Kids' Showtime Greats

The beloved television show Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was produced from 1967 to 1969. Three series were made, totalling 91 episodes of 30 minutes each, as well as a full-length movie released in 1969, called Skippy and the Intruders.

The series was set in the fictional Waratah Park, and filmed mostly in bushland and national parks north of Sydney. It told of the adventures of a nine-year-old boy, Sonny Hammond (played by Garry Pankhurst), and his kangaroo friend, Skippy. Other characters include Sonny’s widowed father and head ranger of Waratah Park (played by Ed Devereaux), Sonny’s older brother Mark (Ken James), flight ranger and helicopter pilot Jerry King (Tony Bonner) and family friend Clancy Merrick (Liza Goddard).

Skippy, a female eastern grey kangaroo, was played by at least nine, and possibly as many as 15, different kangaroos over the three years of production.

The catchy theme song was written by British-born Australian musician and composer Eric Jupp; lyrics were added by television screenwriter and producer Ted Roberts.

The program was produced for an international market, in collaboration with the Channel 9 television network. It was filmed in colour at a time when Australian television was still in black and white, and was first aired in the United Kingdom. Skippy became an enormous and enduring international success, being dubbed into various languages and screened in dozens of countries over the decades, in the Americas, Czechoslovakia, Ghana, Iran, Italy, Norway, Thailand, the USSR, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe – to name but a few. The exploits of this clever marsupial and her human friends have entertained generations of children.

The stamp photograph of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is by Fauna Productions Pty Limited.

When a widowed father and his three children – Linda, Pete and Bronson – move to an old lighthouse in fictional Port Niranda, unsettling things start to happen. The lighthouse turns out to be haunted, and the family’s adventures involve ghosts, shipwrecks, romance, devious neighbours, scheming property developers, and kooky local identities.

The award-winning television series Round the Twist aired in four series of 13 episodes each between 1989 and 2001. Based on stories by popular Australian children’s author Paul Jennings, much of the show was filmed in western Victoria, with the lighthouse at Aireys Inlet featuring as the Twist family’s unusual home. Other locations included Williamstown, Point Lonsdale, and Queenscliff.

The original cast included Richard Moir, Sam Vandenberg, Rodney McLennan, Tamsin West (who also sang the theme song), Esben Storm, Frankie J. Holden, and Bunney Brooke. The cast evolved over the next three seasons, particularly as the child actors became too old for their roles.

Developed and produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, Round the Twist won numerous national and international awards and was enjoyed by children and adults not only in Australia but across the world, and it still regularly appears in lists of the best or most memorable children’s programs ever. When Queen Elizabeth II toured Australia in 2000, her itinerary included a visit to the set of Round the Twist, such was its popularity in the United Kingdom.

The stamp image of Round the Twist is © Australian Children’s Television Foundation.

The 1977 feature film Dot and the Kangaroo is based on Ethel Pedley’s 1899 children’s book of the same title. The story is set in New South Wales in the 1880s, when a five-year-old girl called Dot gets lost in the bush. A red kangaroo who has lost her Joey helps Dot find her way home. On the way, they meet other local animals, and Dot learns to appreciate nature: the bushland, plants and animals.

The film was produced and directed by Polish-born Yoram Gross and shot in the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves west of Sydney. It set animated characters against live-action backgrounds, and an extensive musical score composed by Bob Young. Dot’s voice was that of Australian television and radio actor Barbara Frawley. Other renowned actors included Joan Bruce as the kangaroo (and as Dot’s mother), June Salter as Mrs Platypus, and Spike Milligan as Mr Platypus. The songs were performed by some of the actors as well as by professional singers such as Kerry Biddell. Eight sequels were made, including Around the World with Dot (1981) and Dot Goes to Hollywood (1987).

Dot and the Kangaroo carries a strong environmental message. It begins with an appeal from Ethel Pedley’s book ‘to the children of Australia … In the hope of enlisting their sympathies for the many beautiful and frolicsome creatures of their fair land; whose extinction, through ruthless destruction, is surely being accomplished’.

The stamp image of Dot and the Kangaroo is © Flying Bark Productions Pty Ltd. Grass/background only in Dot and the Kangaroo stamp image © Wendy Townrow (iStock).

The much-loved character of Blinky Bill originated in a series of books created in the 1930s by New Zealand–born author and illustrator Dorothy Wall. The 1992 feature film Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala was directed and produced by Yoram Gross. As in Dot and the Kangaroo, the animation is superimposed against live-action scenery. The music was composed by Yoram Gross’s son Guy Gross, with song lyrics by John Palmer and Mattie Porges.

Blinky Bill is a cheeky little koala whose peaceful and happy way of life in the Australian bush is destroyed when humans arrive and start clearing the forest. The animals must flee and, in the chaos, Blinky’s mother goes missing. Blinky sets out to find her, accompanied by his friend Nutsy. During their quest they see the felled trees that were once their homes being reduced to sawdust at the woodchip mill. Other animals who help Blinky and Nutsy include Marcia the marsupial mouse, Jacko the kookaburra and Splodge the kangaroo.

The film’s popularity led to three seasons of an animated television series: The Adventures of Blinky Bill (1993), Blinky Bill’s Extraordinary Excursion (1995) and Blinky Bill (2004), as well as a television movie, Blinky Bill’s White Christmas (2005), featuring a theme song, ‘Christmas in Australia’, composed by Guy Gross and performed by Christine Anu. All were produced by Yoram Gross. Later there followed a CGI reboot television series The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill (2011–18) and feature film Blinky Bill the Movie (2015). Blinky Bill in these various productions has been seen in more than 70 countries.

®The Blinky Bill name and logo are registered trademarks of Flying Bark Productions Pty Ltd.

The 1995 movie Babe was a huge international success with the public and critics alike, winning an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (and nominations for seven others including Best Picture) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, among numerous other accolades. Set on a small farm near an idyllic country village, the comedy-drama was filmed in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Directed by Chris Noonan and produced by George Miller, it combines live action by humans, pigs, dogs, sheep and other animals with astonishingly convincing animatronic puppets created by Jim Henson’s workshop. The animals were meticulously trained by Karl Miller, who also worked on the Beethoven movies and Cujo.

The story is adapted from Dick King-Smith’s 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, about a piglet on a farm who wants to do the work of a sheepdog. Quietly spoken farmer Arthur Hoggett (played by American actor James Cromwell) has faith in the little pig, but the pair are initially mocked when they enter a sheep-herding competition. Eventually, with the help of the sheep and Babe’s border collie friends, they prevail.

Other human actors included Magda Szubanski and John Doyle, while animal voices included those of Miriam Margolyes, Hugo Weaving, and Christine Cavanaugh as Babe. Because the breed of pig used in the movie is one that grows rapidly, some 48 piglets were needed for the character of Babe over the course of filming. The musical score, performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, was written largely by Australia’s Nigel Westlake, but also quotes music by Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg, Georges Bizet and other earlier European composers.

Each animal character has a distinct personality, and the film is said to have encouraged many people to stop eating meat. Actor James Cromwell was already vegetarian, but his Babe experience inspired him to become a vegan and vocal advocate for animal rights.

Babe. Image Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo © Universal City Studios LLC. All Rights Reserved.