Cirrus@Austlit

'Lisa McCune stars as Dr Sam Stewart, the Sherlock Holmes of tropical medicine and the head doctor in the only medical clinic for the Great Barrier Reef Islands. Sam leads a handful of dedicated practitioners hoping to extract the hidden secrets from venom that have the power to cure some of the world's most fatal diseases. On a daily basis, her small team of medics deals with everything from deadly snakebites and jellyfish stings, to divers with the bends and tropical diseases that can spread like wildfire. But it's not all medical emergencies and dramas for the vendomdocs on Hope Island. Life's also an adventure — wind surfing, scuba diving, abseiling, and at night, kicking back at the Backpackers Hostel, and in the steamy, romantic tropical nights at the end of a long day, maybe even finding love.'

Source: Australian television Information Archive. (Sighted: 1/5/2014)

'Bed of Roses is about Louisa Atherton (Kerry Armstrong) handling her life after she discovers her husband has died in the arms of another woman, leaving her broke. She returns to her home town of Rainbow's End to live with her feisty mother, Minna (Julia Blake). Rainbow's End is in a 'growth corridor' with neighbouring town of Indigo. Besides problems with Minna, Louisa encounters trouble with her teenage daughter Holly (Hanna Mangan-Lawrence) and local residents. Louisa has few financial assets except "Mary Kelly's Shack" she inherited from her father. Louisa decides to demolish the shack and build a new house to sell. Holly has taken the death of her father very hard and insists on carrying around his ashes. Louisa's irresponsible driving results in numerous traffic offences, which she can ill afford.' (Production summary)

Based on various short stories by Paul Jennings, Wormwood follows the happenings in the small town of Wormwood, where the fact that the town's economy is based on the production and sale of worm excrement is not the strangest thing about the place.

Previous television series based on Jennings's short stories were Driven Crazy and Round the Twist.

'It's hard work when you're 12 years old, and have to look after your mother - who has just turned two. It's frustrating being a runaway in search of your family - with only a faded photo to go on. And it's absolutely DEADLY knowing that the seeds of a blue tea plant have been washed into the river system, and any moment now plants will grow that can keep people young forever.

'But at least Amy and Sprocket have each other. Together they'll bring up Toddler Mum as best they can, they'll fight Pooper Scooper and his malevolent family, and they'll find every one of those mutating tea plants before they can destroy the world.'

Source: SLR Productions (http://slrproductions.com/deadly). Sighted: 12/4/2012

'A thrilling adventure-fantasy. A group of children take on the Shadows threatening Earth, little knowing that their own shadows will test them and take them to the limit of danger and endurance. Set in a magical land, Snow Wings will make your imagination soar.

''Something weird's going on!' Manfred grasped a handful of mist. 'It has the consistency of black fairy floss.' He sniffed it. 'But it smells like tar.'

'With the arrival of the black cloud, things begin to go wrong. Avalanches block the valley, animals disappear and black snow falls.

'Manfred and his friends - Dieter the mountain boy, Georg the baker's son, bossy Anne, spoiled Ziggi and I Don't Know (who can't even remember his name) - are catapulted onto the strange snow-covered landscape beyond the cloud. In a race against time they must unlock the power of the king's crystal and return it to its rightful owner. And every step of the way they are stalked by sinister Shadows, formidable foes who prey on fear itself.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Guinevere Jones is a Canadian/Australian fantasy television series that revolves around the adventures of the title character. Gwen Jones and her mother flee from Canada to Melbourne, where Gwen's mother is committed to an asylum, Gwen enters foster care, and Merlin turns up to teach Gwen her destiny (to fight evil).

Although the program is billed as a co-production between Australia and Canada, the involvement of Australian script-writers is relatively minimal (though other crew members, including the directors, were also Australian). Only four episodes in season one were written by Australians, and all thirteen episodes of season two were written by Canadian script-writers. However, the Australian writers did invest the essentially European Arthurian legends on which the program is based with something of an Australian flavour: Piers Hobson's episode 'Warwe and Mineer', for example, involves mysterious Indigenous Australian rock paintings.

Guinevere Jones has never been released on DVD.

A Canadian-Australian co-production.

'Amid the excitement and thrill of the horse world growing up seems harder than ever … Stevie, Carole and Lisa are strong, dynamic young women. Each has very distinct and personal dreams for the future. All have one thing in common - a passion for horses. In forming the Saddle Club the girls promise to remain loyal to each other no matter what, but that promise may not prove to be as easy to keep as they think.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 20/8/2013)

Thirteen-year-old Lauren's life is confusing enough, with her mother remarrying, moving to another country, and introducing Lauren to a new stepfather and little stepbrother. But that's not nearly as confusing as the day two Nelfs (Santa's helpers) jump from his sleigh and into Lauren's life. With Santa's rounds finished for another year, Lauren is stuck with the bickering, meddling siblings until next Christmas. But when only Lauren can see them, her family start to think she's going mad.

Ali Stanford just wants to have a normal life. But it's not that easy. Her brother, Max, is not like eveyrbody else. Max is autistic. He has special needs and takes up a lot of his family's time and energy. Sometimes Ali feels left out. As Ali learns to understand Max, she wants everybody else to understand too. Dolphins Dance is Ali's story.

'Min and Jim are frightened of their grandfather and his strange ways with animals. Then one stormy night, Grandpa tells them an unusual story'. (Source: TROVE)

'Based on the stories of Paul Jennings, DRIVEN CRAZY follows the adventures of the Bourke family as they travel around Australia in their old Chevy wagon.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'It's a story about justice...and the corruption of justice. JANUS is about the lawyers, police, judges and magistrates who work with a very imperfect system. The focus of our story will be the new Director of Public Prosecutions Officer, taking over the handling of all Committals for trial - the first sweeping changes recommended by the Janus Taskforce Committee.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 3/5/2013)

Science fiction in a stricter (and less speculative) sense, Sky Trackers followed the adventures of a group of scientists' children living in a remote space-tracking station in the Australian outback. The program had the romantic component common to young-adult programming (with blossoming romance between thirteen-year-old Nikki and fourteen-year-old Mike), but also focused on such topics as ambition, future careers, and scholastic achievement.