McLeod's Daughters

Wednesday, August 6 at 8.30pm

Stevie’s wild-at-heart former rodeo mate Sharon visits Drovers and turns everyone’s lives upside down. Marcus sacrifices his chances in a major horse endurance race to save Ingrid from an abusive rider. Kate is feeling increasingly dissatisfied with her life, and throws herself into her new role as overseer. But is this enough for her? Stevie’s wild-at-heart former rodeo mate Sharon visits Drovers and turns everyone’s lives upside down.

Marcus sacrifices his chances in a major horse endurance race to save Ingrid from an abusive rider. Kate is feeling increasingly dissatisfied with her life, and throws herself into her new role as overseer. But is this enough for her?

Wednesday, July 30 at 8.30pm

Grace and Marcus are trapped at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft. Will help arrive before Grace succumbs to hypothermia?

Kate helps Father Dan by caring for a cantankerous elderly woman, who makes her life a misery – but also has some useful advice for grieving Kate.

Tayler is nervous about taking her relationship with Patrick to the next level Phil goes to extreme lengths to woo back Moira.

McLeod’s Daughters, Australia’s most popular and successful rural drama, promises to go out in a season of great stories when it returns for its eighth and last series on Wednesday, July 23 at the new time of 8.30pm on Channel Nine.

Since its 1996 telemovie debut which produced the Logie Award-winning series, McLeod’s Daughters has captured a unique portrait of life on the land for women, with all its hardship, beauty and romance.

Kate's weird dream

Kate has a strange dream where she's been chasing by something and falls into the safety of Mitch's arms and they kiss but she turns into a cat. She wakes up to discover Turbo has been attacked, it looks like a big cat running off!

A panther killing stock?

The girls find animals have been killed on the farm. Riley and Mitch have had the same problem. They even see a dead sheep up a tree. Everything points to a big cat on the prowl.

The hunt is on...

That night, everyone is out hunting. Mitch gets a suprise and almost attacks Kate accidentally. Stevie and Grace shoot two wild dogs, but they aren't the cause of the dead animals. Dogs couldn't drag a dead cow.

Mitch's dark side

Riley discovers that Mitch is selling stolen weapons on the black market and kicks him out.

Kate and Mitch's romance

Kate and Mitch kiss. He explains to her that he has post traumatic stress disorder from being in Timor. She doesn't know about the weapons and they spend the night together.

The wetlands project causes problems

Grace's big weed project to help with the drought causes problems when Killarney gets an infestation of weeds and the stock has to be moved. Stevie is put in a tough position when asked by Marcus to have words to Grace about the weeds.

Stevie and Grace argue

Stevie and Grace have a massive argument and neither wants to budge about the wetlands project. Stevie almost decides to move over to Killarney permanently.

Finally they manage a compromise: they'll work together to try and find another location for the wetlands project.

Love triangle: Patrick has fallen for Ashleigh but she's after Riley

Patrick has it bad for Ashleigh, and even sells some of his gear to buy her jewellery! Tayler is worried about him being used by her, since Ashleigh is after Riley. Riley, however, says he's not interested in her. She's not about to give up that easily.

Tayler discovers Ashleigh's secret

Tayler's bad gift

Tayler gets a cute teddy bear as a cheer up gift for Rose. What she doesn't realise is that the bear has some jewellery hidden inside it thanks to a couple of thieves named Gaz and Arnie! It's Ashleigh's family jewellery! They try and grab it back off her but since the police are there, Tayler gets it.

Rose doesn't even want the teddy bear in the end. Patrick finds the jewellery inside the bear and wants to give it to the police but Tayler doesn't want to.

An explosion

Of course, Gaz and Arnie want to get their stash back and try a number of approaches, including faking being pest control and even exploding a fuel drum on the farm!!! The girls race off to see what's going on, leaving Rose alone inside to be harassed by the thieves.

Tayler comes to Rose's rescue and they eventually manage to trap the thieves down in the basement.

Grace helps Ashleigh

Ashleigh tells Grace that she had actually taken the jewellery from Bryce (worried that if he died it would be liquidated) so even she can't tell the police it was stolen! Grace can appreciate her position after her own similar situation and helps her out by pretending the jewellery was hers and getting it back from the police. Ashleigh thanks Grace.

Michala Banas, who plays Kate Manfredi on McLeod's Daughters, is quitting the show after nearly four years.
Her character Kate will leave Drovers Run next year.

A Spark from Heaven - by Christopher D. Hawkshaw
1/08/07

Gabe, an angel, brings wisdom and healing to the girls.

Wishing on a star

The girls are outside at night sharing a picnic, beers and cooling their feet in the bath, waiting for Stevie to get back from visiting Rose.

The weather forecast is for more hot dry weather. They joke about rain dancing in the nude.

When Stevie returns, she tells them that Rose is a bit low and she gets the last of the test results tomorrow.

They look up and suddenly they see a meteor shower and decide to make wishes. Tayler wishes for Rose to be well again and for it to rain. Stevie wants Rose to walk again and for Alex to be here to see her do it. Grace wishes for a man who doesn't run away and a decent night's sleep. Moira wishes for a little more understanding and less arguing. Kate wishes for something exciting, something new.

Gabe (an angel!) arrives to drill their bore

Leaving the nest - by Christopher D. Hawkshaw
25/07/07

Rose's friend Kim crashes a dirt bike

Stevie and Rose go for a horse ride. Alex is still in Argentina and Stevie's looking forward to spending more time with Rose but she's invited her friend Kim who she plays netball with to come and stay for a few days.

Rose tells Stevie she wants to defer going to Uni for a year and travel the world with Kim.

When Kim arrives, Stevie's surprised to see he's a she!

When Moira drops the washing, one of Roses bras falls out of the basket. Kim makes everyone awkward when he says he recognises it!

Stevie isn't so keen about Kim crashing on Rose's bedroom floor (even though Rose says they're just mates), so he's going to stay in the cottage's spare room.

Stevie worries about Rose going overseas with Kim.

Rose and Kim head off to Ramsey's bluff. Rose continues to insist she's not an item with Kim.

MacLeod's Daughters is back for another season after concerns that the show may be experiencing financial difficulties. The show, which features some highly paid stars and is shot on expensive 16mm film stock, is the most expensive drama in Australian TV, and has received over $200 000 in grants from the South Australian government to fund production. After Channel Nine was sold last year with financial difficulties under the covers, viewers were worried that their beloved show may be lost in the shuffle. However, Nine has announced that the show will go on... for now!

Want to read more? Click here!

The Nine Network Australia today confirmed it had commissioned the
eighth series of much-loved drama McLeod’s Daughters. The new series of the number one Australian drama will screen on Nine in 2008.

McLeod’s Daughters, which was originally commissioned by Nine in 2000, consistently ranks amongst the week’s top performers and well ahead of other Australian drama programs.

According to readers, Aaron Jeffery (Alex Ryan, McLeod's Daughters) is the sexiest man on Australian TV. The actor picked up 22% of votes on an online poll.

Read more.

Should we be obliged to pay for the continuation of McLeod's Daughters being filmed in South Australia? Note - the popular series will go ahead whether it is in SA or not. It seems a silly question to ask, and yet this is just the question currently under fire. The producers of the show are looking for a big Government handout and if they don't get it, then they plan to move interstate. Is this such a bad thing though? The majority of tourists would not head to Gawler (where the show is currently being produced) - few would even be aware where the set was. There doesn't seem to me to be any real benefit for keeping the show in South Australia - so should the taxpayer pay to keep it there?

Read the full story here.