Channel 9 is axing its long-running rural drama McLeod’s Daughters.

The series that helped make household names of actors including Bridie Carter, Lisa Chappell and Aaron Jeffery, has delivered solid ratings for Nine for most of its seven season run.
The show costs about $500,000 an episode and its writers have found it progressively difficult to create strong storylines after the departure of a string of key cast members.

Series eight of McLeod’s, in production in the Barossa Valley region of South Australia, will be its last.

Nine is intent on investing in new drama concepts.

A second series of the Lisa McCune drama Sea Patrol is in production in Queensland and Nine is to deliver gangster drama Underbelly and Canal Road next year.

Nine also announced at the weekend it had commissioned Young Doctors, a modern take on its Aussie hospital drama from the early ’80s.

“I have always maintained that the series should finish on a high and while it was still loved by the audience,” McLeod’s creator and executive producer Posie Graeme-Evans said.

TV Week September 22nd – 28th 2007

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Hot to trot
Genevieve Meegan
Sunday Mail, Adealide, S. Aust.
1st July 2007

Talk about hot property – the saddle is barely cold for McLeod’s Daughters star Dustin Clare and already he’s got agents clamouring.

Dustin flew to Los Angeles this week and word is several major acting agencies have not only heard of him but are keen to sign him up.

Who, little ole me?

Siobhan Duck
Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
27th June 2007

They’ve been predicting its death for years, but not even the drought can stop the Daughters, writes Siobhan Duck

McLeod’s Daughters detractors have for years been predicting doom for the Channel 9 drama.
The show is rating well, but the fact it has weathered funding headaches, a drought and this season lost five of its cast, leaves some to ask if McLeod’s is on borrowed time.

The exit of actors Aaron Jeffery, Rachael Carpani, Zoe Naylor, Jonny Pasvolsky and Dustin Clare could cut deeply.

After six years and two Logies, Jeffery left saying he was unhappy with McLeod’s direction and felt exhausted.

“When you’re doing a series day in and day out, it’s a battle to stay creatively present,” he says.

“I’m not happy with the way the show has evolved, either. It had crept into soap territory and that’s not the sort of meat I like to chew on.”

Sunday Mail, Adealide, S. Aust.
24th June 2007

Simmone Jade Mackinnon was a noticeable absence at the McLeod’s Daughters wrap party on Friday night. The celebrations were at Maxim’s wine bar and it’s not known why Simmone was a no-show.

Perhaps the actress is not in a party mood in the wake of news her ex Jason Momoa is expecting a child with US actress Lisa Bonet.
During the five-week production break, Simmone is heading to South Africa with her brother Robbie and sister Kym. The TV star is shouting her siblings on the safari holiday.

The Friday party was also a farewell for cast member Dustin Clare who’s off to try his acting luck in the US. He’ll remain on-air until the end of the year, but may be back in the series.

Eastern Courier Messenger (South Australia)
13th June 2007

They’re raising their voices and making a big noise all in the name of democracy.Cast members Luke Jacobz, Gillian Alexy and Dustin Clare, from Channel Nine’s McLeod’s Daughters, have teamed up with not-for-profit group Rock the Vote to help educate young people about the power of voting.

“Currently one-in-four young Australians are not enrolled to vote in this country, which is pretty alarming,” Dustin says.

“For our generation to incite change they need to be able to have the power to do it – voting gives us that power.”

Based on a similar group started in the United States, Rock the Vote Australia aims to excite and educate young people about politics and empower them to have a say and influence democracy.

Gillian says there is a lack of support and information around to assist young people in making an informed vote.

“When I was 18 I wasn’t very savvy about politics at all,” she says.

“Young people today are the same – they need information that they can understand and process so that they can make a vote that counts.”

National coordinator Karen Hawke said youths were the leaders of the future.

The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia) June 13th 2007
Section: Supplement
ABC-TV, 8.35pm

Logie award winner Dustin Clare, better known for his role as Riley, the horse whisperer in McLeod’s Daughters, stars as aviation legend Charles Kingsford Smith in this special three-part series. Thursday’s finale reveals boardroom battles between some of the nation’s biggest figureheads.

Weekly Times Messenger (South Australia)
June 6th 2007

They’re raising their voices and making a big noise all in the name of democracy.Cast members Luke Jacobz, Gillian Alexy and Dustin Clare, from Channel Nine’s McLeod’s Daughters, have teamed up with not-for-profit group Rock the Vote to help educate young people about the power of voting.

“For our generation to incite change they need to be able to have the power to do it – voting gives us that power,” Clare said.

Based on a similar group started in the United States, Rock the Vote Australia aims to excite and educate young people about politics and empower them to have a say and influence democracy.

The national Rock the Vote campaign will be launched with a free, all-ages event this Thursday, June 7, at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel hosted by guest MC Dustin Clare. Entertainment provided by hip-hop group Terra Firma, Funkoars, Cam Goodall and Soft White Machine among others.

For more information visit http://www.rockthevoteaustralia.com/