Latest news with #MysteryRoad
West Australian
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
New TV series: ‘Postcard Bandit' shows life of WA bank robber Brenden Abbott currently shooting in Fremantle
Cameras are rolling in Fremantle for a new series about notorious WA bank robber, Brenden Abbott, aka the Postcard Bandit. Abbott is currently serving time in Casuarina Prison for crimes he committed more than three decades ago. Based on Australian Outlaw — The True Story of Postcard Bandit Brenden Abbott by Derek Pedley, the as-yet-unnamed series, coming to Binge and starring George Mason as Abbott, will mark the second time the convicted robber's story has been told on the small screen, following a 2003 TV movie starring Tom Long. 'We're thrilled to have cameras now rolling in WA where the story started nearly 40 years ago,' Lana Greenhalgh, executive producer and director of scripted originals Foxtel Group, said. Abbott became a household name in the 1980s after committing a string of bank robberies and successfully evading police. He is reported to have stolen and hidden millions of dollars, and was dubbed the Postcard Bandit by police, due to postcards he sent law enforcement while on the run. Abbott was eventually arrested, convicted and successfully escaped custody twice. With the exception of inmates convicted of murder, Abbott is currently the longest serving prisoner in Australia and will be eligible for parole in 2026. The production, a scripted series of six one-hour episodes, is shooting in and around Fremantle, with cameras spotted filming around the periphery of the old Fremantle Prison on Monday. The series, described as a 'propulsive, high-octane, 1980/90s crime drama' sports a stellar lead cast, with Robyn Malcolm (The Survivors), Ashleigh Cummings (Citadel), and Keiynan Lonsdale (Swift Street) joining Mason in pivotal roles. The ensemble cast includes David Howell (Narrow Road to the Deep North), Mia Artemis (Sweet Tooth), Christian Byers (Bump), Roxie Mohebbi (He Had It Coming), Oscar Redding (The Twelve), Anthony Hayes (Mystery Road) and Jayden Popik (Mystery Road). According to Screenwest, the series is expected to attract a spend of more than $7 million into the WA economy, and the production will employ at least 80 West Australian crew and 80 WA cast with speaking roles, as well as 400 extras. 'The production shows the growing momentum in our screen industry and reinforces our growing reputation as a destination for high-quality screen production,' Screenwest chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said. Ben Young (Hounds of Love, The Twelve) and Bonnie Moir (Exposure, Love Me,) are directing, with Young also serving as executive producer. Hamish Lewis, head of scripted at WBITVP Australia said: 'We're pumped to be back in Western Australia working with Foxtel and Screenwest again. 'This is a truly incredible story, too good not to be told. 'It's the story of extreme resilience, determination and family — with a wild backdrop of 80s and 90s Australia.'
Perth Now
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Brenden Abbott's criminal past immortalised in new series
Cameras are rolling in Fremantle for a new series about notorious WA bank robber, Brenden Abbott, aka the Postcard Bandit. Abbott is currently serving time in Casuarina Prison for crimes he committed more than three decades ago. Based on Australian Outlaw — The True Story of Postcard Bandit Brenden Abbott by Derek Pedley, the as-yet-unnamed series, coming to Binge and starring George Mason as Abbott, will mark the second time the convicted robber's story has been told on the small screen, following a 2003 TV movie starring Tom Long. 'We're thrilled to have cameras now rolling in WA where the story started nearly 40 years ago,' Lana Greenhalgh, executive producer and director of scripted originals Foxtel Group, said. Abbott became a household name in the 1980s after committing a string of bank robberies and successfully evading police. He is reported to have stolen and hidden millions of dollars, and was dubbed the Postcard Bandit by police, due to postcards he sent law enforcement while on the run. Involved in the production are, back: Rikki Lea Bestall, CEO Screenwest, John Driscoll, board chair Screenwest, Hamish Lewis, head of scripted Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia, Lana Greenhalgh director of scripted originals Foxtel Group; front: Bonnie Moir, director, Ben Young, director and executive producer. Credit: Liang Xu Abbott was eventually arrested, convicted and successfully escaped custody twice. With the exception of inmates convicted of murder, Abbott is currently the longest serving prisoner in Australia and will be eligible for