''Holiday Island'' is an Australian

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

series made by

Crawford Productions Crawford Productions is an Australian media production company, focused on radio and television production. Founded in Melbourne by Hector Crawford and his sister, actress and voice artist Dorothy Crawford, the company, also known as Crawfords ...

for

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

. The show aired twice weekly from 1981 to 1982, with the first episode going to air on 17 June 1981.

Series synopsis

Like preceding Crawford's series, the aborted ''

Hotel Story ''Hotel Story'' was an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions (now Crawfords Australia) for the Ten Network in 1977. The series, intended as a replacement for '' The Box'', was set in a luxury international hotel. The regula ...

'', ''Holiday Island'' was a ''

Love Boat ''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS ''Pa ...

''-style drama series set in a luxury hotel. This time the location was a tropical resort island in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. In each episode the regular characters - the various islanders and hotel workers - hosted a new batch of guest star hotel guests. Various plots and situations on the show included a fierce cyclone hitting the island, children being kidnapped, a siege where the hotel workers were held hostage by less than pleasant guests, drug trafficking, the resort being terrorised by a biker gang and a politician dying of a heart attack while staying at the island's resort. The series became notorious amongst critics for its allegedly poor production values, and the wintry conditions under which the ''tropical'' drama was shot became the focus of most jibes. Though set in a tropical hotel with palm trees, sunshine and beautiful beaches, for practical reasons all interiors scenes - and the bulk of exterior scenes - were shot at the Ten Network's studios in

Nunawading Nunawading is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 18 km (11 miles) east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Whitehorse, Whitehorse Local g ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The exterior set made heavy use of awnings in an attempt to disguise Melbourne's propensity for overcast skies, but attempts to mask the icy breath of the bathing beauties was not always successful. Attempts to shoot location footage in Queensland were hampered by the fact that the local television crews assigned to the shoot had experience only in shooting news footage, and the fact that heavy rain fell for several days of a planned shoot.

Ray Meagher Raymond Francis Meagher (born 4 July 1944) is an Australian actor, who has appeared in Australian film and television since the mid-1970s. He is notable as the longest continuing performer in an Australian television role, portraying Alf Stewa ...

, a guest star in the show's first episode, later jokingly referred to the show as ''Horror Day on

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

''. Location footage in Queensland was taken at the Tangalooma Island Resort on Moreton Island, east of Brisbane Queensland. The "Tangalooma Ship-Wrecks" were often seen chroma-keyed as a background to the studio sequences of 'Banjo's' beachside shack.

Cast

Regular cast: *

Nick Tate Nicholas John Tate (born 18 June 1942) is an Australian actor popularly known for his roles as pilot Alan Carter in the 1970s science fiction television series '' Space: 1999'', and James Hamilton in the 1980s Australian soap opera '' Sons an ...

- Neil Scott *

Tom Oliver Tom Oliver (born 12 June 1938) is a British-born Australian retired actor who started his career in theatre in his native country, before emigrating to Australia. Oliver, a staple of the small screen since the early 1960s, is best known for h ...

- Wally Simmons *

Peter Mochrie Peter Mochrie (born 23 March 1959), is an Australian actor whose career spans over forty years in the industry, primarily featuring in television soap opera's, he has also worked in New Zealand, where he spent six years as Dr. Callum McKay in ...

- Tony 'Zack' Zackarakis *

Alyson Best Alyson Best (born September 29, 1960) is an Australian actress known for her appearance in ''Prisoner'' (1983) and '' Man of Flowers'' (1983). In 1979 she appeared in a famous photo with Derryn Hinch in ''Playboy''. Select Credits *''Young Ram ...

- Lisa Kendall * Frank Wilson - Banjo Paterson *

Patricia Kennedy Patricia Helen Kennedy Lawford (May 6, 1924 – September 17, 2006) was an American socialite, and the sixth of nine children of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. She was a sister of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Senator ...

