The Australian Western, also referred to as the "Meat-Pie Western" or "Kangaroo Western," differs from most Western subgenres in that it does not have its origins the traditional American Western. This subgenre is born from Australian history, as opposed to American. It is by mere coincidence that the two bear such striking similarities. They both have almost identical settings and a long history of pioneers, cattle herding, ranching, expansion into harsh territories, troubled relations with indigenous peoples, and outlaws. Different variations of Western stock characters even show up like the Australian outlaws referred to as "bushrangers." This term encompasses almost any criminal in the Australian outback, from bank robbers to escaped convicts. Australian Westerns with bushranger protagonists are commonly referred to as "Bushranger Films." Another variation of a stock character found in this subgenre is the indigenous peoples of the continent: the Aboriginal Australians. Like the Indigenous People of America, Aboriginal Australians are a marginalized group that reflect a shameful part of the country's past. In all other regards, they carry their own unique culture and traditions.
The Story of the Kelly Gang could be considered the first Australian Western, and, because of its alleged runtime, is considered the world's full-length narrative feature film. Unfortunately, the film is now mostly lost and all that remains is about 20 minutes of different portions of the original film. As the title suggests, the film covers the story of infamous bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang. The film is the combined efforts of the Tait Brothers: Charles, John, and Nevin. They were Australian entrepreneurs that focused on entertainment such as theater, live music, and the newly emerging technology of film. Along with additional help from the rest of the Tait family, they financed, produced, and screened the film all across the continent.
The Australian Western film The Overlanders is released. The film starred Chips Rafferty who received international acclaim for his role as a Western star. Rafferty had previously received widespread fame from his role in the Australian war film Forty Thousand Horsemen. However, it was this film that established him as a star of classic Australian Westerns, in particular. Director and co-writer of the film Harry Watt described Rafferty as an "Australian Gary Cooper." This comparison is well-earned, for Rafferty acquired a popular onscreen persona in both Western and non-Western cinema with his charming looks, rugged demeanor, and indelible acting.
David Gulpilil stars in the film The Tracker. His performance in the film wins him the Award for Best Actor from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. The film is an Australian Western that depicts the Australian practice of "Aboriginal tracking," and Gulpilil stars as the titular tracker. Gulpilil's acting career started with the 1971 film Walkabout and continued for decades until his passing in 2021. He is likely the most recognized and popular Indigenous Australian actor on an international scale. Throughout his career, he starred in a number of Australian Western films such as Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The Proposition (2005), Australia (2008), and Goldstone (2016), and some Australian Western television shows like Luke's Kingdom (1976), The Man from Snowy River (1994).
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Stingaree
In 1874 Australia, debonair outlaw Stingaree, aided by his sidekick, Howie, uses his wily charm to take what he wants from the ruling class, with or without permission. When he meets composer Sir Julian Kent, who₂s on his way to see a promising opera singer Mrs. Clarkson, Stingaree abducts Kent and decides to take his place at the audition. He quickly realizes the real talent is Clarkson₂s servant, Hilda and not Mrs. Clarkson, so he promises Hilda that he'll make her a star.
The Sundowners
Sheep drovers Paddy, Ida, and their son Sean are always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down on a farm, but Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, childbirth, drinking, and gambling all take a part in the final decision.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Australian Version)
Jimmie Blacksmith is a young Aboriginal half-cast raised in central New South Wales at the turn of the century. Looking to gain respectability in white society, Jimmie finds a white bride while performing back-breaking work on local farms, but cannot escape his skin color, suffering ongoing racism and oppression. Discovering that he may not be the father of his wife's child, and fired without pay, Jimmie explodes in a fury of violent revenge.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (International Version)
Jimmie Blacksmith is a young Aboriginal half-cast raised in central New South Wales at the turn of the century. Looking to gain respectability in white society, Jimmie finds a white bride while performing back-breaking work on local farms, but cannot escape his skin color, suffering ongoing racism and oppression. Discovering that he may not be the father of his wife's child, and fired without pay, Jimmie explodes in a fury of violent revenge.
The Man from Snowy River
Set during the 1880's when the Australian frontier was wild and dangerous, the film follows the exploits of a youth who sets out to tame a wild herd of horses.
Quigley Down Under
Sharpshooter Quigley travels to western Australia, only to find himself saddled with a half-loco lady and locked in a lethal battle with a wealthy rancher.
The Proposition
In the Australian outback during the 1880s, Charlie Burns is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcement. The only way for him to save his younger brother from the gallows is to find and kill his psychotic older brother within nine days. Local law enforcer Captain Stanley has recently arrived from Britain and is facing problems of his own as he tries to shield his innocent wife from the brutalities of their new surroundings and deal with mounting pressures from renegade natives and his superior.
Australia
In northern Australia at the beginning of World War II, an English aristocrat inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.
Red Hill
On Constable Shane Cooper's first day with the Red Hill Police Department, a convicted murderer escapes from prison and seeks revenge on the men who put him there.
