Australia (2008)

Australia is a 2008 epic romantic historical drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann^[2] and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan. The film is a character story, set between 1939 and 1942 against a dramatised backdrop of events across northern Australia at the time, such as the bombing of Darwin during World War II.

Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra and Bowen. The film was released to cinemas on 26 November 2008 in the United States^[3] and in Australia on 26 December 2008, with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December 2008 and January and February 2009. Australia received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $211 million on a $130 million budget. The film received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 81st Academy Awards. It is the third highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

In 1939, weeks before the start of World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley of England travels to Australia to force her philandering husband to sell his faltering cattle station, Faraway Downs. The huge station straddles Western Australia and the Northern Territory, reaching north to the Timor Sea. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover, called "The Drover," to transport her to Faraway Downs.

Lady Sarah's husband is murdered before she arrives; the authorities tell her the killer is an Aboriginal elder, "King George". The station's manager, Neil Fletcher, is trying to gain control of Faraway Downs, to support Lesley 'King' Carney's effort to garner a complete cattle monopoly, for negotiating leverage over an Australian Army logistics officer, Captain Dutton, who is buying beef.

The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the boy Nullah, who has an Aboriginal mother and a white father. Nullah has witnessed her cattle being stolen by Carney, helped by Fletcher, who threatens Nullah and his mother in an effort to keep them quiet. Lady Sarah fires Fletcher and runs the cattle station herself. Authorities come to take Nullah away to Mission Island as they had with other half-Aboriginal children. While evading them, Nullah's mother drowns when she hides with him in a water tower. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song "Over the Rainbow". Nullah tells her that "King George" is his grandfather, and that like the Wizard, he too is a "magic man".

Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover is friendly with the Aboriginals, and therefore shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. It is revealed that he was married to an Aboriginal woman, who died after being refused medical treatment in a white hospital. Lady Sarah reveals she is unable to have children.

Drover leads a team of six riders, including Lady Sarah, his Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri, Nullah, and the station's accountant Kipling Flynn, to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. They encounter various obstacles along the way, including a fire set by Carney's men that scares the cattle, resulting in the death of Flynn when the group rushes to stop the cattle from stampeding over a cliff. Lady Sarah and Drover fall in love, and she gains an appreciation for the Australian territory. The team drive the cattle through the dangerous Never Never desert. When finally arriving at Darwin, the group has to race the cattle onto the ship before Carney's cattle are loaded.

Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily at Faraway Downs for two years. Meanwhile, Fletcher takes over Carney's cattle empire, after killing Carney and marrying Cath Carney, his daughter, all while continuing to menace Lady Sarah. It is established that Fletcher was the actual murderer of Lady Sarah's husband, and is also Nullah's father.

Nullah intends to go on a walkabout with King George, but is instead taken by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island. Lady Sarah, who has come to regard Nullah as her adopted son, vows to rescue him. Meanwhile, she works as a radio operator in Darwin during the escalation of World War II. When the Japanese attack the island and Darwin in 1942, Lady Sarah fears that Nullah has been killed.

Drover, who had quarrelled with Lady Sarah and left, returns to Darwin and hears that she has been killed in the bombing. Drover learns of Nullah's abduction to Mission Island, and goes with Magarri and a young Christian brother to rescue him and the other children. Magarri is killed by Japanese soldiers during the rescue. Meanwhile, Lady Sarah is about to be evacuated, but when Drover and the children sail back into port at Darwin, and Nullah plays "Over the Rainbow" on his harmonica, Lady Sarah hears the music and the three are reunited.

Fletcher, distraught at the ruination of his plans and at the death of Cath during the Japanese attack, attempts to shoot Nullah, but is stopped by King George with deadly force. Lady Sarah, Drover, and Nullah return to the safety of remote Faraway Downs. There, King George calls to Nullah, who returns to the Outback with his grandfather.