''Outback House'' was an Australian historical

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

series that originally aired on ABC TV in 2005. The series was based on several series produced by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in the

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and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in the

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, in which the concept was to have a modern-day family living in a facsimile of an historical dwelling with their staff, making do with only the technology and materials of the time. ''Outback House'' was set in 1861

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

Australia, on a

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

called Oxley Downs in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2005 the soundtrack was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album.ARIA Award previous winners.

Production

The series was conceived as an Australian version of the successful ''House'' series, produced by

in the

, and later adapted by American public broadcaster

. The series produced by 2005 were '' The 1900 House'' (UK, 1999), '' The Edwardian Country House'' (UK, 2002), ''

Frontier House ''Frontier House'' is a historical reality television series that originally aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States from April 29 to May 3, 2002. The series followed three family groups that agreed to live as homes ...

'' (US, 2002) and '' Colonial House'' (US, 2004). The

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

advertised for twenty people to participate in the series filming for three months, portraying the inhabitants of an 1860s Australian sheep station. Over 5000 people applied to take the journey back in time. In the recreated world of the series, the family running the station were "

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

", who had taken over an abandoned property. In addition, the participants included the considerable number of staff required on an outback sheep farm: overseers,

shepherd A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...

governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...

es, station hands, cooks and maids.Kermond, Clare
Out of the past
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 9 June 2005. The "Oxley Downs" sheep station was constructed from scratch at a secret location in western

(later revealed to be just outside

Dubbo Dubbo (; ) is a city in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the ...

), because the producers could not find an existing property in authentic condition. The year 1861 was chosen as the setting for the series, as Australia's land ownership laws were about to change dramatically making the incentive to turn a profit even higher, especially given squatters had to fend off challengers for their land if they were not making money on the property. One of the show's producers mentioned on an ABC message board that the location had three requirements: it had to be big; it had to be distinctively Australian in appearance; and it had to be secluded to allow the filming to be conducted in secret. In an attempt to keep the historical bubble from bursting the executive producer banned the production crew from wearing clothes with signage, perfume or aftershave on the sheep station. While filming on the station the small production team used a horse and cart as their crew vehicle. After filming was completed, the Oxley Downs property was retained as a tourist attraction.Oxley Downs Open Weekend
Dubbo Tourism.

Cast

The squatters

*Paul Allcorn *Julianne Allcorn *Persephone, Pierette and Portia Allcorn

The overseer families

*Glen and Kim Sheluchin *Peter and Luisa Gordon

The shepherds

*Bernie Kennedy *Dan Hatch

The governesses

*Genevieve Yates *Fiona Schubert

The station hands

*Mal Burns *Adam Carter *Russell Wulf

The cooks

*Carolina Francese *Brigid Dwyer

The maids

*Claire Williams *Danielle Schaefer

References

External links

Outback House official website (ABC TV)
*{{IMDb title, id=0847545, title=Outback House
Oxley Downs - the station built for the series
2000s Australian reality television series Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Television shows set in New South Wales 2005 Australian television series debuts 2005 Australian television series endings Historical reality television series Television shows set in the Outback