person or book cover
Source: Screen cap. opening titles series one episode one.
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Water Rats is an Australian police television series which was broadcast on the Nine Network between 1996 and 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney Harbour.

Includes

3.22
form y separately published work icon Six Hundred Clear a Week Peter Gawler , Australia : Hal McElroy Southern Star Nine Network , 1998 6042321 1998 single work film/TV crime

'"Kiwi" Dave Crow escapes from custody and makes it his personal mission to make Frank's life a misery. Kiwi Dave's vendetta takes a toll on Frank's relationship with Louise.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 12/6/2013)

 Australia : Hal McElroy Southern Star Nine Network , 1998
6.01
form y separately published work icon Domino John Banas , Australia : Nine Network Hal McElroy Southern Star , 2001 6042800 2001 single work film/TV

'There's soul searching all round when Senior Sergeant Lance Rorke dies in a freak accident during a Water Police operation. What was supposed to be a simple surveillance of suspected drug importers, turned into a high-stakes, high-energy shoot out with gun runners. Everyone feels they could have done something to save their friend.

'Alex, whose informant led them to the container wharf where the shootout took place, blames herself for pushing for Water Police involvement hoping to get one over the drug squad. Reilly's car broke down on the way to the scene causing him to abandon it and continue on foot, leaving behind his two-way radio. From a distance he could see the impending danger, but without a radio he couldn't warn his colleagues. Quinn who'd had a big night out was caught short by nausea and the vital seconds he took to vomit saw him arrive on the scene too late.

'Perhaps the heaviest weight is on Hawker's shoulders. He's the man responsible for everyone and their actions. Keeping the group together as ever is Jack Christey. He mourns a good friend but know they cannot blame themselves for the actions of a scumbag. But all the self-examination doesn't stop.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 12/6/2013)

 Australia : Nine Network Hal McElroy Southern Star , 2001
6.08
form y separately published work icon The Hungry Bear Blues Peter Gawler , Australia : Nine Network Hal McElroy Southern Star , 2001 6042692 2001 single work film/TV

'A day in the life of Helen Blakemore. Blakemore has applied for a job as security manager for an American Bank in Chicago. With this exciting prospect virtually in the bag, Blakemore arrives at work to a Water Police station in chaos as a bomb threat evacuation is currently underway. Blakemore decides that the station will have to learn to cope without her, and that today is the day that everyone has a lesson to learn.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 12/6/2013)

 Australia : Nine Network Hal McElroy Southern Star , 2001

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1996
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Related Works

y separately published work icon Goldie's Story : Water Rats Amanda Midlam , Rydalmere : Hodder Headline Australia , 1997 Z387719 1997 single work novel crime
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

