Aahana Swrup
‘Territory,’ Ben Davies and Timothy Lee’s Netflix drama show set in the unforgiving Outbacks of Australia, charts a compelling story about a large cattle station up for grabs and a family at odds. Daniel Lawson, who is set to inherit the Marianne Station, dies in a freak accident, leaving his father, Colin, without a set successor to take over the billion-dollar land. As a result, several candidates come out of the woodwork, including the alcoholic son Graham, the daughter-in-law Emily, who has connections to a rival business, and their children Susie and Marshall. Additionally, threat arrives from outside the family as well, with gangsters, businessmen, and Indigenous elders all vying for a share of their own.
Consequently, the Lawson family’s more-or-less dynastical rule over Marianne Station comes under scrutiny, paving the way for a huge power struggle. The show sports a grounded contemporary setting, which is further accentuated by a plausible premise of a land-driven battle. Therefore, the Lawson family’s on-screen story naturally incites interest in a possible off-screen reality.
Territory: The Inspiration Behind Marianne Station’s Ownership Battle
With family drama and a power struggle making up the instrumental cornerstones of ‘Territory,’ the show presents a fascinating take on mundane entertainment. Nevertheless, despite the realism of the story’s premise, the show isn’t directly based on any real-life events. Still, it manages to sport a connection to reality through its central, all-encompassing element, the Marianne Station. While the Lawson family’s cattle station—the largest in the world—is fictitious, it possesses inspiration from the real-life Anna Creek Station of South Australia. The latter is the actual real-life largest working cattle station in the world and was subject to a shift in ownership in the mid-2010s.
Previously, S Kidman & Co owned Anna Creek Station and attempted to complete a sale to a foreign buyer in 2016, but this was blocked by the Australian government. Since the sale included land of considerable size and significance—with Kidman landholdings encompassing 1.3% of the country’s land—it was decided a foreign acquisition would be against national interest. Ultimately, Anna Creek Williams Cattle Company, a South Australian family business, bought the land, with the rest of the landholdings going elsewhere. Thus, much like Marianne Station, Anna Creek also oversaw a tumultuous time due to a shift in ownership.
Nevertheless, unlike the on-screen cattle ranch, Anna Creek’s sale invited much more official intervention. In comparison, Marianne Station boasts infinitely more amounts of family drama, business rivalry, and interpersonal antics. Therefore, Anna Creek’s influence over the show seems to remain confined in terms of its existence as the largest cattle ranch—which is bigger than the country of Slovenia. Apart from the same, the actual station offers little to no inspiration to Marianne Station and its narrative complications. Ultimately, even though the show sports some connection to reality, the bulk of its storyline and characters remain a work of fiction.
Territory Showcases the Authenticity of the Australian Landscape
Apart from the connection between ‘Territory’ and the Anna Creek Station, the show mines most of its relation to reality through its narrative and visual themes. Since the story focuses on a family-centric drama, it offers up a world of relatability through interpersonal dynamics that at once imbues the show with authenticity and entertainment. Recently, shows with similar formulas, such as ‘Succession’ and ‘Yellowstone,’ have seen significant success in culture. Naturally, the same has led people to draw comparisons and parallels between the shows, especially ‘Yellowstone,’ another land-conflict-driven drama.
However, while these comparisons stand, ‘Territory’ undeniably distinguishes itself from its contemporaries through its focus on Australian landscape and culture. In a conversation about the same with 9Honey, Philippa Northeast shared her thoughts and said, “The Australian cattle industry is of its own, and we represent that on such an epic scale on screen so that it would be hard to make (a) direct comparison to America because it’s just not that industry here.” Likewise, her co-star, Sam Corlett, shared the same sentiment, establishing that the “unapologetically Australian” aspects of ‘Territory’ sets it apart from other similar stories.
The same shines through in narrative elements throughout the story as the Lawsons and their adversaries face their inter-conflict as well as the dangers that the remote region freely offers. On the other hand, the show’s equipment of Australia’s natural beauty and scenery further adds to the story’s sense of realism. Yet, the show doesn’t simply utilize nature for its vistas. Instead, it also presents an authentic depiction of life in the cattle stations—an element that mirrors the realities of the location’s local population, many of whom appear as extras in the show. As such, through a story about a land conflict, the show gets to present a realistic depiction of the Australian cattle industry and its various mechanisms. Still, ultimately, with little real-life inspiration behind the central characters, the story becomes confined to the realm of fictionality.
Read More: Where is Netflix’s Territory Filmed?
