When the heir to Marianne Station and the Lawson cattle empire Daniel Lawson is mauled to death by a pack of dingoes, patriarch Colin Lawson, played by Robert Taylor, must seek a new successor.
So begins Netflix’s new Australian drama series Territory.
“It’s just a big, rollicking yarn about a dysfunctional family that’s got all this land,” Taylor, who has also appeared in Longmire and The Newsreader, told ABC News.
“And times are a changing.
“There’s all these competing interests and it’s just how that shakes out.”
‘Anna Torv, as good as it gets’
Taylor reunites on screen with Anna Torv (The Newsreader, The Last of Us), who plays Colin’s daughter-in-law Emily Lawson.
Taylor says Anna Torv is “as good as it gets”. (Supplied: Netflix)
Taylor says he reads interviews all the time from bickering actors who claim they got along on set.
“It’s all crap,” Taylor said.
“But so having said that, I just spoke to [Anna Torv] a couple of days ago. Her and Michael Dorman, I’m sounding like one of those bullshitting actors now, but I love them. I don’t say that about many people.
“Anna Torv is, she’s as good as it gets. I’ve been around a long time. I don’t think you can improve on that, what she does and what she brings. She’s just phenomenal.”
‘It’s someone else’s joint’
The outback’s most powerful factions sense the Lawson dynasty is in decline and move in for the kill. In the mix are rival cattle barons and billionaire miners, the irony being, they’re all on stolen land.
“I think irony is an understatement,” Taylor says.
“That’s the elephant in the room. It’s someone else’s joint.”
There’s a scene halfway through the first episode of the show where mining billionaire Sandra Kirby (Sara Wiseman) outlines the hierarchy of land ownership in the Northern Territory.
“There’s Aboriginal native title, and there’s pastoral leases, and at the top is us,” she says.
“Mining leases trump everything … we’re top of the food chain because we keep the lights on for the entire world.”
Clarence Ryan (left) as Nolan Brannock, Tyler Spencer as Dezi, Hamilton Morris as Uncle Bryce. (Supplied: Netflix)
Clarence Ryan (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mystery Road Origin) plays Nolan Brannock, an ambitious Indigenous station owner.
Ryan says Brannock is torn between his responsibilities to his community and the mostly white-owned cattle industry that values money and power.
“He’s stuck in between two worlds where he’s navigating between being a station owner and an Indigenous man,” Ryan told ABC News.
Kylah Day (Scrublands, Itch) plays Sharnie Kennedy.
Sharnie comes from an ordinary working-class Indigenous family in Queensland where you’re expected to finish school, get a job, marry and start a family, but Sharnie considers this its own type of prison and runs off to the Top End.
“I think there’s something really special about her identity as an Indigenous woman,” Day told ABC News.
“And something that I also relate to as well is finding your identity in that.
“Because she’s kind of on a journey of self-discovery, and obviously she holds her heritage to her heart, as do I, but it’s also talking about how that comes into your life and plays in your life, and does it determine your life, or where you’re going to go with that?
“And I think it’s really nice to be able to discover that through the story as well.”
Shooting on some of the Northern Territory’s sacred sites
Perhaps one of Territory’s biggest points of difference from Succession, which Netflix has been comparing the dynastic drama to, is the fact it was shot across a handful of sites traditional owners hold sacred.
Sam Delich as Rich Petrakis, Kylah Day as Sharnie Kennedy. (Supplied: Netflix)
“We shot on some sacred sites,” Day says.
“Specifically, we shot on a place called Hawk Dreaming in Kakadu, with the approval, of course, but it was just really special for them to put their trust in us and to be able to also showcase this area that means so much, also, to Australian heritage.”
Sam Delich (Spiderhead, Last Days of Space Age), who plays the impulsive and fast-talking Rich Petrakis (and Sharnie’s love interest), says the intense heat in the Northern Territory — where it would get up to 40-45 degrees Celsius every day — helped with character and story development.
“We got to experience a side that most tourists won’t be able to experience, which is kind of full immersion,” Delich says.
“On the weekends, we were swimming in watering holes, and the locals were like, ‘There might be a croc in there.'”
Delich says Australia’s never made a series on this scale.
“And I think it’s gonna be really exciting for people to kind of get to see a side of Australia that isn’t usually showcased.”
All six episodes Territory will be available to stream on Netflix Thursday, October 24 at 6pm AEDT.
