AustLit

After the theft of an opal necklace intended for the visiting Queen Elizabeth II goes badly wrong, the two remaining thieves hide the loot in the luggage of a young nurse on her way to a job in central Australia. After co-opting the Birdsville mail-truck and dragging three hostages along with them, the two thieves fall out: at the Diamantina River, Johnny kills his partner, but is himself trapped in the truck's cabin and drowned, while hostages Barbara and Dave survive.

Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, describes the program as 'a surprisingly touching, suspenseful mini-series', and suggests it 'had the drive, pace and nervous involvement of a good American feature film by a classic director such as Raoul Walsh or Nicholas Ray rather than the kind of meandering narratives so common in the Australian mini-series.'