AustLit

Best friends Jason and Lee, on a quiet boating trip in Vancouver, Canada, find themselves transported through a vortex to Stormworld, a mysterious world with three suns and mind-distorting storms. Since visitors are not uncommon in Stormworld, they find themselves incorporated into The Settlement, one of three principal settlements on Stormworld.

Stormworld is a complex example of world-building. For example, the program concentrates heavily on the effects of the ecosystem on the planet's inhabitants: as a hot-climate archipelago on a salt-water ocean, Stormworld has a dearth of fresh water, which subsequently becomes a highly valuable resource for the planet's inhabitants. Similarly, the program focuses strongly on the planet's economy (a barter system based on the rare and exotic artefacts that travellers bring through the vortexes with them), on inter-community rivalry among the three main settlements (the democratic Settlement, the patriarchal and hierarchical Arkoddians, and the piratical Drogue), and on the dangerous and mysterious weather patterns peculiar to Stormworld (such as the Winders--horizontal lightning--that are attracted to mental activity).

'STREETSMARTZ is an innovative kid’s drama series set on the streets of Fremantle. The stories of Vinnie and his friends are full of humour, emotional stakes, and the belief that, when all is said and done, family – no matter what form it takes – is what really counts.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 28/11/2013)

Fourteen-year-old Ben discovers that his seemingly staid country town of Werrinup, Western Australia, is actually the gateway to a number of parallel dimensions--where things are almost but not quite like his own world. Once he becomes aware of the parallel worlds, he also becomes aware that they are under threat, and he has to help protect them.

Parallax was created and produced by Paul D. Barron, who is also responsible for such programs as Wormwood, Stormworld, and Ship to Shore.

When fifteen-year-old Katrina moves to Perth to live with her mother, a veterinary scientist at the local zoo, she begins acting oddly. Realising she can 'mind-meld' with Garang, the zoo's ferocious female tiger, she finds her senses of smell, hearing, and sight improving, including her night vision. Upset and bewildered by his sister's odd behaviour, her eleven-year-old brother Jamie teams up with the youngest daughter of the zoo manager to try and solve the mystery. But not everyone's intentions are honorable, as one of the zoo's scientists plans to manipulate the genetic quirk that Kat and the tiger share, hoping to use it to recreate extinct species.

Chuck Finn follows Charles 'Chuck' Finn, a Canadian boy whose parents move from Toronto to the Australian country town of Tingalla. At first, he longs desperately to return to Toronto, but he soon finds the decommissioned and derelict paddle steamer the Tingalla Rose. Soon, he and his friends--some of whom are ghostly, rather than mortal--are enchanted by the possibility of getting the Tingalla Rose running again and seduced by life on the Murray River.

Unfortunately for Chuck Finn, Barron Entertainment declared bankruptcy during the production of season two. A truncated season of six episodes was completed and released, but the production was abandoned at that point.

'The series is based on a national park ranger, her two children, their friends and how they form the Bush Patrol to help protect the park and its native inhabitants. There's plenty of adventure and fun featuring Australia's unique flora and fauna and modern family relationships.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 3/12/2013)

A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.

Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:

'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes.It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'

Home and Away is a television serial created by Alan Bateman and produced by the Seven Network. The idea for the series came to Bateman (then head of drama at Seven) after he stopped to buy ice-creams in a small country town in southern NSW. While chatting to some locals, he learned that the town was unhappy about plans to build a home for foster kids from the city. At that time, Channel Seven was still smarting from its decision to let Neighbours go to the Ten Network, where it had become hugely popular, and was looking to create another series to rival its success. Bateman saw in the idea that became Home and Away the potential for plenty of storylines and conflict by having streetwise city kids being relocated to a small regional environment,

In the beginning, the series focused on Pippa and Tom Fletcher, who, being unable to have children of their own, decide to become foster parents. When Tom is retrenched from his city job, the couple buy the rundown Summer Bay Caravan Park and move there with their five foster children. Soon after arriving, they also take in troublesome Bobby Simpson.

The series debuted in January 1988 with an hour-long telemovie. Although this rated well, the series itself took some while to develop an audience. Having learned their lesson from the Neighbours debacle, Network Seven gave its new show time, and its ratings gradually increased. As with Neighbours, the Home and Away series and performers became very popular in the United Kingdom.

A daily television drama series set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough, Neighbours chronicles the lives of the residents of Ramsay Street. The series initially revolved around three families: the Ramsays (at number 24 Ramsay Street), the Robinsons (at number 26), and the Clarkes (at number 28). The scope of the series has since broadened to include new Ramsay Street familes.

Another soap opera from Grundy's, The Restless Years followed a group of teenagers from the end of school to early adulthood: the 'restless years' of the title.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series,

On paper, The Restless Years should not have worked because the central idea of a group of teenagers and adults variously involved with a kids' refuge was not a particularly strong one. Nevertheless, the series did click with audiences and the program built up a loyal band of viewers who tuned in each evening to watch this tale of lost, confused teenagers and adults. Chief among the latter was the essentially castrating mother played by June Salter.

Mimicking the title of Lesley Stern's article (below), Moran sums up The Restless Years as 'this most Freudian of serials'.