Episodes one and four from the first season of Bellbird are published in Close Up: Scripts from Australian Television's Second Decade. Editors Don Reid and Frank Bladwell provide a summary of the episodes:
Episode 1: Melbourne teacher Michael Foley sells his house and leaves the city in his Rolls Royce to live in the country township of Bellbird. Lori Chandler, a librarian, has agreed to take him in as a boarder at her property, Bellbird Station. The local P and C committee members find this immoral, however, and demand she renege on her decision. Meanwhile, Glenda Chan, a young Chinese woman, is being pressured to sell her house by local real-estate agent Charles Kozane, who uses Jack Baker, an old friend of the Chans', as his cover. Baker currently tends the garden for Glenda. She is informed that not only is the garden on council land but her family has also been squatting on land originally bought by Lori Chandler's grandfather. Kozane knows that Lori won't sell the land while Glenda still lives in the house, and is attempting to convince her to take Jack's 'generous' offer.
