Australian
Screen

Clip description

Stockman Patrick (Robert Mammone) has broken the news to his girlfriend Becky (Maya Stange) that he is leaving town after a falling out with the McLeod sisters. He and the other staff are unwilling to take orders from a woman and want the business to be handed over to the property overseer and Claire’s fiancé, Rod (Kevin Smith). After Jack McLeod’s death in a tragic accident, Tess (Kym Wilson) and Claire (Tammy MacIntosh) have discovered he was dangerously in debt. Now there are no staff to muster the cattle and get them to sale. Tess, Claire and housekeeper Meg (Kris McQuade) argue about what to do. Claire thinks they should leave things up to Rod. Tess thinks they should call the shots themselves. Becky’s arrival on the scene gives Tess a new idea about how she could save Drover’s Run. She approaches Rosa (Mercia Deane-Johns) and Jodie (Simone Kessell) with her plan.

Curator’s notes

This clip plays like a sequence from an old-fashioned western in which the sheriff rounds up a posse of men to ride with him. The twist is that the homestead is now run by women, who are building a team of women to muster cattle now the men have deserted the property. This scene captures the premise of the telemovie: a community of downtrodden women stepping out from the shadows of their men to form a venture of their own. The screenplay is careful to establish that the women are working for wages and want to be taken seriously; they are not helping McLeod’s daughters as a favour but are in it for the long haul.

The clip also plays up the contrast between sisters Claire and Tess, another driving force in the story. They continue to argue and Claire is reluctant to join in Tess’s scheme. By not resolving their conflict too quickly, the filmmakers tease out the prospect of their inevitable reconciliation.