THE CASEY BOYS

Historical Drama, TV Series

WRITER: Tim Rose Price
PRODUCER: Graham Leader

LOGLINE

1870’s, two brothers, estranged following a harrowing experience in the Australian outback, ultimately reconcile to band together against a land-grabbing enemy, becoming outlaws in a lawless, rugged land.

SYNOPSIS

CORMAC (33) and JACK CASEY (31), orphaned by the Irish Potato Famine, were shipped off to Adelaide as boys to be cared for by their aunt and uncle. Strikingly different characters – Cormac, conscientious and obsessive, Jack, easy and intuitive – they are nonetheless inseparable, “opposite sides of the same coin”.  

Adelaide, 1872, Cormac was hired to construct the most remote section of the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) stretching across the entire Australian continent. He hired his brother, Jack, a stonemason, to build the repeater station at the end of his section as the brothers always found a way to work together.

Two years later, after the completion of the OTL, Cormac celebrates its success as a victory for civilization, with himself as the victor. However, Jack, traumatized by the colonizer’s brutal treatment of the Natives and by their arrogant dismissal of the ancient culture, spirals into the marginal world of grog and whores.

Cormac, hired by the ruthless ALAN MEADOWS (53), a self-styled robber baron, leads a ragtag team into the Outback to survey a wild new frontier. He is reluctant to re-enter the Cursed Lands, but the job pays well and Meadows’ seductive daughter, ELEANOR (24), leads Cormac to believe she may be the prize if he succeeds. Jack refuses to sign on – he wants to return home to Ireland. 

However, Jack learns that Meadows is the same man who ruined their beloved uncle. He tracks down the survey expedition to warn his brother, but Cormac distrusts him, believing he had made a play for Eleanor. 

JOANIE (24), a Kaurna woman, hired as a Native guide and healer, is bullied and threatened by the bigoted work gang, headed by the sinister, mysterious DU CANE (50s). Yet she finds a connection with Jack, who learns to trust his instinctive empathy for her People and their way of life.

Through Joanie, Jack discovers the expedition will destroy sacred Aboriginal Land and he tries to sabotage their plans. Cormac perceives his brother’s behavior as a betrayal and arrests him. Joanie frees Jack and they escape. 

Cormac only realizes the perverse objective of Meadows’ expedition when it’s too late. Du Cane, hired by Meadows to strip the Native Lands of their mineral wealth, blows up a cave of sacred Indigenous paintings, echoing the cruelty that pervaded the construction of the OTL. 

Adelaide, months later, the brothers reconcile and join forces to get revenge. Jack blows up Meadows’ new mansion with dynamite charges stolen from the expedition. The Casey Boys escape, riding off into the Outback with Joanie to become outlaws.

Illustrations by Jim Gingerich