Outback House

- Season 1

(2005)

Sixteen participants have been selected to live the life of a squatter, his family, domestic servants and station workers. We meet our adventurous participants as they set off to undertake training in their new life.

Station life revolves around the kitchen and cook Carolina gets cracking preparing her first 1860s meal, over an open fire. Running the kitchen her way promptly leads to conflict with the maids and squatter's wife, Juli.

The arrival of governess Genevieve Yates brings excitement and anticipation to Oxley Downs. Her arrival introduces a civilising influence and promises to give order and purpose to the children's education.

It's a time of celebration at Oxley Downs. The station is preparing for its first wedding and with Peter's fiancée Luisa and their parents due any day, there is much to do.

An urgent letter has arrived, alerting the station to the impending arrival of an important visitor: the Crown Lands Commissioner.

Temperatures have soared in the hot, dry Australian bush and everyone is feeling the heat. With no air-conditioning, refrigeration or cold water, life on Oxley Downs is akin to living in a furnace.

It's shearing time, the busiest week of the year for Oxley Downs. Station life, working from dawn to dusk seven days a week is hard enough, but now, with only six days to shear, it's all hands on deck to meet the deadline.

The bullocky and his team arrive to take the wool clip to market. The men of Oxley Downs have filled 35 bales of wool, but loading the heavy bales that each weigh almost 300lbs onto the wagon by hand is no mean feat.