parole in 2026. The production, a scripted series of six one-hour episodes, is shooting in and around Fremantle, with cameras spotted filming around the periphery of the old Fremantle Prison on Monday. The series, described as a 'propulsive, high-octane, 1980/90s crime drama' sports a stellar lead cast, with Robyn Malcolm (The Survivors), Ashleigh Cummings (Citadel), and Keiynan Lonsdale (Swift Street) joining Mason in pivotal roles. The ensemble cast includes David Howell (Narrow Road to the Deep North), Mia Artemis (Sweet Tooth), Christian Byers (Bump), Roxie Mohebbi (He Had It Coming), Oscar Redding (The Twelve), Anthony Hayes (Mystery Road) and Jayden Popik (Mystery Road). Brenden Abbott. Credit: Unknown / Supplied by Subject According to Screenwest, the series is expected to attract a spend of more than $7 million into the WA economy, and the production will employ at least 80 West Australian crew and 80 WA cast with speaking roles, as well as 400 extras. 'The production shows the growing momentum in our screen industry and reinforces our growing reputation as a destination for high-quality screen production,' Screenwest chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said. Ben Young (Hounds of Love, The Twelve) and Bonnie Moir (Exposure, Love Me,) are directing, with Young also serving as executive producer. Hamish Lewis, head of scripted at WBITVP Australia said: 'We're pumped to be back in Western Australia working with Foxtel and Screenwest again. 'This is a truly incredible story, too good not to be told. 'It's the story of extreme resilience, determination and family — with a wild backdrop of 80s and 90s Australia.'
ABC News
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Tasma Walton explores a tragic family story in her new novel, I Am Nannertgarrook
Growing up, there was a story actor and author Tasma Walton often heard about one of her Boonwurrung ancestors. According to family legend, Walton's great-great-great grandmother, Nannertgarrook, fell in love with a merchant seaman and ran away with him. But Walton came to realise this story wasn't the full one. It was a "more palatable and romanticised version" of the truth, she tells ABC Radio National's The Book Show. The man wasn't a merchant seaman, and this wasn't a love story. From the late 18th century, seal and whale traders rode the wave of British colonisation, pillaging the oceans in pursuit of their lucrative prey. Operating in treacherous conditions far from home, they relied on First Nations' knowledge to survive. "In the 1830s, [Nannertgarrook] was abducted alongside some of her sister-cousins and their kids by sealers and then taken to the islands off the coast of Tasmania and sold into a sealer slave market," Walton says. Sadly, they weren't the only Aboriginal women subjected to this treatment. "There's a lot written about [the sealers] in the colonial records," Walton says. In I Am Nannertgarrook, Walton's second novel, she tells her ancestor's story, exposing a dark chapter of Australian history. Walton, a Boonwurrung woman born in Geraldton, is a well-known Australian figure, thanks to her roles in television series including Blue Heelers, Mystery Road and The Twelve. She says writing is not all that different to acting: both require world-building and crafting a character's "inner monologue". "It's an extension of the same approach to storytelling," she says. In researching her grandmother's life, Walton uncovered stories of atrocities long obscured by history. "It was very clearly something that we're not taught in schools. We're not shown the true complexity and depth of what was happening and, a lot of the time, we're seeing [history] from a very limited perspective," she says. The fate of Nannertgarrook disproves the widely held belief that slavery has played no part in Australian history. "She was kidnapped by a group of men, she was sold for money to other men and she was their captive to do what they chose with her, which included making her work so that they could earn money off her labour," Walton says. Walton found only a handful of references to her grandmother in colonial-era diaries and journals held in historical archives. To flesh out Nannertgarrook's story in the novel, she relied instead on family stories and contemporary firsthand accounts from other women taken by sealers. Walton wanted to tell the story as a first-person narrative to allow the reader to see the world through Nannertgarrook's eyes. "I don't know what she was thinking. I don't know what she was feeling. I wasn't there. But … I can imagine how it would have felt as a young woman, having to look after kids and try to keep yourself alive," she says. "What I wanted to do with the story was channel