person or book cover
Script cover page (from the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Where Thunder Sleeps single work   film/TV   crime   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 1972... 1972 Where Thunder Sleeps
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'"Kun-gara-mundah" is the name of a large farming property in one of the most visually beautiful areas of Victoria. The name is Aboriginal. It means - "The place where thunder sleeps".

'Ryan is hospitalised - recovering from a car accident - so when there is an urgent and desperate summons from Elaine Duncan, the owner of Kun-gara-mundah, Julie King must handle the problem alone.

'As to the "the problem" - is it in Elaine's mind, or is the property, as Elaine claims, the subject of a "campaign of terror"? Certainly Julie witnesses some inexplicable and terrifying events and quickly seems quite inadequate to deal with the vast, brooding, alien hostility of Kun-gara-mundah.'


Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).


The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):


'ELAINE DUNCAN 30's, an attractive woman whose life has been eroded by a personal nightmare ... a constant dualism tearing her between town and country, love and hate. Eventually, between sanity and insanity. Drives a Land Rover or similar four-wheel drive.


'BRIAN DUNCAN 30's, a fit, good-looking, latter-day squatter. He treats his wife with a smothering protectiveness which seems to cloak some dark undercurrent of their relationship.


'ROBIN CAVANAGH 30's, a good-looking, good-natured, thoroughly urbane character who is physically and intellectually unsuited to country life, but who breezes through it all with ineffable good humour and self-deprecation. Beneath it all, a valuable ally or - perhaps - a dangerous enemy.


'DOUG KINSMAN 20's to 30's, an aboriginal [sic] station hand. Taciturn to the point of being sinister. Drives a Land Rover or similar four-wheel drive.


'DOCTOR 40's - a no-bloody-nonsense operator who knows Ryan well and won't tolerate any carry-on.


'SISTER Attractive, efficient-looking.


'TWO PUB LADIES Middle-aged patrons in the ladies lounge of a country pub.


'GEORGE AMOS 50's, a good-looking professional man. Two short scenes.


'TWO HEAVIES Junior-executive thugs. One drives, one shoots in one brief scene.


'MRS PATTERSON Middle-aged cook.'



Notes

  • This entry has been compiled from archival research in the Crawford Collection (AFI Research Collection), undertaken by Dr Catriona Mills under the auspices of the 2012 AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) Research Fellowship.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1972 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (from the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 63p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The Crawford Collection holds two copies of the script, both copied on green paper and both labelled 'Code: CIW' on the cover page.
      • Copy 1 has a notation in blue felt pen in the upper right-hand corner of the cover page, indicating that this is copy number 3 of the script and that it is designated for 'File'. There are no other annotations.
      • Copy 2 has a memo stapled to the front page, signed by Roger Le Mesurier and dated 12 October 1972, indicating that the total episode time typed on the script is incorrect. '13' has been written on the memo in black felt pen, although this aired as episode 20. 'Terry Stapleton' is written in black ink in the upper right-hand corner of the memo.

        A notation in the upper right-hand corner of the cover page itself indicates that this is copy number 11 of the script and that it was designated for Terry Stapleton. The timing typed on the cover page has been crossed out in blue ink and the correct timing written underneath it, also in blue ink. There are some annotations on the script in blue ink (see, for example, page 56, where 'RYAN' has been added to the list of characters in a scene), but it is otherwise unannotated.

      • The file also contains the following ancillary material, access to some of which is restricted:
        1. Filming schedule, showing that shooting took place between 27 November and 4 December 1972.
        The shooting schedule has 'Julie Miller' written in black ink in the upper right-hand corner of the first page, and has been annotated in blue felt pen, blue ink, and lead pencil. (According to the Crawford Productions tribute website [crawfordproductions.tv], Julie Miller worked in continuity.)
        2. Casting call sheets.
        3. Publicity storyline with cast and crew details.
        4. Synopsis.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC RYA : 20
Note: Material held in the Crawford Collection credits Wincer as director and Egerton as assistant director.
Last amended 23 May 2013 09:33:50
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  • Yea area, Yea - Eildon - Warburton area, Melbourne Outer North, Melbourne, Victoria,
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