- Emily Muldoon *

Caz Lederman Caz Lederman (born c. 1951/1952), is an Australian former actress. She was nominated for the 1989 AFI Award for Best Lead Actress in a Telefeature for her role in ''Malpractice''. Other roles include a lead in the TV series ''Holiday Island'' ...

- Angela Scott * Steven Grives - Jason Scott * Gaynor Martin - Kylie McArthur * Marilyn Mayo - Dusty Davis * Brian James - George Tippett * Olga Tamara - Victoria Buckland * Ronne Arnold - Alex Utalo

Guest cast

Judy Nunn Judith Anne Nunn ( AM) (born 1945 in Perth, Western Australia), (also published under the pen name of Judy Bernard-Waite), is an Australian fiction author, former theatre and television actress and radio and television screenwriter. Nunn was a ...

Rowena Wallace Rowena Wallace (born 23 August 1947) is an English-born Australian stage and screen actress, most especially in the genre of television soap opera. She is best known for her Gold Logie-winning role as conniving Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton/M ...

Lisa Crittenden Lisa Crittenden (born 1962) is an Australian actress, noted for her roles in various television series, such as '' The Restless Years'' (as Briony Thompson, 1981), ''The Sullivans'' (as Sally Meredith), ''Prisoner'' (as Maxine Daniels 1982–8 ...

Rebecca Gilling Rebecca Gilling (born 3 November 1953 in Castlecrag, Sydney, Australia) is an Australian former model and actress, now environmentalist. Gilling is the daughter of World War II Navy personnel Douglas Gilling and prominent feminist campaigner ...

Anne Phelan Anne Mary Phelan (2 August 1948 – 27 October 2019) was an Australian actress of stage and screen who appeared in many theatre, television and film productions as well as radio and voice-over. Her television soap opera roles included '' ...

June Salter June Marie Salter AM (22 June 193215 September 2001) was an Australian actress and author prominent in theatre and television, best known for her character roles. Biography June Salter was born in Bexley, New South Wales, the youngest of six ...

John Blackman John Blackman (born 14 July 1947) is an Australian radio and television presenter, voice-artist and comedy writer and author. He is most widely known for his voice-over work for the long-running Nine Network comedy variety show '' Hey Hey It' ...

Penne Hackforth-Jones Penne Hackforth-Jones (5 August 194917 May 2013) was an American-born Australian actress and biographer. Early life Penelope Beatrix Hackforth-Jones was born in August 1949 in Greenwich, Connecticut, to Paul and Susan Felicity (née Gullett) Ha ...

Tracy Mann Tracy Mann (born 1957) is an Australians, Australian actress and voice artist. After appearing in a number of television series, she won an Australian Film Institute award in 1980 for movie ''Hard Knocks (1980 film), Hard Knocks'' . She has ...

Cancellation

''Holiday Island'' was cancelled after 64 episodes. The set was later revamped and turned into the Lassiter's Complex featured in the soap opera, ''

Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...

''.

Reruns

Network Ten which was the TV series original broadcast channel replayed the ''Holiday Island'' TV series during the later part of 1989 at the graveyard time-slot of 4.00am weekday mornings. It had not been replayed until WIN TV began to show the entire series during 2006 as part of its early morning Crawfords Australian Classic series. From January 2006 to March 2007, the

WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television station covering the Wollongong region. The WIN Netwo ...

network repeated ''Holiday Island'' on early Saturday mornings from 2.00am before changing to 3.00am during the later half of 2006 as part of its ''Crawford's Australian Classics'' series.

References

External links

Aussie Soap Archive: Holiday IslandCrawford ProductionsHoliday Island at the National Film and Sound Archive
*{{IMDb title, 0081875 Australian drama television series Network 10 original programming Television shows set in Queensland Australian television soap operas 1981 Australian television series debuts 1982 Australian television series endings Television series by Crawford Productions English-language television shows