For this collection I have focused on individual Australian composers and their soundtrack scores.
Bordertown (music composed by Guy Gross)
Bordertown is a 1995 Australian TV miniseries set in 1952 in a refugee camp located in a dusty, remote Australian town called Baringa. The story depicts a year in the lives of the camp residents, displaced persons from World War II who are learning English and awaiting jobs and new lives in Australia. The series stars Hugo Weaving as an English teacher and also features Cate Blanchett in a smaller role as an albino Italian migrant.
Guy Gross is an Australian film and television composer. He is known most for writing the award-winning music for the Australian science fiction series Farscape and the international hit film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He also composed for the animated television series Blinky Bill and Dumb Bunnies. He has 91 credits as screen composer.
Burke & Wills is a 1985 Australian adventure film directed by Graeme Clifford, starring Jack Thompson and Nigel Havers. The film is based on the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition across Australia. The film follows Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills in their crossing of Australia's interior in 1860–1. The film's account of the story changes the expedition's ending by having the explorers actually reach the northern coast. This upbeat idea was vehemently criticised by Australian reviewers. The film was released a week after the similarly themed comedy Wills & Burke.
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was a distinguished Australian composer and music educator. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia, as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aboriginal Australian music with that of the heritage of the West. He was known primarily for his orchestral and chamber music, such as Kakadu (1988) and Earth Cry (1986), which evoke the sounds and feeling of the Australian bushland and outback. He also wrote 18 string quartets, using unusual timbral effects, works for piano, and two operas. He stated that he wanted his music to make people feel better and happier for having listened to it. He typically avoided the dense, atonal techniques of many of his contemporary composers. His work was often characterised by its distinctive use of percussion. As one of the compositional pioneers of a distinctively Australian sound, Sculthorpe and his music have been likened to the role played by Aaron Copland in America's musical coming of age.
Proof is a 1991 Australian romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. The film stars Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. The film was released in Australia on 15 August 1991. It was chosen as "Best Film" at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, along with five other awards, including Moorhouse for Best Director, Weaving for Best Leading Actor, and Crowe for Best Supporting Actor. The story concerns the tribulations of Martin, a blind photographer. Through a series of flashbacks, Martin is shown as a child, distrustful of his own mother. She describes to him the garden outside his bedroom window. She tells him that someone is raking leaves, but he cannot hear the sound and angrily decides she is lying to him.
Not Drowning, Waving are a musical group formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1983 by David Bridie and John Phillips. Their music combined elements of rock, ambient music and world music; their lyrics dealt with characteristically Australian topics: word-pictures of landscapes and people, the seasons, and some political issues – such as Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. The group released six studio albums and two soundtracks until disbanding in 1994, they briefly reformed in 2001, 2003 and 2005–2006. From 2005 to 2007, they issued three compilation albums. Not Drowning, Waving won the ARIA Award for Best Independent Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 1992 for Proof, their soundtrack for the 1991 film of the same name.
The Proposition is a 2005 Australian Western film directed by John Hillcoat and written by screenwriter and musician Nick Cave. It stars Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt, Danny Huston and David Wenham. The film was shot on location in Winton, Queensland. In 1880s Australia, Charlie Burns and his gang of bushrangers engage in a gunfight with the police. All gang members except Charlie and his younger brother Mikey are killed. Captain Morris Stanley tells Charlie that he will have Mikey executed by Christmas, which is in 9 days. Stanley offers to free both Mikey and Charlie if Charlie agrees to kill his older brother Arthur Burns, who is wanted for the rape and murder of pregnant Eliza Hopkins and her family. Mikey remains in custody while Charlie sets out to kill their brother.
The film's soundtrack was released shortly after the film in October 2005. The music was composed and performed by Nick Cave and violinist Warren Ellis. When asked if he himself would be appearing in the film, Cave joked he was "too handsome".
Underbelly (music by Burkhard Dallwitz)
Underbelly is an Australian television true crime-drama series which first aired on the Nine Network between 13 February 2008 and 1 September 2013, before being revived on 3 April 2022. Each series is based on real-life events. There have been six full series, with season 7 being a miniseries. The first series is based on the book Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld, by journalists John Silvester and Andrew Rule. The series also borrows the title 'Underbelly' from a previously successful series of 12 true crime compilations by the same authors.
Burkhard von Dallwitz is a German-Australian composer. Since 1984, he has worked as a composer for feature films, television and commercials in Australia, Europe and the United States. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for his work on The Truman Show (1998).
