australian television information archive

The Violent Earth

Produced by Crawfords Australia and Gaumont Television (France)

Executive Producers: Christian Charret, Bruce Gordon, Kris Noble, David Rouse, Jacques Salles
Producer: Jock Blair
Director: Michael Offer
Writers: Tony Ayres, Jean-Marie Colombani, Graeme Farmer, Peter Gawler, Jean-Pierra Sinapi, Daniel Tonachelle

Aired: 1998 (Nine)

Mini-series portraying three generations of a family living in New Caledonia, from the year 1888 to 1967. The violent earth is New Caledonia, where the settlers and the Kanaks work out their destiny on the shrinking land. This is the saga of the Suttons, a pioneering Australian-Irish family in New Caledonia; and of the Kanaks, who are caught between their own culture and the legacy of French colonialism. A story of greed, passion, courage and death in which the fate of Oceania hangs in the balance. (3 x 120 min)