AustLit

'Funny, fast and furry - the WOODLIES are kobolds (small troll-like creatures) that are nuttier than a squirrel's lunch, on a mission to protect their forest from Uglies (the Woodlies call all humans Uglies) and get their paws on the greatest stash of food they can find!

'Big job when you're not much bigger than a squirrel ...

'Fearless FIREHEAD, gentle SEVENPOINTS and Curious NINEEYES are a mischievous crew with two rules. Rule number one? Never be seen by Uglies. Rule number 2? Never be seen by Uglies while stealing their food or sabotaging their weird Ugly plans.

'But when streetwise MIA and her nature-loving dad WELLIE take over a run-down campsite nearby, they bring with them disasters in the form of clumsy campers, greedy developers and a mean cat with a real taste for Woodlies!

'Think that's bad? A gang of renegade Woodlies known as the SWAMP RATS, led by WHITETAIL and his obnoxious cronies - FOULTOE and GNARLYBUTT, are determined to take over the forest and all the food in it. And they're not about to let a bunch of do-gooder Tree Saps get in their way ...

'As if that's not enough, nature itself serves up a menu of freezing blizzards, searing droughts and loads of creatures ready to make the Woodlies their next main course!

'So when NineEyes breaks the number one rule and becomes friends with Mia, it seems like things couldn't get any worse. Is this the end for the Woodlies?

'One thing's for sure... life's about to get a whole lot more interesting!'

Source: Flying Bark Productions (http://www.flyingbark.com.au/?portfolio=the-woodlies). Sighted: 12/4/2012

'It's hard work when you're 12 years old, and have to look after your mother - who has just turned two. It's frustrating being a runaway in search of your family - with only a faded photo to go on. And it's absolutely DEADLY knowing that the seeds of a blue tea plant have been washed into the river system, and any moment now plants will grow that can keep people young forever.

'But at least Amy and Sprocket have each other. Together they'll bring up Toddler Mum as best they can, they'll fight Pooper Scooper and his malevolent family, and they'll find every one of those mutating tea plants before they can destroy the world.'

Source: SLR Productions (http://slrproductions.com/deadly). Sighted: 12/4/2012

'Enter the world of Medical Defence Australia, a medico-legal organisation that exists to defend doctors and where necessary compensate patients. All cases at MDA combine elements of law and medicine so each case is managed by a doctor and a lawyer who agree on how to proceed. It's a unique organisation that delves into morally complex and emotion filled relationships between doctors and patients.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/mda/mda.html). (Sighted: 22/2/2013)

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.

Farscape was an Australian/American co-production, a science-fiction television program combining puppetry and live actors to follow the trevails of American astronaut John Crichton, flung into the far reaches of the galaxy during the maiden flight of his experimental craft.

Farscape made use of puppetry to circumvent the problem of having to present alien life-forms as roughly humanoid in size and shape. However, despite the use of Jim Henson's puppet studios, the program was distinctly adult in tone and content.

Unlike other programs filmed in Australian studios (for example, Terra Nova), Farscape was very strongly a co-production, employing a high number of Australian actors and directors. Over a third of the scripts (thirty of the eighty-eight episodes in the original four seasons) were written by Australian script-writers (see below for details). In addition, two Australian script-writers (Lily Taylor and Grant McAloon) served as script/story editors and another (Justin Monjo) acted as creative consultant.

After its abrupt cancellation, Farscape was succeeded by a number of ancillary texts (including a mini-series, graphic novels, and a role-playing game), but these works were American productions rather than Australian/American co-productions.

One of Australia's highest rating dramas, All Saints is a Logie Award-winning Australian medical drama set in the fictional All Saints Western General Hospital in suburban Sydney. The stories originally focused on the nursing staff of Ward 17 run by Nursing Unit Manager Terri Sullivan. It was sometimes referred to as the 'garbage ward' because it took the overflow of patients.

