Now, you sure you mob are still up for it?
You can count on us.
Oh, crikey.
Well, we're what we are.
We've got to get to Darwin before the ship sails. Let's get cracking!
The rest of you jokers follow me.
I'll get the gate. Go back. Don't let them scatter.
There, mate. Push 'em over. Don't let them go down there.
That's it.
Get up there!
So we start cracking them whips
and driving them cheeky bulls all the way across the land
to that place they call 'em Darwin.
All right. We'll push them straight across here.
Very good. Keep them moving. That's it, nice and steady.
Go on, go on. Keep them moving.
Get up! Get up!
While the war rages on in Europe,
the Japanese are on the march.
There are reports of an alliance
between the warmongers of Germany, Italy and Japan
which threatens to expand World War II to the shores of Australia.
This is a war of the air, but on the ground
the War Office will announce who has won the Army's contract
to supply good Aussie beef to the troops.
Couple of days won't make any difference, Captain.
Might as well sign the contract now, eh?
I wouldn't be too sure of that, Mr. Carney.
Air Force chaps just spotted a big mob of cattle, 1,500 head,
crossing the Marmont River.
Marmont River? That's Faraway Downs.
Are you running cattle out of Faraway Downs, Mr. Fletcher?
No, no, I don't work there anymore.
Well, I suppose Lady Ashley's droving the cattle herself.
Someone must be helping her.
That's right, Neil. Someone must be helping her.
When Missus Boss first come to this land,
she look but she not see.
Now she got her eyes open for the first time.
Some places got spirits.
White fellas don't know.
Some places no good to go.
You gonna sing 'em them cattle tonight?
No, Nullah, not me. I'm the orchestra.
That's why I always carry this,
the famous J. Albert & Son boomerang harmonica.
Can you play that rainbow song?
Well, I've got the latest 100 songs of the Hit Parade here.
I like that rainbow song.
It's all about the dreaming. Gulapa not teach me that yet.
Who's Gulapa?
He's my grandfather, King George.
King George is your grandfather?
He teach me sing a fish song.
He teach me sing down fear.
Fear, evil spirit, wild beast.
Gulapa teach me plenty songs.
Gulapa teach me that day down the billabong.
Mr. Drover, what is that chanting?
Goolaj and Magarri singing the cattle. Just keeps them calm at night.
We do it in shifts. Those boys'll finish up in a couple hours, so...
- Bandy? - Yeah?
You show Missus Boss how it's done.
- All right? - Right.
Sing Song, you and me gonna serenade them till 3:00,
and safest shift is pre-dawn,
so that's the boy soprano and his orchestra. All right?
- You're on till the sun comes up. Yes, boss.
All right, everybody get some shut-eye!
Mr. Drover? I really don't think it's appropriate
to work a child of Nullah's age like that.
Now, I am more than willing to take his shift.
But Missus Boss, I plenty old enough!
- I'm talking now. Manners. - Oi, oi, oi, steady on. I'm talking.
Look, just relax, will you?
The boy's gotta pull his weight like everyone else.
When I was his age, I was manning outstations.
- Not everybody's you, Mr. Drover. - That's right. Not everyone's me.
I'm the boss.
You're on the 3:00 shift, all right?
- Yes, boss. Night, boss. - 3:00 a. M?
Relax, lady. He'll be fine. Good night.
- Night, Missus Boss. - Oh.
Good night.
- Night, Sing Song! You're on the 12:00 shift.
- I suggest you get some sleep. Night, Nullah.
Good night, Flynn! Night, Nullah.
Night-night, Jedda.
Lord Ashley was killed by a glass-tipped spear.
- Are you sure? - You and me secret.
Nullah!
Rush! Rush!
- They're heading towards the cliff face! - A stampede! Where's Nullah?
Go on out there. Get on your horse and stay with Goolaj.
Right. We'll split up, we'll circle the herd before they go over the edge!
Sing Song, pack the camp and get the hell out of there!
Head them off!
- Don't let them split! - MAGARRl: Yeah! Come on! Come on!
Get in the front!
Good boy! Go on, pull them round! Pull them round!
Nullah! You're too close to the edge!
Courage, my boy! Courage!
Well done, my boy!
Nullah! We have to turn the herd!
