australian television information archive

Michael Willesee's Australians

aka Australians / Willesee's Australians

Produced by Trans Media Productions, Roadshow Coote & Carroll, Film Australia

Executive Producers: Michael Willesee, Mathew Carroll, Greg Coote, Robin Hughes
Producers: Ron Saunders, Pamela Vanneck

Aired: 1987

A series of documentaries about Australia's heroes and heroines. Among the best-known people included in the series were infamous singer/dancer Lola Montez, actor Errol Flynn, athlete Betty Cuthbert, actress Lottie Lyell, radio personality Jack Davey, boxer Les Darcy, and Gallipoli hero Private John Simpson. The series also explored the lives of the Durkin family (Soldier Settlers), aviator Clyde Fenton, Sister Mary Mackillop, WWII nurse Vivian Bullwinkle, press baron John Norton, and General Henry Gordon Bennett, who fled Singapore in 1942, just prior to the island being invaded by the Japanese, leaving his army behind. (13 x 50min)