Australia 🎥 2008 Movie Info

Plot Summary

Shortly before World War II, English noblewoman Lady Sarah Ashley travels to Australia to force her philandering husband to sell his faltering cattle station, Faraway Downs. The huge station straddles Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover, called “The Drover”, to transport her to Faraway Downs. Lady Sarah’s husband is murdered before she arrives; the authorities tell her the killer is an Aboriginal elder nicknamed “King George”. The station’s manager, Neil Fletcher, secretly tries to gain control of Faraway Downs in order to sell it to meat tycoon Lesley ‘King’ Carney, thereby creating a complete cattle monopoly.

At Darwin, Australian Army logistics officer Captain Dutton negotiates beef prices with Carney. The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by Nullah, a half-Aboriginal boy living at the cattle station. Nullah, who has spied on Fletcher, reveals his plan to Lady Sarah, who fires Fletcher and runs the cattle station aided by her remaining staff. The next day, policemen arrive to take Nullah away to Mission Island as they have with other half-Aboriginal children. While evading them, Nullah’s mother drowns when she hides with him in a water tower. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song “Over the Rainbow”.

Nullah tells her that “King George” is his grandfather, and that like the Wizard of Oz, he, too, is a “magic man”. Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover leads a team of seven riders, including his Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri, Nullah, Lady Sarah, and the station’s accountant Kipling Flynn, to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. They encounter obstacles along the way, including a fire set by Carney’s men that scares the cattle, resulting in the death of Flynn. Lady Sarah and Drover fall in love, and she grows to appreciate the Australian territory.

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