Hey, hey, hey! Never fear, Flynn is here!
Yay, Flynn!
Nullah!
Flynn!
Nullah! Run!
Nullah!
- Nullah! Nullah!
No!
It's all right, you're safe.
I've got you.
You're safe. Yeah.
You're safe with me.
I'll stay with you.
- Hey. - How's the little fella?
Oh, he... He's fine. He's fine.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
I have a feeling I might not be able to complete the next lesson.
Right, old mate. Let me get you some water, huh?
Water's the last thing I want at this moment in my life.
Under the wagon. A bottle of Poor Fella.
I'm sorry, Drover. Just in case.
Of course, mate. Of course.
If you'd all share a drop...
It would be a terrible shame to waste it.
The spear. Nullah told me that...
A glass-tipped spear.
Tell milady I'm sorry.
I was a coward.
We lost just about everything, except for a few swags and tins of beef.
And this.
I can't believe I was so insistent upon bringing these
silly things.
It was Fletcher who did this, wasn't it?
The last thing Flynn told me before he died
was that your husband was killed by a glass-tipped spear,
like the ornamental ones in the homestead.
Glass-tipped is a Kimberley spear.
King George is from Arnhem.
Fletcher was trying to make it look like King George.
Fletcher.
It can't be proved. Sorry.
Maitland...
We can't let them win.
We won't.
MAGARRl: Come here in the back, Goolaj!
Get 'em up!
Yah, yah! Get up!
MAGARRl: Up! Up! Up!
They pushed on during the night.
Maybe that little creamy has got the black fella magic.
Shut up, Bull!
They'll need more than magic to get them to Darwin.
Hey, Nullah. Nullah, after you're done there, mate,
I need you to help hobble these horses, all right?
Yes, boss.
Never thought I'd see this day.
We're gonna break the Drover's Law.
I plenty old enough, too!
Yes, you are, mate, and that is why
you are going to keep an eye on the rest of us, all right?
- All right, everyone... Good girl, Jedda. Here.
...let's be upstanding.
To the memory of the gentleman.
To the gentleman.
To Flynn!
I'd say one more before dinner.
- Let's dance. - No.
- Come on! - No. Nope.
Come on. Please?
- No. I don't know how. - It's easy. I'll show you.
You put your hands on my shoulders,
And you step back.
- Oh, back. Sorry. - Back. No, no, no. When I...
- I'm a bad teacher. Stop!
- You don't drink much, do you? - No.
I'll give it a go. Come on, I can do it. I can do it. All right?
Now you do wrong-side business?
Uh...
No, mate, no. We're just having a dance here.
Ceremonial dance? - Yes. It's called the Foxtrot.
Fox dance? You gonna teach me that dance?
You're a bit too young for it, mate.
Nullah! Get down from that tree now! Got bad spirits up there.
You in big trouble.
Come on, Nullah. Time to go to bed, now.
You know better than that to go up in the tree.
Have you ever fallen into wrong-side business?
Uh...
Yeah.
Yeah, I was married once.
- Really? - Mmm.
To a lovely girl.
That was before I went off to war.
And what happened?
Well, I marched off for Mother England,
and by the time I came back, she was sick
with TB.
But back then, the hospitals wouldn't treat...
blacks.
Oh, right. I see. Yeah.
Do you have children?
- No. - Well, that's a shame.
I think you would have made a great father.
You?
No.
I can't.
Oh.
That's too bad.
You would have made a great mother.
Well, good night.
Good night.
Water no good, boss.
Might be Carney boys already been here, eh?
There has to be water some other place.
- Next bore is five days. - There has to be water.
You can be sure Fletcher will have been there, as well.
- MAGARRl: Hey, boss. - What?
There's water.
Three days' ride away.
We'd have to cross the Kuraman.
The Kuraman? That's Never-Never Land.
- No. - We've got to try.
- We can't. - We've got to try.
No one has drove the Never-Never.
There's nothing to guide you. You don't know where you are.
You get caught out there, you're gonna lose more than your cattle.
I'm sorry.
Boss! Look!
He a wizard. He gonna sing for us.
Sing?
He can find his way anywhere.
The ancestors created songs for everything.
For every rock and tree, and they're all linked,
so when gulapa, the magic man, sings them in order,
he'll sing us to water.
