Australian
Screen

Clip description

Claire McLeod (Lisa Chappell) confronts her staff after discovering they have been stealing fuel. Sister Tess (Bridie Carter) and staffers Meg Fountain (Sonia Todd) and Jodi Fountain (Rachael Carpani) look on.

Curator’s notes

This confrontation scene between Claire and her employees sets the ball rolling for Claire and Tess to come into their own as the managers of Drover’s Run. The scene also foreshadows the gathering of a female team to run the property, a central part of the series’ premise.

As shot, the scene reflects the show’s theme of women being as equally capable as the men, despite running a cattle property traditionally being seen as men’s work. Both sides are evenly matched here, with four men facing four women. There’s not a lot of tension regarding the outcome since we’ve already established these men as complaining and untrustworthy (see clip one). Even here, the spokesman keeps changing tack, trying variously to laugh off Claire, then talking conspiratorially, and finally trying to threaten her. Claire seems all the stronger by firmly standing her ground in the face of his different arguments.

While the men all wear akubra hats and similar clothing, the women show more variation in clothing colour and style, perhaps suggesting that they are not yet as closely forged a team as the men. Visually, the scene benefits from being shot on location and outdoors, rather than in the house or on a set. Claire is confronting the men on their own territory, which takes great courage, and we are seeing the women together and in context on the property they will soon be running by themselves.