Mystery Road
Detective Joe Swan returns to his small hometown to investigate the murder of a teenaged Aboriginal girl. He finds himself alone and in growing danger as the town's secrets unravel.
Goldstone
Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons inquiry, and what seems like a simple investigation unearths a web of crime, corruption human trafficking, and the exploitation of aboriginal lands.
Sweet Country
Sam, a middle-aged Aboriginal man, works for a preacher in the outback of Australia's Northern Territory. When Harry, a bitter war veteran, moves into a neighboring outpost, the preacher sends Sam and his family to help Harry renovate his cattle yards. But Sam's relationship with the cruel and ill-tempered Harry quickly deteriorates, culminating in a violent shootout in which Sam kills Harry in self-defense.
The NIghtingale
Set during the colonization of Australia in 1825, the film follows 21-year-old convict Clare. Having served her time, she is eager to be free of her abusive master, Lieutenant Hawkins. Clare becomes the victim of a harrowing crime by the lieutenant and his cronies. When authorities fail to deliver justice, she decides to pursue Hawkins and enlists the help of a young Aboriginal tracker. As they go, they must learn to find empathy for one another while weighing the true cost of revenge.
True History of the Kelly Gang
After discovering his family comes from a line of warriors called the Sons of Sieve, the young Australian bandit leads an anarchist army against the oppressive rule of the British.
Bordertown
The rough Australian landscape and lack of luxuries cannot deter the temporary inhabitants of Baringa, a migrant camp in post-war Australia. They flock there from Italy, the Netherlands, England and beyond to gain a foothold on a new existence. Among their number are craftsmen, tormented lovers, rigid military types and drifters with a criminal past. Their languages and goals may differ, but this diverse population is united in their hopes of a fresh start, a break that will finally change their luck.
Mystery Road: Series 1
When two boys disappear from a remote cattle station, local police sergeant Emma James calls in Indigenous detective Jay Swan to help find out what happened. As Emma and Jay butt heads over their conflicting methods, the unexpected arrival of Jay's troubled daughter only inflames the tension. But when their investigation uncovers other crimes haunting the backwater town, the detectives must look to the past to get justice in the present.
The Dickens Boy by
Edward Dickens, the tenth child of author Charles Dickens, has consistently let down his parents. Unable to apply himself at school and adrift in life, the teenaged boy is sent to Australia in the hopes that he can make something of himself--or at least fall out of the public eye. Determined to prove to his parents and more importantly, himself, that he can succeed in this vast and unfamiliar wilderness, Edward works hard at his new life amidst various livestock, bushrangers, shifty stock agents, and frontier battles.
Dust off the Bones by
After their family's cattle farm is attacked in the 1890s Australian Outback, two estranged brothers reunite to attempt to revive the business and are called to testify after a reprisal slaughter is perpetrated against the Kurrong.
1890. Estranged brothers Tommy and Billy McBride are living far apart in Queensland, each dealing with the trauma that destroyed their family in different ways. Now 21, Billy bottles his guilt and justifies his past crimes while attempting to revive his father's former cattle run and navigate his feelings for the young widow Katherine Sullivan. Katherine, meanwhile, cherishes her newfound independence but is struggling to establish herself as head of the vast Broken Ridge cattle empire her corrupt late husband mercilessly built. When a judicial inquest is ordered into the McBride family murders and the subsequent reprisal slaughter of the Kurrong people, the inquest forces Billy to relive events he has long refused to face. He desperately needs to find his brother, Tommy, who for years has been surviving in the wilderness, attempting to move on with his life.
Never Never by
The #1 New York Times bestseller of a brilliant investigator facing the shock of her brother's murder arrest . . . and her own exile in the Australian outback. Harry Blue is the top Sex Crimes investigator in her department. But even she didn't see this coming: her own brother arrested for the grisly murders of three beautiful young women. "For her own good," she's been sent to a desolate location and assigned to a new "partner." But is he actually meant to be a watchdog? In her strange new home, Harry vanishes to a place where no one would ever think to look for her.
Only Killers and Thieves by
It is 1885, and a crippling drought threatens to ruin the McBride family. Their land is parched, their cattle starving. When the rain finally comes, it is a miracle that renews their hope for survival. But returning home from an afternoon swimming at a remote waterhole filled by the downpour, fourteen-year-old Tommy and sixteen-year-old Billy meet with a shocking tragedy.
The Secret River by
In 1806 William Thornhill, an illiterate English bargeman and a man of quick temper but deep compassion, steals a load of wood and, as a part of his lenient sentence, is deported, along with his beloved wife, Sal, to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia. The Secret River is the tale of William and Sal's deep love for their small, exotic corner of the new world, and William's gradual realization that if he wants to make a home for his family, he must forcibly take the land from the people who came before him. Acclaimed around the world, The Secret River is a magnificent, transporting work of historical fiction.
True History of the Kelly Gang by
In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.