a perspective we don't ordinarily see, which is a young black woman … so that, as a reader, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, we can travel in those shoes [and] walk on that songline." As the novel opens, Nannertgarrook is living on Boonwurrung/Woiworung Country on what is now known as the Mornington Peninsula. "When we first meet her, she's happily married and going about women's business as well as her family responsibilities," Walton says. Nannertgarrook and the women and children of her clan are gathered on the shores of the bay, awaiting the seasonal arrival of whales and their calves to the sheltered waters. The whale —betayil in Boonwurrung — is her family's totem and they will celebrate the annual migration and honour Babayin Betayil, the sacred Mother Whale, with a ceremony known as ngargee: "an ebbing and flowing of song and story, dance and drumbeat". As Nannertgarrook lays down by the campfire one night to sleep, her two children close by, the world is as it should be. "All is peaceful. All is perfect," she reflects in the book. Nannertgarrook and the Boonwurrung women were highly skilled skin divers who collected abalone and crayfish from the giant kelp forests on the sea floor. "They were renowned for being able to hold their breath for huge amounts of time," Walton says. "[She's a] Saltwater woman through and through." Walton took great joy in describing the landscape as it would have appeared before colonisation. "Whenever I'm out on Country at different places where there's less city and urban noise, I always imagine what it would have been like," she says. "I really enjoyed writing the first part of the story because I could feel myself in that place, having walked that landscape so much in my lifetime. "Imagining it back in that time when it was fully itself was a lovely experience." Walton evokes a culture rich with ritual and myth that existed in harmony with the natural world. Nannertgarrook's chest is marked with initiation scars, marking her as a mother, and she teaches her children to respect the flora and fauna around their camp, or wilam. As she prepares for ceremony, she uses ochre to paint patterns on her body, signifying her story: "The tracks of koonwarra the swan, waving lines that speak of the sea, the shapes and stories of our Biik." Woven through this portrait of traditional life are the "threads of women's lore" shared with Walton over the years. "It's like a love letter to women's business, sisterhood and motherhood," she says. Tragically, Nannertgarrook, who was also known as Eliza, is taken far from her beloved Country, or Biik. Initially, the sealers take the group to their meeting place on an island off the coast of Tasmania. "In Nannertgarrook's case, she is then taken to Kangaroo Island off South Australia and then onto Bald Island off the coast of Western Australia … [which is] literally [just] a rock that's thrusting up out of the ocean," Walton says. Windswept and desolate, it's an alien world to Nannertgarrook. "She goes from … the Mornington Peninsula, with all of its incredible beaches and giant trees, to a rocky outcrop in a very isolated place on the southern Western Australian coastline." Walton offers few details about Nannertgarrook's abductor, who she never names in the book. She says excising the man from the narrative was a deliberate decision. "That was my way of mirroring the colonial records … [which contain] a lot about the sealers. We know all their names; we know all the terrible things they've done. "What we don't see are the women: their names, their true identities, anything they're experiencing in any depth or context." Walton says there was a "half-hearted attempt" to rescue the group by the colonial government of the day. "My ancestor and the women that are with her are mentioned by a travelling government surveyor to the Aboriginal protectorates at the time in Port Phillip. "And they ignore it. Nobody goes for her. They know they're there. They talk at length about them, but all we get in the colonial records is a cursory nod to them and the fact that they want to come home to Westernport." Nearly 200 years later, Walton wants to restore the women to the historical record. "This is about reclaiming [Nannertgarrook's] voice and identity and those of her sisters and their bubup, their children," she says. I Am Nannertgarrook is published by S&S Bundyi.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Australian director Ivan Sen, actor Aaron Pedersen bring Indigenous perspectives to Aussie films, TV
