A son's mercy dash to visit his ailing father has unearthed a treasure trove of archival footage illustrating key moments in West Australian history.

Shot on Super 8 film, the footage includes both the 1983 and 1987 America's Cup campaigns, Prince Phillip opening the Empire Games in Perth in 1962, and a young Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose competing.

Perth residents celebrate after waking to the news Australia had won the America's Cup. ( National Archives of Australia: 6135, K30/9/83/19 )

It also includes scenes from the 1958 Life Saving Carnival in City Beach and vision of trolley cars trundling through the city.

87-year-old former politician Max Evans was a finance minister in WA premier Richard Court's cabinet.

He carried a Super 8 camera everywhere and for him it was as natural as it is for someone to carry a smartphone today.

He documented much of his family's life, creating an archive of footage from WA life from the 1950s to the 1980s.

His son Richard, who lives in New York, said it was a little like being in a reality show where the camera was always on.

"It's like going back through his whole life," he said.

"Imagine if you could watch your life as though it was a movie."

The bond between father and son has strengthened as they share memories and time together during Max's treatment for cancer. ( ABC South West: Peter Barr )

Richard said due to the sheer amount of films the family did not often watch them, and a few times the projector's globe burnt some of them.

Digitising key parts of history

Richard Evans returned after his father was diagnosed with stage 4 metastasized melanoma, a skin cancer that aggressively spreads through the body via the lymph nodes and blood.

He decided to stay indefinitely after the cancer spread rapidly and it looked like treatment was not working.

During their time together, it was Max who said he wanted to see some of the old footage he had filmed.

The family projector was broken, so Richard searched online and found a machine that transferred Super 8 film to a digital format, easily viewed on a computer.

He said it was probably the only one of its kind in WA and had enabled his father to relive the memories of his youth.

Max Evans' extensive Super 8 footage keeps memories alive for his family and all West Australians. ( ABC South West: Peter Barr )

During a hospital stay, Richard set the machine up in Max's room and started digitising footage.

After each new film was transferred to a laptop, he and Max would watch it together — vision Max had not seen for at least 30 years, some of it for more than 50 years.

His son hopes to create a documentary of his father's life with the footage and in doing so he may well tell the story of all West Australians who have lived through the 50s to the 90s.