It hasn’t rained for 18 months and 5,000 sheep have already perished. Farmer Max Russell is desperate to save his remaining flock and hands them over to a drover.

Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) has waited two years for Sybylla (Judy Davis) to agree to marry. As drought grips the land again, he comes for an answer, but Sybylla explains why she cannot.

Mrs Rudd (Alfreda Bevan) tries to welcome Mrs White (Dorothy Dunkley) to her humble home, but Dad Rudd (Bert Bailey) scares her away when he appears in his nightshirt.

Dave (Fred MacDonald) and his new wife Lily (Lilias Adeson) have moved into a newly built shack over the hill from the main house.

Old Carey (Len Budrick) calls in a long-standing debt from Rudd, confiscating his livestock in an attempt to force him to sell a parcel of land.

Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) tells younger sister Gertie (Marion Shad) of her desire to escape a life of rural drudgery. Her frustrations increase when she’s sent to drag her father out of the pub.

While staying with her well-to-do grandmother, Sybylla (Judy Davis) has a crisis about her looks.

Films set in the outback have been central to an imagining of Australia for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous filmmakers. Part 1 of 2.