McLeod's Daughters (film)
| McLeod's Daughters | |
|---|---|
Title Card
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| Directed by | Michael Offer |
| Produced by | Andrew Blaxland Posie Graeme-Evans Kris Nobel Perry Stapleton |
| Written by |
Posie Graeme-Evans Caroline Stanton Ro Hume |
| Starring |
Jack Thompson Kym Wilson Tammy MacIntosh |
| Music by | Guy Gross |
| Edited by | Edward McQueen-Mason |
| Distributed by | Millennium Pictures Pty Limited |
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Release date
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11 May 1996 |
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Running time
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94 mins |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
McLeod's Daughters is a 1996 Australian television film, it aired on the Nine Network on 11 May 1996, which was Mother's Day. At the time it was the highest rated telemovie and still remains the highest rated telemovie of all time in Australia. The movie was the pilot for the later television series of the same name.
Following the death of her mother, Tess Silverman travels to Drover's Run, a rural cattle property in South Australia, and the farm where she spent the first few years of her life. She intends to make her visit a short one and move on to Venice to continue on with her life. Once there she endeavours to reconnect with her only remaining family, her father Jack and her sister Claire, whom she has not seen in 20 years, since her mother left Jack and moved to the city, and taking Tess with her. Tess arrives in a complex situation and finds herself meeting an adoring father but a hostile sister whom she no longer knows and who resents her sudden arrival and even quicker ability to win over Jack, something she herself has never been able to accomplish.
The sudden and accidental death of their father forces Tess and Claire to overcome their differences and the many obstacles before them to realise their father's dream of running Drover's Run together. To complicate matters, Tess begins to take drastic action to alleviate the property's debts, including firing the stockmen, and organising an all female muster of cattle for sale. Her actions alienate her sister's fiance, putting strain on their engagement and forcing Claire to begin re-evaluating her own future plans. Despite problems with the local bank and the temporary loss of their prized bull, things turn out well in the end as the sisters are able to service and refinance their father's loans, thus saving the property.
Creator and Executive Producer Posie Graeme-Evans had the idea for the creating the show as far back as 1992. She was reading a magazine and saw a picture of a group of Australian cowgirls leaning over a farm gate, with big hats and big white grins. Evans immediately thought of a group of women running a cattle station.
The movie went into production in 1995 and was shot over 95-96 in Adelaide. Evans needed to find a location that was in reach of a major city, and it was hard to do outside of Sydney and Melbourne, she looked at doing it in Queensland but she didn't know Queensland well and she knew South Australia. She eventually located a government farm which was empty, so the production was moved in and it was treated as a backlot. The movie aired on the Nine Network on Mother's Day 1996 and it became the highest rated telemovie of all time in Australia.
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