Even across the Never-Never.
And we went on for three days.
Every day drier. Hotter.
All that dead land.
Then come that big dust storm.
Keep your heads driving into the wind!
Keep driving into the wind!
Nullah, you stay close to me!
Them cattle stop moving,
Magarri, Goolaj stop moving.
We all stop moving.
I'm gulapa.
I magic man. I wizard man.
Dead, all of them. That's what he said.
The pilot swooped down to get a closer look.
Dead as doorposts, they were.
It's a real tragedy.
How terrible.
And on the eve of the ball, too.
Well, what were they doing in the Kuraman?
Nothing personal, Captain,
but I got a business to run and you got an army to feed.
So let's not muck about.
I suppose it's not a real war unless someone's making a profit.
You got them ready to load, Neil?
Yeah. We're right to go.
'Cause I got a feeling the Captain's gonna put pen to paper.
All hail the King!
Yeah.
Where'd he come from?
Oh, look.
Hello, little sweetie.
What the bloody hell is that?
Gentlemen!
I'm Sarah Ashley, owner of Faraway Downs.
We are making delivery of 1,500 head of prime F.D. Branded Shorthorns.
- We will require a holding yard. - We're full.
- Says who? - The owner.
- You must be Mr. Carney. - Too right, love.
Lady Ashley, I'm Emmett Dutton.
I'm the officer in charge of livestock purchases.
We will accept 20% less than what the Carney Cattle Company is asking.
No can do, love. You're late. The contract's signed.
But this contract is not binding until the cattle are loaded.
Load the bloody cattle now!
We've got to load the cattle on the ship before Carney.
- Get off your backsides! - You drive them straight down the wharf.
I'll try and keep Carney's cattle in the yard.
Load the bloody cattle now!
Drover!
Load!
Right-o, you blokes, load!
Hey, Bull, open the bloody crush!
Close that flaming gate!
You missed the boat, sunshine.
Yeah, good luck, Drover, you drongo!
You ain't going nowhere, Drover!
Hup!
Yeah!
Drover!
Push them straight down the wharf!
Yeah!
There are cattle being driven down the wharf.
My husband must have a problem with the loading.
They're not Carney cattle.
It's Lady Ashley!
Get out of the way!
Looks like we've got a bit of competition
back in the meat business.
We're locked out!
That's it!
Here's to you, Missus!
Push them up!
Cheeky bulls down the wharf!
Cheeky bulls down the wharf, Missus Boss!
Get him down the wharf. That's it, Nullah!
Get him up, Nullah!
I got the last big bloody cheeky bull in the big bloody metal ship!
All right!
Yay! Yay!
That's it! Lady coming through! There's a lady coming through!
- Two Poor Fella rums, Ivan! - Shut up!
No women. Ladies' lounge next door.
She's no lady, Ivan.
She just drove a mob of cattle across the Never-Never!
She deserves a drink like any man.
Too bloody right.
I never drink Poor Fella alone.
Crikey!
I didn't want to see a single beast from Faraway Downs
set a hoof on that wharf, Neil.
But that's what happens when you send a boy to do a man's job.
Now, find out if she's going to the ball tomorrow night.
I'll take care of it myself.
So everybody get what they want.
Everybody happy.
Missus Boss is gonna sell Faraway Downs and go back England.
Easy, easy. Good, good.
Drover, he get him that horse Capricornia.
That's it. Good girl.
Everybody happy except for me.
'Cause I not white fella,
I not black fella, either.
Me half-caste.
Creamy.
Me belong no one.
Good girl.
Okay, back up. Back up.
Good.
Easy. Easy. Good. Good. That's it.
Good girl. That's it.
You really do have a gift with horses.
Up, up, up.
You look different.
I've agreed to be patroness at the ball at Government House tomorrow night.
Yeah? And?
Drover, I...
I'm going to finish what Maitland set out to do
and I'm going to bring Faraway Downs back to life.
- I don't follow you. - Well, this is perfect.
I'm going to need a manager.
Well, I thought that...
it would be a good job for you.
Anyway, I almost forgot something.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. - I got a suit for you.
Stop. Don't do that. Don't do that.
- Do what? - The thing you do
when you get a head full of ideas.
Like crossing the Kuraman?
