5/10
Australian Western
30 April 2011
Pioneers in the rugged Australian outback drove a thousand head of sheep into the bush but run afoul the local Indigenous population over custodianship of the land and hunting rights. Perennial ocker Chips Rafferty pairs with cockney Tommy Trinder, whose son is later abducted by aborigines as retribution after Bud Tingwell kills one of the tribe during a heated stoush. Trinder sets out to retrieve his son and also ends up prisoner, but the two guards left to watch the pair are beguiled by his amateur magic tricks enabling both to escape.

Scot Gordon Jackson and Aussies Bud Tingwell and Michael Pate tag along for a little brawn and the occasional moral disagreement with the short tempered Rafferty (particularly Jackson), while half caste tracker and interpreter Henry Murdoch abandons the group and takes up with the aborigines in opposition to Rafferty's rough-handedness.

Standard Australian bush tucker from the era, with apparent racially prejudiced subject matter that might challenge some of today's audience sensitivities, but without commenting on the socio-political atmosphere, there's enough action, landscape, tribal culture and light drama to mildly entertain.
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