In 2004 Network Seven producers overhauled the series in an effort to increase the show's gradually dwindling audience. They achieved this by closing down Ward 17 and transferring some of the staff to the Emergency Department managed by Frank Campion. Several other new lead characters were also introduced. The changes also saw the storylines begin to focus more on the lives of the doctors and nurses.

Another significant change to the series came in early 2009 when the producers introduced the Medical Response Unit. Central to this development was the helicopter which took doctors to rescue situations outside the hopsital and which in turn brought patients to the All Saints Emergency Department. The show's name was also changed at this time to All Saints: Medical Response Unit. The increased production costs created by having scenes shot on location played a part, however, in the series being cancelled mid-year. The series ended with the Emergency Department and Medical Response Unit teams having a dinner to farewell the last remaining original character, Von Ryan on her final day at All Saints.

All Saints was popular in many countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and Iran.

'FALLEN ANGELS focuses on and around a community legal centre in Endeavour Park, a fictional suburb in the sprawling outer west of Sydney.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 25/6/2013)

Water Rats is an Australian police television series which was broadcast on the Nine Network between 1996 and 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney Harbour.

'Fast-paced series spin-off of the hit feature film. Filmed at an abandoned school in Sydney's Maroubra, this program was about an ethnically diverse group of students attending Hartley High School.'

Source: National Film and Sound Archive record.

A puppet drama for children based on the exploits of a gang of puppet feral animals in a fictional urban setting. The Ferals are the original urban wild bunch. Rattus, their leader, is tough, streetwise, and constantly arguing with Modigliana, the cat with a definite sense of style if not taste. Along with Mixy the rabbit and Derryn the not-too-bright dog, they hang out in the shed at the bottom of Joe's garden. The human characters are two university students and a young entrepreneur.

Peter Neale's prose adaptation of his own telemovie, Big Ideas.

'An intrepid young entrepreneur takes on the bureaucracy in an ecological detective hunt.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 22/5/2014)

G.P. is an Australian television series that ran for eight seasons. Set in and around a fictional general medical practice in an inner-city suburb, the storylines explore the professional and personal lives of the doctors and staff who worked there.

'In 1917, composer Igor Stravinsky and writer C.F Ramuz collaborated to produce a music-theatre work, entitled 'A Soldier's Tale', the story of a soldier returning from the wars who is tricked in to selling his soul to the Devil. Then, as now, the world was faced with intense moral, social and political dilemmas. Using advanced video technology, this Australian Television adaptation of their famous work reinterprets their Faustian morality tale for the late 20th century.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 30/8/2012)

This was the graduate film for prolific television director Richard Jasek, on his graduation from the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School in 1988. The film was released (with that of fellow 1988 graduates Shirley Barrett, Monica Pellizzari, Greg Woodland, Edmund Milts, and Gordon Taylor) on VHS by the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School.

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.

Set in a small, fictional, New South Wales country town called Wandin Valley, A Country Practice focused on the staffs of the town's medical practice and local hospital and on the families of the doctors, nurses, and patients. Many of the episodes also featured guest characters (frequently patients served by the practice) through whom various social and medical problems were explored. Although often considered a soap opera, the series was not built around an open-ended narrative; instead, the two one-hour episodes screened per week formed a self-contained narrative block, though many of the storylines were developed as sub-plots for several episodes before becoming the focus of a particular week's storyline. While the focus was on topical issues such as youth unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and terminal illness, the program did sometimes explore culturally sensitive issues, including, for example, the Aboriginal community and their place in modern Australian society.

Among the show's principal characters were Dr Terence Elliott, local policeman Sergeant Frank Gilroy, Esme Watson, Shirley Dean Gilroy, Bob Hatfield, Vernon 'Cookie' Locke, and Matron Margaret 'Maggie' Sloan. In addition to its regularly rotating cast of characters, A Country Practice also had a cast of semi-regulars who would make appearances as the storylines permitted. Interestingly, while the series initially targeted the adult and older youth demographic, it became increasingly popular with children over the years.