Come on, mate. You don't know what you're talking about.
Running a station? Manager?
I'm a drover, all right? No man hires me. No man fires me.
- So you don't want to go to the ball? - Ball?
Sarah.
I'm as good as black to that mob up there.
All right? I mix with dingos, not...
Not duchesses.
They keep out of my way and I keep out of theirs.
That's the way it is.
Just because it is doesn't mean it should be.
But that's the way it is.
Cheer up, little fella.
You and that Chinaman gonna take me out on a big night at the pictures.
- How? - You can't take half-caste picture show.
Coppers take him!
He won't be half-caste.
He got every right to be there.
We use magic.
Got every right to be there,
'cause you're a special boy.
He's a special boy.
Nobody gonna stop you from going.
Nobody.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
How good of you, Lady Ashley,
to take an interest in Dr. Barker's work on the mission.
Well, actually, Administrator, my interest is of a more personal nature.
Well, I must say, Lady Ashley, that I think it's very kind...
- Smashing. - Would you excuse me?
...Australia amongst the leading lights of Darwin.
I was wondering if you could introduce me to Dr. Barker?
Sarah? - Captain Dutton.
Lady Ashley, I'll leave you in the capable hands of the Captain.
I'm sure he would be happy to introduce you to Dr. Barker.
- I want to talk to Dr. Barker... - Her husband barely in the grave
and there she is, cavorting with the Captain.
His mother has passed away...
And that dress.
Yes. Bidding should go through the roof.
He is a little boy. He needs someone to look after him.
- Sarah... - I'm desperate to speak to Dr. Barker.
I'm going to adopt him.
It's only a matter of time before they take him away.
Adopting an Aboriginal child, Sarah,
is much more complicated than you realize.
Neil! Come on. I want to talk with Lady Ashley.
Yeah, no, we will, later, love.
I don't mind if you bid for her in the auction tonight.
I won't be jealous. She's an inspiration.
Yeah, no, she's full of surprises.
But surely, Doctor, life on a station with people who care for these children
is far better than life in a government institution.
It is my great honor to present to you...
- The auction. ... our gracious patroness, Lady Ashley.
Bravo!
Now, for the auction of the first dance...
The mixed-race children must be dislocated
from their primitive, full-blood Aborigine.
...with Lady Ashley! Do I hear a first bid? Please!
- £5, here. £5?
How else are we to breed the black out of them?
I paid more than that for a dance with Mrs. Allsop!
Remember, it's for the mission.
Has anyone asked their mothers how they feel about this?
- Lady Ashley, please. - For the war efforts!
- Do I hear £20? - It's a fact of science
the Aboriginal mother soon forgets her offspring.
Lady Ashley... - £50!
Fifty pounds!
- £70! - £95!
No mother forgets her child, Dr. Barker.
- Lady Ashley! - This is most inappropriate.
- £100! - Well, that is a new record.
We can't very well ask their fathers, can we?
How dare you?
- Going once... - Or perhaps we should.
...going twice... After all,
- they're right here in this room. - That's a lie!
...and... - Five hundred quid!
£500!
Well! Indeed!
If it isn't the man who almost single-handedly
made the Australian beef industry what it is today.
Mr. King Carney of the Carney Cattle Company.
For the benefit of the missions.
Well, there's nothing more to say
but, let the King take his prize.
Can I get a picture, please? Smile for the camera.
Let me say, Lady Ashley, just how sorry I was
to hear of your husband's death
at the hands of that wild savage.
A savage, yes, Mr. Carney,
but you and I both know that my husband was not killed
by an Aborigine.
No, I did not know that.
Perhaps you should ask Mr. Fletcher.
- Are you making an accusation? - Not one that I can prove.
In business, I've been fortunate. In family, a little less so.
I'm prepared to go to £75,000.
This is not about the money, Mr. Carney. There is a little boy.
There's a...
There are people who are living on the station for whom I am responsible.
And who will take care of them?
A cattle station is like a country.
And you have no one to look after it.
Now, I can offer protection to every man, woman and child.
And child, too?
You will do that?
How can I keep you at your word?
I'll put it in the contract.
King Carney and Lady Ashley. That was a marvelous treat.
No one can close a deal more quickly than King Carney.
Now the raffle for the war effort.
