Screen Australia is one of the nation's largest producers of television documentaries and educational programs. Our mission is to create an audio-visual record of Australian life.

The Australian history initiative under the banner Making History aims to develop, commission and produce a range of distinctive high-quality history programs.

Programs in the Making History scheme may be political, social, character-led or topographical histories spanning the broad chronology and geography of human experience across Australia.

They will be great programs that inspire, surprise and enthuse viewers with rich, exciting, and challenging stories, connecting Australians with their past.

Series and programs made under Making History will be structured to create a distinctive body of work for television broadcast rather than a number of disparate one-off documentaries.

Screen Australia will develop the overall "editorial architecture" of the project and work closely with independent producers to achieve these ends.

All Making History projects in the scheme should be recognised as great factual television, attract and engage mass primetime audiences on national broadcasters and be developed and produced to the highest professional standards.

Producers working in the scheme should be fully aware of current production trends and editorial sensibilities both at home and abroad. They should seek to use craft and technique in new and arresting ways, whilst maintaining storytelling and great stories at the heart of each production.

Programs should also be designed so that a strong package of related elements can be added, including tie-in books, web content, and other ancillaries.

Programs made by the scheme will have a range of budgets ranging between approximately $400,000 and $650,000 per hour.

Broadcaster pre-sales, state agency and international co-production investment may also figure in the funding structure of individual projects, and will be negotiated by Screen Australia.

Applications for development under the Making History scheme have now closed.

In August, the former Film Australia hosted high-profile UK documentary producer Liz Hartford for two special masterclasses in which she explored the concept "There's No History Without Drama" and revealed the secrets behind producing fully scripted dramatised narratives on documentary budgets.

The first masterclass was held on 16 August as a former Film Australia sponsored session at the 2005 SPAA Conference on the Gold Coast.

See the SPAA website for a review of that masterclass.

A further masterclass was held in Sydney on 18 August as part of the former Film Australia's Making History workshop, which explored contemporary trends in Australian history. Speakers included Alex West, the former Film Australia's Executive Producer, History as well as historians John Hirst, Richard White and Michelle Arrow.

Further details of that workshop are available in the following information sheet.

 Film Australia Making History Workshop (Acrobat PDF document, 372kb)

Transcripts of the speeches of our keynote speakers are also available.

 Liz Hartford - There's No History Without Drama (Acrobat PDF document, 184kb)

 Michelle Arrow - Talking Heads in Black and White: History on Australian Television (Acrobat PDF document, 132kb)

 John Hirst - Current Trends in Historical Research (Acrobat PDF document, 104kb)

 Richard White - Is Australian History Good For You? (Acrobat PDF document, 104kb)