AustLit

'The initial police enquiry in this episode is into a series of wool thefts from properties near Matlock. The men involved are two bush workers with strong arms and weak heads. Travelling with them is an older man, Jim Atkins, who appears to have nothing to do with the robberies, but whose personal life is a mystery.

'The source of this mystery is revealed in a story running parallel to that of the wool stealing activities. Atkins is an alias, and the man's real name is Peter Gould. Twenty years before, he was a farmer in the Matlock district, and one night accidentally killed an intruder on his property. Fearing that it would look like murder, he fled, leaving his pregnant wife behind. His wife and daughter still run the farm between them. Gradually Gould drifted into an itinerant life, sending money home from time to time. Now he has discovered that he has an incurable disease, and has come back to see his family before he dies.

'Constable Hogan is personally involved in this episode. He has been taking out Gould's daughter Marion, and it is through his knowledge of the family that the mystery of Gould's life is unravelled.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection includes the following character notes:

'JIM ATKINS 45-50. Real name Peter Gould. Itinerant shearer and bush worker. Nora's husband. Marion's father. Cleared out from Nora following the death of an intruder on their farm 20 years before. Now suffering from an incurable disease. During these years away, Jim has lived a sort of half life. He now returns in the company of Bob and Lennie, intending to tidy up his life before it is too late.

'BOB JONES 25-30. Itinerant bush worker and thief with a tendency to violence. Has a certain grudging respect for Jim which doesn't run too deep.

'LENNIE DALEY 25-30. Bob's side-kick. Strong in the arm, weak in the head. Has affection for Jim, is rather more genuine.

'MARION GOULD 20. Jim and Nora's daughter. An attractive, intelligent girl who has been her mother's backstop for a long time now.

'NORA GOULD 40-45. Jim's wife, Marion's mother. She has coped, somehow, with rearing Marion and running the farm in Jim's absence. She has never grown bitter with Jim or the world. Something happened, Jim went and that was that. Now her carefully erected barrier against despair is torn down.

'TOM BAXTER 40-60. The theft of his wool adds one more burden to the many being borne by this economically depressed sheep farmer, but Tom remains pretty philosophical about it all.

'PHIL SANDERS 30-40. Second victim of the wool thefts. Phil would be better described as "grazier" than "farmer". A well spoken contrast to Tom Baxter.

'COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER Age optional. Bob taps him on the head and steals his car.

'MRS. SANDERS Very much her husband's wife. Age 30-40.

'OCKER: 50-70. Bar fly with a long memory who befriends Jim.

'"FARMER" JOHNSON 40-60. Shady dealer in wool and other agricultural produce who has no scruples and fewer friends.

'BARMAN AT THE LONERGAN PUB

'EXTRAS Drinkers at the Lonergan pub.

'ACTUALS Ambulance officers.'