THE MOMENTS THAT SHAPED AUSTrALIA'S NORTHERN FRONTIER
THE TERRITORY STORY
WAR . DISASTER . LAND . DEMOCRACY . POWER .
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Fifty Years. One Story. Now Being Told
A landmass larger than France and Spain combined. A parliament of twenty-five. A population smaller than Canberra.
Yet what has happened here has changed Australia in ways most Australians have never fully understood.
The Territory's political story has never been told completely on screen.
Until now.
Filming now underway, including a re-enactment of the 1966 Wave Hill walk-off, filmed on country with the Gurindji community.
50 Years. One Territory. One Unfinished Story.
In Production
The Territory Story is now filming · Coming 2028
Official trailer coming soon
Previous work
The video below is a 30-second TVC from The Territory Remembers, a separate earlier project by the same team
Why this story. Why now.
The 50th anniversary of self-government in 2028 is a once-in-a-generation alignment of national attention and living witnesses.
1 July 2028. Fifty years of self-government. A date the Territory — and the nation — will not be able to ignore. The Territory Story will be ready.
The founding generation is ageing. Their testimony must be captured now.
Over 2,500 US Marines now rotate annually through Darwin. Australia is spending billions upgrading northern defence bases. AUKUS has identified northern Australia as critical to Indo-Pacific strategy. The Darwin Port debate has drawn global attention to the north.
Fifty years after self-government, nothing is resolved. The Territory is not a state. The land question continues. The people who made these decisions are still alive. And the clock is running.
War — More bombs fell here than Pearl Harbor. Darwin was Australia's frontline in the Pacific — and it never forgot it.
Disaster — In one night, a city was destroyed. Cyclone Tracy remains Australia's most devastating natural disaster.
Defence — The Territory is Australia's strategic front door. Its defence posture shapes the nation's security for the century ahead.
Self-Government — Came with conditions. Fifty years on, the Territory is still negotiating them and writing its own future.
What was set in motion still defines the Territory today.
Land Rights — A handful of soil changed the nation. The Wave Hill walk-off began a movement that redefined what it means to be Australian.
Energy & Resources — The Territory sits over resources central to Australia's energy future. The north is no longer peripheral — it is pivotal.
The moments that shaped the Territory — and continue to shape its future.
Understanding the Territory's past helps explain Australia's future.
The Record Keepers
This project brings together the people who built, shaped and continue to define the Northern Territory — founding leaders, current government, Indigenous voices, federal decision-makers and those directly connected to defining moments, including families from Wave Hill.
Interviews are underway and growing. The people who shaped this story are being recorded together, for the first time, while there is still time.
Paul Everingham
Former Chief Minister, NT
Helped bring self-government into existence.
Marshall Perron
Former Chief Minister, NT
Shane Stone
Former Chief Minister, NT
Took the Territory to the edge of its authority.
Fought to redefine the Territory’s place in the nation.
Lia Finocchiaro
Current Chief Minister, NT
Clare Martin
Former Chief Minister, NT
Donna Odegaard
Indigenous Leader, NT
Leads the Territory into its next chapter and its most consequential decade.
The Territory's first female Chief Minister. Proved the office could be held differently.
Speaks to a law and connection that existed long before government.
The Filmmakers
Small Screen Productions is a Darwin-based documentary team with a long track record across government, broadcast and international platforms.
The team provides post-production editing for international productions, including a current project directed by BAFTA-winning director Brian Klein — 25 seasons of BBC Top Gear and Amazon's The Grand Tour — and hosted by Ross King MBE, ITV's Emmy Award-winning US correspondent for Good Morning Britain and Lorraine.
Light Speed — a YouTube Originals production for Google's Seeker channel, achieved 56 million views worldwide. Ian Richards served as Digital Imaging Technician, Jennifer Richards as Production Supervisor.
Some Like It Hot: Celebrating what it means to be Territorian.
Commissioned by the Northern Territory Government, broadcast on Channel 9 on Territory Day, 1 July. Created in just sixty days from concept to screen — during COVID lockdowns — by the same Darwin-based team. It demonstrated what it is to be Territorian.
The Territory Remembers: The Bombing of Darwin, through the eyes of those who were there.
Broadcast on Channel 9 marking the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin — the largest attack ever on Australian soil. Carried out by the same carrier strike force that attacked Pearl Harbour. A Small Screen Productions documentary.
Tracy — well over one million views on 9Now — was directed by Andrew Hyde, who joins Territory Story as Co-Producer. The two teams have a long collaborative history, including Twenty to the Mile, an epic retelling of the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line.
National broadcast credits include Albert Borella VC: An Incredible Journey — the story of the NT's only Victoria Cross recipient, broadcast on Channel 9 for the ANZAC Centenary, produced with the support of the NT Government — and Territory Remembers: The Bombing of Darwin, broadcast on Channel 9 marking the 75th anniversary of the largest attack on Australian soil.
Award winning: The Tiwi Warrior and the Samurai from the Sky — produced at the invitation of the Tiwi community, with its world premiere held on the Tiwi Islands..
Trusted by: Northern Territory Government ·Google · BBC · ABC · SBS · NITV · National Geographic · Channel 9 · Discovery · Channel 10
The same production team — Ian Richards, Jennifer Richards, Andrew Hyde and Bethaney Maley — delivered the Territory Day commemorative documentary commissioned by the Northern Territory Government.
Director — Ian Richards Producer — Jennifer Richards Co-Producer — Andrew Hyde Series Interviewer — Bethaney Maley
Get Involved
Whether you were part of the Territory's story, hold archival material — photographs, film, documents, recordings — or want to discuss a formal partnership, we want to hear from you. All enquiries are handled directly by the production team.
Contact
© 2026 All rights reserved.
Small Screen Productions Pty Ltd.
The Territory has always built its own future. This is that story. And this is that moment.
