal people could vote in Federal elections in Australia after 1901, however enrollment of Aboriginal people ceased in South Australia until 1949, and states were permitted to exclude Aboriginal people from the right to vote until reforms began in the 1940s and finally the Menzies Government enacted the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962, which confirmed the right of Aboriginal people to enrol and vote in Federal elections. A 1967 referendum to amend the Constitution to automatically count all Aboriginal people in the Australian census was carried by all states and 91% of voters. In 1976, Yorta Yorta man Sir Douglas Nicholls was appointed Governor of South Australia, the first Aboriginal person to hold Vice-Regal office in Australian history.