Netflix Announces First Original Australian Series, Tidelands

Australia is finally getting their own Netflix series with Tidelands being announced by Netflix Australia yesterday. 

Just two years after the streaming service became available in Australia, Netflix has responded to industry calls for locally made content with the new supernatural crime drama that will be filmed in Queensland next year.

The series, which will be available on Netflix globally, is ten episodes long. Tidelands is being written by Steven M. Irwin and is executively produced by the Channel Ten team that was behind Secrets and Lies. Episodes will be 50 minutes long.

Tidelands follows a former criminal as she returns home to the small fishing village of Orphelin Bay. When the body of a local fisherman washes ashore, she must uncover the town’s secrets while investigating its strange inhabitants, a group of dangerous half-Sirens, half-humans called “Tidelanders.”

Netflix Australia’s biggest competitor Stan has been successfully producing locally made content for years with Wolfcreek and No Activity already on the scene. Funding for Tidelands comes from Screen Australia, when the series was originally being developed for Amazon. Brisbane-based Hoodlum Entertainment will now be producing the series.