These are the pages from a squatters journal, and the year is 1829. The recently widowed and retired naval lieutenant James Firbeck takes his family, sons, Samuel and Luke and daughter Jassy to New South Wales to claim a grant of land. A strange world greets the Yorkshire family, one of Red-coats, convicts and a peasantry governed by a wealthy elite.
Starring Oliver Tobias and produced by Tony Essex, the series is an epic adventure series set in Australia as it is being colonised. Filmed entirely on location it is a tale of pioneering and achievement against bitter odds. The entire series is released over 4 discs and costs £39.99.
That's the basics over with, now for some more meat on the bones. This is not a 'nice' series. By that I mean if you have enjoyed the other series that Oliver Tobias has starred in that Network have released (Smuggler - Complete Series [DVD]
He seems to enjoy the freedom, too much, and does anything he wants - floggings, murder, and incest are all included - but seems to be totally inept at fighting unless it is bullying others. His father and brother appear totally spineless, although the line adopted for the series is that they are fish out of water and good Christians. The incestual overtones are a bit creepy and apparent almost from the word go, but are intitially so brief you wonder if you are imagining them.
The way the natives are treated almost seems to be an over zealous approach to a normal stereotypical one of either ignoring them of making them out to be the baddies, but although it shows some ill-treatment and injustice, they appear to sit in groups waiting for white man to bring grog or work until they fight or are attacked.
Finally, the order of the episodes on the discs matches the original transmission order (at least in the London Region, where I can check it), but someone certainly took their eye off the ball in the 70s as there are two episodes that were definitely out of order. The one thing definitely in its favour is the Trident Television end caption. I hadn't seen it before, and it is slightly worrying that I now look forward to the different idents, break bumpers (also present on all episodes) and end credits as much as the programmes - thank you Network!
All in all I can say I am glad I watched it, as it was an interesting series that made some attempts to cover the colonisation more truthfully than the general rose-coloured versions of difficult stories that appear on the small screen, but I can't say that I really enjoyed it.