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Clip description
Tess (Kym Wilson) musters cattle with her new team – Rosa (Mercia Deane-Johns), Jodie (Simone Kessell), Becky (Maya Stange) and Meg (Kris McQuade) – and is delighted when they are joined by her previously reluctant sister Claire (Tammy MacIntosh). Claire’s fiancé Rod (Kevin Smith) observes from a nearby hill.
Curator’s notes
This clip condenses a day of mustering cattle into a three-minute, music-driven montage. Images of horse riding, rural landscapes and women at work are a signature element of McLeod’s Daughters – both the telemovie and the later series (see McLeod’s Daughters – Welcome Home, 2001). Dynamic camerawork keeps the viewer’s interest and propels the story. As well as long shots of the women working the cattle to establish the scope of their task, medium close-ups of Tess and Claire acknowledging each other signal the end of their conflict. Although we get a close-up of Rod on his horse, his expression as he watches Claire is enigmatic, maintaining tension about whether their relationship will survive her change in status.
The familiarity of the rural scene is disrupted here because all the stock hands are women. The actors look convincing on horseback and have a relaxed camaraderie together, as demonstrated by their joking in the final scene. This is crucial to the success of the show. If we can’t buy the women (or the actors playing them) as capable of running the homestead, the show’s central premise does not hold.