This article was originally published in the Houston Chronicle and is reprinted here with DarlingHouston ChronicleJay Swan is a he wouldn't see it that way, but he is. The fictional creation of Australian filmmaker/writer Ivan Sen, Swan is an Aboriginal police detective who investigates homicides and missing persons cases in his country's sprawling and sun-scorched Outback. Like the American cop and cowboy archetypes on which he's based, he's a taciturn loner who wrecked his marriage, failed at fatherhood and hit the bottle way too though he might stagger, he manages to remain upright on issues of right and why he has become the hero of what's turned into an unlikely hit franchise in Australia, appearing first in the 2013 film "Mystery Road," then the 2016 sequel "Goldstone," which had a screening at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston on April 4, and three seasons of the "Mystery Road" mini-series, with a fourth due to be released this year. Each of the movies and seasons of the TV series is self-contained though Swan's character arc acts as a through-line. Sometimes compared to "True Detective" and the early works of Taylor Sheridan (most notably "Wind River"), "Mystery Road" straddles the worlds of White and Black Australia, with Swan torn between as familiar a trope as Swan the detective/cowboy might be to American eyes, he also represents something new, a glimpse into an Indigenous Australian world that remains invisible in most of Australia's cinematic exports. In many films set in Outback, rural and small-town Australia — think the "Mad Max" "Wolf Creek" and "Wyrmwood" franchises, "Walkabout," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "Wake in Fright," and the self-explanatory "Beaten to Death" — nearly everything and everyone in the country wants you "Mystery Road," and the work of many Indigenous directors, the Outback may be a place of danger, but it's also home. In Sen's world, and especially in "Goldstone," the landscape is rendered in all of its breathtaking and colorful wide-screen splendor. (For his 2023 film, "Limbo," Sen flipped the script and shot the Outback in a luminous black and white.)All of it makes for a fascinating character study, one that has broken through to the wider Australian audience, won multiple awards at home and become the most globally popular example of what's known as "Outback Noir." And Swan is a direct reflection of Sen, the man who created him, and Aaron Pedersen, the actor who has portrayed him in the films and first two seasons of the series and was a producer on the "Mystery Road" film. (The third and fourth seasons, "Mystery Road: Origin," is an origin story with a younger actor, Mark Coles Smith, in the main role)."Jay Swan is someone who has a similar history to my own," said photographer-turned-filmmaker Sen in an interview with the Australian film site HeyUGuys. "I grew up in a little country town and had to move between my local Indigenous family and the White part of the town. I spent a lot of time going between the two of them and didn't feel like I belonged to either camp."'The thing about (Jay Swan) is that he has strong relevance to what this country's about and also who we are, how we represent ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world,' Pedersen told the Houston Chronicle in a phone interview from Sydney in 2018. 'His story could go on forever because it's such a complicated journey, not only as an individual but as a community of people.' "Mystery Road" is an ongoing passion project for Sen. With "Goldstone," for instance, he not only served as director and screenwriter but also film editor, cinematographer and composer. Meanwhile, the TV series, on which Sen is an executive producer, has become a canvas for other Indigenous directors/writers such as Wayne Blair ("The Sapphires," which enjoyed an American release), Rachel Perkins (the Indigenous musical "Bran Nue Dae") and Warwick Thornton ("Samson & Delilah," a Cannes award winner and one of the best Australian films of the 21st century). It should be noted that this wave of Indigenous directors corresponds with an increased Aboriginal presence in the world of popular music as Jay goes from here is an open question. Pedersen was set to continue in the TV series until he decided to take a break from acting, forcing Sen and company to pivot to an origin story, which will continue in season even if Pedersen, who has also declined to work in Hollywood partly because it would take him away from caring for his special-needs brother, decides not to saddle up again, Swan's story doesn't have to end. Sen has created an indelible character whose journey is worth the Darling is the arts and entertainment editor for the Houston Chronicle, overseeing coverage of movies, television, pop music and the fine arts. He can be reached at He oversees the coverage of movies, television, pop music and the fine arts.
