Television series
The Australian Wars
- Western
- Very dark
Rachel Perkins guides you through Australia's frontier conflicts—the violent, foundational wars between settlers and First Nations peoples that shaped the nation but were long erased from the national story. Rigorous and urgent, this is essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand what Australia actually is.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want Australia's frontier history covered by travelling on the ground, where place does as much of the storytelling as the commentary does.
Skip it if you want a sweeping drama or a fast narrative; this is a sober, talk-heavy documentary that moves between sites and arguments rather than building suspense.
What it asks of you: Three episodes, unhurried travel and long stretches of talk, with grim material handled plainly and no relief from its sustained weight.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Star Trek: First Contact1996
Four-part documentary following an anthropologist's encounters with a remote Papua New Guinean tribe, examining first meetings between cultures with rare honesty and without the false comfort of hindsight.
But Grainy '90s footage and pacing that assumes deep viewer patience. Some moments feel uncomfortably exploitative even as they try not to be.
Looking for Jackie2009
Anthony LaPaglia plays an Australian cop investigating land disputes in rural NSW. The film uses a familiar genre frame to explore ongoing frontier violence that never really stopped.
But Generic action-thriller elements sit uneasily with serious subject matter. It wants to be both populist and truthful, which doesn't always work.
The Australian Dream2019
Cathy Freeman's story weaves her personal Olympic triumph with Australia's unresolved racial tensions, revealing how sport both glosses over and occasionally illuminates national wounds.
But Relies heavily on Freeman's willingness to be vulnerable on camera. Her grace can read as political correctness to those not ready for that conversation.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Australian Wars
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Sweet Country2018
Both understand that frontier violence was warfare, not inevitability. Thornton tells it as tragedy and crime; Perkins contextualizes it as history. Together they show the personal and structural scales simultaneously.
An Aboriginal man accused of murder traverses the Western Australian frontier in a pursued justice tale. Warwick Thornton's film is a revisionist western that subverts the genre's entire moral framework from inside.
But Deliberately paced. Some viewers will read its refusal to hurry as slow rather than considered. Visually sparse in a way that demands attention.
More like this (2)
Beneath Clouds2002
Two Aboriginal teenagers traverse Australia trying to reach home, their journey revealing contemporary poverty, family fracture and intergenerational trauma on country that was never theirs to begin with.
But Bleak without catharsis. The realism can feel punishing, and there's no redemptive arc to ease you out.
The Hunting Ground2015
Both track how official narratives protect the powerful and silence witnesses. Perkins shows how nations do it; Dick shows how institutions replicate the same pattern. Same mechanism, different scale.
Kirby Dick's documentary about sexual assault on American college campuses uses investigative technique and survivor testimony to expose how institutions systematize violence and protect perpetrators. A completely different context that illuminates how power works.
But Lean and angry rather than comprehensive. Some will want more nuance in how it allocates blame; the film refuses to provide it.
People
Cast
Rachel PerkinsPresenter
Writing
- Rachel PerkinsCreator