AustLit

Although based on the 1905 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan (which was itself more faithfully adapted for film in 1910), this cinematic version retains little of the original. The storyline begins with Joan Enderby about to lose her family's sheep station because she can't afford to buy out the lease from her neighbours, the Sherringtons. To make matters worse, the elderly 'Ironbark' Sherrington, the owner of 'Waratah,' has been in England for two years allowing his villainous son Clive to try and remove Joan from the property. His attempt to bankrupt her is foiled, however, when a mysterious stranger offers to buy three thousand head of sheep from her at a good price. What she doesn't know is that the stranger, Wayne Ridgeway, is also rightful heir to the Sherrington estate. The only person who knows Ridgeway's identity is an Afghan trader called Jebal Zim, but he is murdered by Clive's overseer before he can tell the recently returned Ironbark Sherrington. Typical of the melodrama genre, the story's climax is played out in a thrilling scene - a bushfire - as Joan and Ridgeway try to deliver three thousand sheep to the market. After escaping the fire, they rescue Zim's kidnapped daughter, Zena and capture the overseer, Fletcher. Naturally Ridgeway is restored to his rightful inheritance, and he and Joan marry.

[Source: Australian Screen]