The Shiralee

Seen on Masterpiece Theatre and the Disney Channel

In the Australian outback, a father and daughter find the meaning of family

In Australian slang, "shiralee" means "burden." It also describes how itinerant laborer "Mac" Macauley (Bryan Brown, Gorillas in the Mist, Cocktail) thinks of his nine-year-old daughter, Buster (Rebecca Smart, Blackrock). Proud and stubborn, Mac ekes out a living--sometimes with his fists--on the dusty roads of the 1940s and ’50s outback, with Buster in tow. Together they befriend a number of colorful characters, and Lily (Noni Hazlehurst, Little Fish), a lovely rancher as maddeningly willful as Mac. At times grudgingly, Mac and Buster forge a father-daughter bond that hunger and hardship cannot break.

Based on D’Arcy Niland’s international bestseller, The Shiralee captures the wry humor and rugged independence of the Australian frontier, as well as the tenderness at the heart of a most unusual family.

Rated Unrated

Bryan Brown, Noni Hazlehurst, Rebecca Smart, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Lorna Lesley