The last flying boat leaves tomorrow because of the war.
Will I tell my lawyer to draw up a contract?
But the true-blue Australian man, like King Carney, is...
He's here.
Inform your lawyer...
Inform your lawyer that Faraway Downs is no longer for sale.
Foxtrot!
Here you are.
Yeah, well, you didn't think I was gonna waste my dance lesson, did you?
Let's really give the bastards something to talk about, huh?
Oh, crikey.
She's invited that man.
- Hey, Doris. - Get you a drink, Drover?
Yeah, a beer would be good. Hello, love. Nice dress.
- Fox dance? - Fox dance.
Back... Back...
- Step... Step... - Sorry.
Let's get out of here.
There it is. First storm of the wet.
What's it like?
It's beautiful. There's millions of birds,
creeks turn into rivers, dry plains into lakes.
Faraway Downs will be reborn as an island,
green and flowering and fat with life.
- Quick, quick! - We'll be cut off from
the rest of the world!
Sarah, in the dry, I'll be gone, droving.
But right now it's raining.
Rain! Yeah!
Can you help me?
You don't need to be helped any longer.
You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.
- I have? - Why didn't you tell her before?
Because she wouldn't have believed me.
My darling Cath!
Daddy!
Hey, Drover...
Maitland Ashley met his death at the hands of a wild savage, did he?
You're not part of any plan concerning this family.
Nothing's in your name,
and if anything should happen to my darling Cath,
you lose everything.
There's no place like home.
Yay!
Just like Drover say, that rain make everything come alive.
That land, it grow green and fat, and we all go back to Faraway Downs.
Missus Boss happy, Drover happy, even that copper, Callahan, happy.
Missus Boss say he likes her tea so much,
it gives him a blind eye.
Make me invisible, keep me safe.
I hear for the first time that thing called Christmas.
Then the rain, it stops.
And that Drover, he go droving.
That Missus Boss, she always misses Drover.
But I know he's gonna come back.
Yeah!
King George tell me you got to be looking out,
'cause that croc, he always watching, he always waiting.
That Fletcher, he the new King now.
Emmett, why didn't you radio? I'm so glad you're here.
Would you get some tea, Bandy?
Jeez, you done the place up nice.
Oh, I hope you don't mind, Bandy let me in.
Hey, my father would have been proud. It's bloody beautiful.
Jeez, I bet you got all the mod cons.
What do you want?
What I've always wanted. Faraway Downs.
Bandy, call the men!
Bunchemup, Mr. Fletcher needs to be escorted off the property.
Callahan won't be having any more cups of tea.
I will, though. Cup of tea, thanks, Bandy.
You know how I like it. Yeah.
It's all right, Bandy.
You know, these days, I can pull a few strings.
I can probably bring your creamy in, if you'd like.
Or, I can talk to Dr. Barker and get you guardianship.
- I will never sell you my land! - Your land?
My family worked this property for three generations.
My father died making people like you rich.
Faraway Downs belongs to me.
Just like you believe the little creamy belongs to you.
I'll pay you what it's worth.
You can use the money, go south, get the little one an education.
I'll go to the highest levels of government.
I'll go to the high court, beyond this country if I have to.
An unmarried woman, living with the likes of the Drover?
I will tell your wife he is your son!
That'd be a mistake.
Kimberley spear.
Glass-tipped.
Real collector's items.
Oh!
You're missing one.
Anyway, I was just out here checking on all the properties.
Might do a little buffalo hunting later. Yeah.
Oh,
did you hear about the King?
Terrible accident. Yeah.
Very dangerous place out here,
even for locals like the Drover and the little creamy.
You with me?
Anyway,
you ought to think about it, Lady Ashley.
After all, pride's not power.
The Drover mustn't know.
Drover! It's the Drover!
Come on, you two! Wake up!
- Come on! Come on, wake up! - All right, all right.
We got brumbies to break.
Yeah, break him! Ride that brumby! Ride him! Ride him!
Yay, Drover!
Ride him! Yay! Drover! Drover!
- You a man, Drover? - I try to be.
Sometimes man got to get away from woman.
Maybe.
That's why you go droving.
I go droving 'cause that's my job.
If you don't go droving, you not a man.
All right, boys, that'll do. Bring them down to the back paddock, will you?