40 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN TV SOAPS
Pictured (l to r): Lorraine Bayly in The Sullivans; Sheila Kennelly and Gordon MacDougall in Number 96; Roger Oakley and Vanessa Downing in Home And Away;
Fiona Spence in Prisoner

In April 1999, I wrote a series of articles for the Sofcom TV Website commemorating 40 years of Australian TV soapies.  With the permission of Sofcom I have republished these articles here.

70s Soap Steams Up

80s Soap Conquer The World

Surf's Up For Nineties TV

While there had been earlier attempts at drama on Australian television, particularly through ABC, it was not until 1959, three years after TV made its debut in Australia, that the first home grown soap opera hit our screens.  But from such humble beginnings, Australians have seen soap operas evolve from wholesome fare in the fifties and sixties, through the sexual revolution of the seventies, the glitz and glamour of the eighties and the sun and surf settings of the nineties.

AUTUMN AFFAIR
ATN7, 1959

Sydney's ATN7 produced our first soap opera, a quarter-hour series screening weekday mornings on ATN7 and GTV9, for ten months. The leading characters were played by Muriel Steinbeck and Leonard Bullen.

THE STORY OF PETER GRAY
ATN7, 1961

After Autumn Affair, ATN7 made another attempt at a local soap - this time the tale of a church minister played by James Condon.

BELLBIRD
ABC, 1967-1977

Blue Hills was ABC's long running radio soap opera from 1949 to 1976, and Bellbird was ABC's television version of life in a rural community. For ten years it was the lead-in to ABC's 7.00pm News. While it was not a huge success in capital cities, it was enormously popular in rural areas.

MOTEL
Seven, 1968

Seven's next soap venture was this ill-fated half-hour series lasting 130 episodes. The series did make one claim to fame, an early guest appearance by a young Jack Thompson.

While Aussie soaps got off to only a modest beginning in the early years of television, nothing prepared the nation's viewers for the onslaught that was to come in the 1970's.....

1950s