Friels Making a Play for Adelaide Louise Nunn , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 15 October 2015; (p. 30)
y separately published work icon Screenwriters Talk About Their Craft : Tony Morphett Susan Lever (interviewer), National Film and Sound Archive , 2012 Z1868019 2012 single work interview 'Tony Morphett discusses the origins of Blue Heelers (1994- ), Water Rats (1996- ), and names Rain Shadow (2008, co-written with Jimmy Thomson) as one of his finest achievements.'
Source: NFSA clip description
TV Nation or TV City? Albert Moran , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 24 no. 3 2010; (p. 343 - 356) 'For much of its history in the twentieth century, television was conceived mostly in national terms. American television, British television, Australian television and so on were thought of as distinct systems, even if they frequently displayed significant degrees of overlap. Such a notion has always been a convenient simplification. Television exists at a series of different spatial levels and the nationwide tier is only one of these. Recent interest in the notion of media capital draws attention to the role played by broadcasting hubs in larger television formations, not only in the industrial sense of resource accumulation and density but also in terms of colonizing larger media environments. This paper addresses this matter in terms of the role that a Sydney metropolitan television service has played in the life of the Australian nation. It surveys the material and ideological dimension of this service as a means of further problematizing the connection of television and nation' (Author's abstract)
Southern Stars and Secret Lives : International Exchange in Australian Television Ian Craven , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 22 no. 1 2008; (p. 51-67) 'The Secret Life of Us is a 'high end' television drama series, defined by 'adult themes, sexual references and low-level coarse language', first screened in Australia and the United Kingdom in mid-2001, and surviving for four seasons until late 2005. Developed by Southern Star, with the Ten Network, and Optus Television (a US-based pay TV service), it was the first Australian drama series to be commissioned by the United Kingdom's Channel 4. Eighty-six episodes were screened prior to cancellation. At the peak of its popularity, the series had been sold into a dozen or so (mostly European) territories, and against the usual odds, secured airtime in the United States, where it was picked up by Trio, a small west-coast cable network. It gained positive critical recognition, and fared well at television markets worldwide. Back in Australia, commentators linked the show with the return of the Ten Network to 'credible' drama after a hiatus of two decades (Sams 2001, 37), and with the emergence of a 'sophisticated and quirky' youth sub-genre (Idato 2000, 2), before enthusiasm cooled around series two and three, and series four drew the by now largely neglected narrative to its almost unnoticed conclusion. The project offers a suggestive case study of momentary trends in domestic drama production, within material received as confidently articulating Australia's globalizing television culture at the millennium, inviting exploration of what John Hartley (1992, 102) has seen as the fundamental 'impurity' of national television, and the productivity of its identification as a 'fundamental criterion for cultural studies'.' (Author's introduction p. 51)
Southern Stars and Secret Lives : International Exchange in Australian Television Ian Craven , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 22 no. 1 2008; (p. 51-67) 'The Secret Life of Us is a 'high end' television drama series, defined by 'adult themes, sexual references and low-level coarse language', first screened in Australia and the United Kingdom in mid-2001, and surviving for four seasons until late 2005. Developed by Southern Star, with the Ten Network, and Optus Television (a US-based pay TV service), it was the first Australian drama series to be commissioned by the United Kingdom's Channel 4. Eighty-six episodes were screened prior to cancellation. At the peak of its popularity, the series had been sold into a dozen or so (mostly European) territories, and against the usual odds, secured airtime in the United States, where it was picked up by Trio, a small west-coast cable network. It gained positive critical recognition, and fared well at television markets worldwide. Back in Australia, commentators linked the show with the return of the Ten Network to 'credible' drama after a hiatus of two decades (Sams 2001, 37), and with the emergence of a 'sophisticated and quirky' youth sub-genre (Idato 2000, 2), before enthusiasm cooled around series two and three, and series four drew the by now largely neglected narrative to its almost unnoticed conclusion. The project offers a suggestive case study of momentary trends in domestic drama production, within material received as confidently articulating Australia's globalizing television culture at the millennium, inviting exploration of what John Hartley (1992, 102) has seen as the fundamental 'impurity' of national television, and the productivity of its identification as a 'fundamental criterion for cultural studies'.' (Author's introduction p. 51)
TV Nation or TV City? Albert Moran , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 24 no. 3 2010; (p. 343 - 356) 'For much of its history in the twentieth century, television was conceived mostly in national terms. American television, British television, Australian television and so on were thought of as distinct systems, even if they frequently displayed significant degrees of overlap. Such a notion has always been a convenient simplification. Television exists at a series of different spatial levels and the nationwide tier is only one of these. Recent interest in the notion of media capital draws attention to the role played by broadcasting hubs in larger television formations, not only in the industrial sense of resource accumulation and density but also in terms of colonizing larger media environments. This paper addresses this matter in terms of the role that a Sydney metropolitan television service has played in the life of the Australian nation. It surveys the material and ideological dimension of this service as a means of further problematizing the connection of television and nation' (Author's abstract)
y separately published work icon Screenwriters Talk About Their Craft : Tony Morphett Susan Lever (interviewer), National Film and Sound Archive , 2012 Z1868019 2012 single work interview 'Tony Morphett discusses the origins of Blue Heelers (1994- ), Water Rats (1996- ), and names Rain Shadow (2008, co-written with Jimmy Thomson) as one of his finest achievements.'
Source: NFSA clip description
Friels Making a Play for Adelaide Louise Nunn , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 15 October 2015; (p. 30)
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Awards

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Last amended 28 Feb 2023 16:19:42
Tim Burstall
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Michael Offer
Ian Gilmour
Ray Quint
Karl Steinberg
Russell Burton
Geoff Bennett
Lynn Hegarty
Robert Klenner
Lewis Fitz-Gerald
Alister Hallum
Guy Norris
Nick Cole
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