Kevin MacIsaac

1814. Van Diemen’s Land, the notorious British penal colony, has dissolved into chaos. Outlaws roaming the wilderness have pushed the colonial government to breaking point. Driven by a deep sense of loyalty and an unquenchable hatred towards those he once served, English convict Michael Howe and a young aboriginal girl turn a desperate band of convicts, deserters and bushmen into a fearsome guerrilla army and lead them in open rebellion against the brutal, corrupt establishment. As the British hunt the outlaws, Howe remains an elusive prize. In desperation, the Governor makes the capture of Howe’s pregnant girl his priority. 

An epic story of love and betrayal, The Outlaw Michael Howe chronicles the astonishing true story of the man who pushed Australia to the brink of civil war.

Laura Chant, 16, lives with her mother and four-year-old brother Jacko in a poor new suburb on the edge of a partially demolished Christchurch, New Zealand. Laura is drawn into a supernatural battle with an ancient spirit who attacks Jacko and slowly drains the life out of him as the spirit becomes ever younger. Laura discovers her true identity and the supernatural ability within her, and must harness it to save her brother's life.

Adapted from the bestselling novel by Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black is an alluring and tender-hearted comedy drama about the lives of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney.

Laddy and the Lady follows an out-of-control golden retriever, owned by a Lady, on a pheasant shoot. Scenes of the shoot are intercut with flashbacks to Laddy’s troubled past as a puppy, wrenched from his mother’s side. On the shoot, Laddy is subjected to forms of physical and verbal abuse associated with gun dog handling. His inability to behave and retrieve the dead birds results in relentless punishment. Laddy becomes a receiver – a golden receiver- of abuse.

A young and fiercely independent woman, Carmen, is forced to flee her home in the Mexican desert following the brutal murder of her mother. She survives an illegal border crossing into the US, only to be confronted by a lawless volunteer border guard. When the border guard and his patrol partner Aidan become embroiled in a deadly standoff, the pair is forced to escape together.

Anna Macy left Kettering when she was just 14, shortly after her best friend, Gillian Baxter mysteriously disappeared. The two girls had been playing in the forbidden forests outside Kettering when they saw strange lights in the sky. Eight hours later, Anna was found alone, terrified and covered in blood. 15 years on, Anna returns to find the town struggling to survive. The forests have been marked for logging and the community is being torn apart by passionate but violent clashes between environmentalists and the local loggers.

A captivating drama set in Maralinga, South Australia, at the height of the Cold War. At a remote army base carrying out British nuclear testing, paranoia runs rife and nuclear bombs are not the only things being tested, as loyalty, love, and betrayal are pitted against each other.

In 1850s Australia, in the lively colony of Port Victory, Jack Dawkins aka The Artful Dodger, has transferred his fast fingers as a pickpocket to the nimble skilled fingers of a surgeon. Dodger's past returns to haunt him with the arrival of Fagin, luring him back into a world of crime. A greater threat – to Dodger's heart – is Lady Belle, the Governor's daughter, determined to become the colony's first female surgeon.