Malaysian Star

2 March 2008

Dive into some enthralling high-sea adventure on Australian series Sea Patrol.

FED up of cops, lawyers and doctors on TV? Then Sea Patrol may be the answer for you. The new Australian series is a showcase of everything the Land Down Under has to offer – from a pristine coastline, sparkling oceans and dangerous wildlife to the Australian golden girl of television, Lisa McCune.


Award-winning actress Lisa McCune is Lt Kate McGregor in Sea Patrol. Featuring drama, mystery, action and the Royal Australian Navy Patrol Boat Service, Sea Patrol follows the country’s most successful TV exports Neighbours, Home & Away, The Crocodile Hunter and McLeod’s Daughters. And at A$900,000 (RM2.7mil) an episode, it’s the most expensive Australian drama ever and one that makes the most of the nation’s coastline.

Queensland, after all, has seen several big-budget movies in action. Last year alone, the state played host to Fool’s Gold (Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland and Matthew McConaughey), Daybreakers (Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe), Australia (Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman), and The Starter Wife (Debra Messing).

The setting of the Sea Patrol on the Great Barrier Reef is logical for a country noted for its physical beauty. “The Great Barrier Reef is up there among Australia’s crowning jewels. Visually, this is a beautiful series to be part of,” says McCune, who heads the cast which also includes Ian Stenlake, Saskia Burmeister and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor.

McCune plays Lt Kate McGregor, who’s introduced in the first episode on her first day reluctantly working on a patrol boat. “She wants to be driving big ships which, for her, is where she sees her career going,” says the 37-year-old actress.

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, she’s put on HMAS Hammersley with somebody that she briefly dated. That’s Lt Com Mike Flynn (Stenlake). In such a small environment, that creates tension which is terrific fun to play.”

The series revolves around the ship and its crew, and deals with contemporary issues such as illegal fishing, boat people, drug-running, immigration and people-smuggling; it also has an underlying mystery that runs throughout the series.

“I was excited that Sea Patrol was being made for family viewing, and not for a niche market. It has broad appeal. And it doesn’t involve cops, nurses or doctors,” says McCune, who first tasted fame in 1994 as young constable Maggie Doyle on the police drama Blue Heelers, a role she played for seven seasons. During that time, she bagged the Gold Logie Award (Australian Emmy) for most popular television personality four times.

The star says she signed on to Sea Patrol because of its heroic tone. “These people are all heroes and we live in a time when we need heroes. We were lacking a heroic drama in Australia, and one which appealed to the family. Sea Patrol’s simple and not gratuitous in any way. And that’s why I was attracted to the role.”

Interestingly, working at sea didn’t come as easily as the cast makes it look on the show. Once assembled, the actors were sent for “orientation” with a real navy crew on a patrol boat.

“We had to do boot camp in Cairns. We slept on board a patrol boat, we ate navy food; we did it hard for a couple of days. We did weapons training, and we learnt what the navy structure is like and that’s armed us well. At the end of it I wanted to sleep for a month,” says McCune.

As bad as orientation was, the first day of shooting made it look like a walk in the park.

One-third of each episode was filmed on the open water. Fortunately, the cast was not alone: the real-life crew of the HMAS Ipswich, the Australian navy patrol boat that doubled for the Hammersley, was along for the ride to help on set and, most importantly, sail the ship.

“We (the cast) bonded early from the rough weather, I think. We held each other’s heads over the bowl that first day on set,” McCune recalls of the 80-knot winds and four-metre swells that left the cast and crew stranded and unable to travel even to the HMAS Ipswich to start filming, and would continue to plague the shoot.

“I was clumsy. Kate McGregor is sure-footed, but I tripped over doorways, jammed everything and got uniforms caught. We wore these uniforms with kilos and kilos of gear and you were expected to jump from one boat to another, which I sometimes didn’t make. I got laughed at a lot.”

 Catch the two-hour season premiere of ‘Sea Patrol’ at 9pm today on Hallmark (Astro Channel 702). From March 12 onwards, the series will air every Wednesday at 9pm.