Fauna Productions

Last updated

Fauna Productions is an Australian film and TV production company established by Lee Robinson, Lionel ('Bob') Austin and John McCallum who met during the making of the film They're a Weird Mob (1966). Robinson, Austin and McCallum wanted to make productions aimed at the international audience and enjoyed great success with the TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo [1] and Barrier Reef . [2]

Contents

Fauna Productions is still in business, now being run by two sons of the founders, Philip Austin and Nick McCallum.

Select Credits

Related Research Articles

<i>Skippy the Bush Kangaroo</i> Australian television series

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is an Australian television series created by Australian actor John McCallum, Lionel (Bob) Austin and Lee Robinson produced from 1967 to 1969 about the adventures of a young boy and his highly intelligent pet kangaroo, and the various visitors to the fictional Waratah National Park, filmed in today's Waratah Park and adjoining portions of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park near Sydney.

Ed Devereaux

Edward Sidney Devereaux, better known professionally as Ed Devereaux, was an Australian actor, director and scriptwriter who lived in the United Kingdom for many years. He was best known for playing the part of Matt Hammond the head ranger in the Australian television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. He was also involved in the series behind the scenes, Devereaux writing the script and directing the episode The Veteran (1969), for which he received much critical acclaim. Devereaux based the story of the episode "Double Trouble" on an idea conceived by his children, wrote the screenplay of "Summer Storm" and the script for "The Mine".

Ken James is an Australian actor and celebrity chef. He is most widely known to Australian and international audiences as Sonny's older brother Mark Hammond in the 1960s children's TV show, Skippy. Since his debut in Skippy, James continued to work in the film industry for another 36 years. In December 2009, James was diagnosed with stage three non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which escalated to stage four by 2011. James started chemotherapy, and as of November 2020 the cancer is in recession. James was also actively involved in the Victorian Police Force as an unsworn member from 1993 to 2013.

Eric Stanley Jupp was a British-born musician, composer, arranger and conductor who gained wide popularity in Australia after settling there in the 1960s, hosting a long-running light music TV show and composing for film and TV. He is best remembered for his theme music to the TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

John McCallum (actor)

John Neil McCallum, was an Australian theatre and film actor, highly successful in the United Kingdom. He was also a television producer.

Ron Josiah Taylor, AM was a prominent Australian shark expert, as is his widow, Valerie Taylor. They were credited with being pioneers in several areas, including being the first people to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage. Their expertise has been called upon for films such as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates.

Nickel Queen is a 1971 Australian comedy film starring Googie Withers and directed by her husband John McCallum. The story was loosely based on the Poseidon bubble, a nickel boom in Western Australia in the late 1960s, and tells of an outback pub owner who stakes a claim and finds herself an overnight millionaire.

Tony Bonner

Anthony Frederick Bonner is an Australian television, film and stage actor and singer. Bonner became famous in the 1960s children's television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, later moving on to lead roles in the dramas Cop Shop and Skyways.

Barrier Reef was an Australian television series that was first screened domestically in 1971. However, 19 episodes had already premiered on British television on BBC1 between 5 October 1970 and 15 February 1971 and four more aired between 5 April and 3 May 1971 in advance of Australian broadcast.

Boney is an Australian television series produced by Fauna Productions during 1971 and 1972, featuring James Laurenson in the title role of Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Two series, each of thirteen episodes were filmed.

Lee Robinson was an Australian producer, director and screenwriter who was Australia's most prolific filmmaker of the 1950s.

An Australophile is one who appreciates or expresses love of Australian culture, the Australian people, Australian history or all things Australian in general. An Australophile may extend to someone who is born outside Australia and the definition is not limited to an Australian itself. The concept of Australophilia or Ozophilia is opposed to Australophobia, which is the dislike or fear of Australia and its cultural aspects.

<i>The Intruders</i> (1969 film) 1969 Australian film

The Intruders is a 1969 Australian film directed by Lee Robinson. It is a spin-off of the popular Skippy the Bush Kangaroo TV series.

Ross Napier

Ross Napier. Ross Napier was one of Australia's leading radio and TV writers from the 1950s to 1990s, as well as an accomplished novelist. Born in Sydney in 1929, he began writing short stories for magazines while still in high school, selling his first script at 17. Shortly after, he became a staff writer for Grace Gibson Radio Productions, and during the 1950s and 1960s his radio serials were broadcast Australia-wide and internationally. This firmly established Napier as one of Australia's leading drama writers. Whilst at Gibson's he met Ann Fuller, who he married in 1953.

Joy Cavill was an Australian screenwriter and producer.

Shannon's Mob is an Australian TV series about an Australian intelligence agency. It was the last TV series from Fauna Productions, who were responsible for Skippy the Bush Kangaroo among others.

Ron McLean (1943–1983) was an Australian screenwriter, producer and executive producer, best known for his work on TV. He wrote most of the episodes for Spyforce, which he helped create. He had a long collaboration with producer Roger Mirams.

Phil Judd is an Australian sound engineer, managing director of PhilmSound Pty. Ltd., who is credited with post-production work on many well-known movies and several television series. He is not related to the New Zealand musician Phil Judd.

Valerie Taylor (diver) Australian underwater photographer

Valerie May Taylor AM is a conservationist, photographer and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall-of-fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).

Waratah Park

Waratah Park is a heritage-listed former Aboriginal land and fauna sanctuary and now Aboriginal title claim at 13 Namba Road, Duffys Forest in the Northern Beaches Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known for serving as the fictional Waratah National Park, the filming location for the Australian television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, when the area was still undeveloped Crown land. After the series ended, the Crown land remained mostly undeveloped, with the government granting management of the area to a series of operators until August 2014, when the government passed full ownership of the land to the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 February 2015.

References

  1. Don Storey, "Skippy" at Classic Australian Television 2008 accessed 21 Sept 2012
  2. "Who remembers the 1970s TV show 'Barrier Reef'? | State Library Of Queensland". www.slq.qld.gov.au. 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2021-05-17.