Territory: Anna Torv to lead Aussie Netflix drama to rival Yellowstone, premiere date revealed

Break out your family resentments because we finally have a clearer view of the upcoming Australian drama Territory.

It sounds a lot like Netflix’s answer to Yellowstone, but with Akubra hats, red dirt and heat. The series will premiere on October 24.

Set on the world’s largest cattle station in the Northern Territory, the series is being billed as a “juicy” neo-western where there’s a lot of scheming and treachery in the vicious battle for control of land and billions of dollars.

The action kicks off when the succession plans for the cattle station owned by the Lawson family are thrown into disarray and now everyone wants a piece of it — or, you know, all the pieces.

The battle royale between different generations of the Lawsons is causing a mighty rift, and smelling blood in the water, external factions such as mining moguls, rival stations, desert gangsters and Indigenous elders are moving in.

That logline is giving Succession vibes, just trade out cattle station for media empire and mining moguls for private equity sharks.

But considering Netflix is calling it a “juicy” primetime soap, it definitely feels it’s more like Yellowstone, Dallas and Dynasty vibes. And not just because they’re really into wide-brimmed hats rather than Kendall Roy’s Loro Piana cashmere cap.

Territory had previously been announced as Desert Kings and along with the name change, the streamer has revealed its cast will be led by Anna Torv, best known to international audiences for her roles in Mindhunter and Fringe but has been more recently blazing Australian screens in The Newsreader.

Also in the series are Michael Dorman (For All Mankind), Robert Taylor (no stranger to western TV shows after starring in Longmire), Sam Corlett (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Sara Wiseman (High Country), Jay Ryan (Creamerie), Tuuli Narkle (Mystery Road: Origins) and Philippa Northeast (The Newsreader).

Territory was created by Timothy Lee (Mystery Road, Bump) and Ben Davis (Outback Ringer, Bondi Rescue).

In a statement, Davies said the series was born in unlikely circumstances. During the pandemic, Davis and producer Rob Gibson (Colin From Accounts) were walking through Sydney’s Bondi Beach talking and were “excited about the prospect of doing a big-scale, high-stakes action drama set on a cattle station, in a part of the country you don’t often see on screen.

“It was a complete contrast as we were surrounded by the Bondi crowd, people moving past us in their activewear, wet suits, carrying their surfboards while Rob and I were dreaming up stories about people in jeans, boots and flannel shirts in the Top End.”

Territory was filmed in the NT and South Australia, including the Kakadu National Park and the real-life working cattle station Tipperary, which has its own airfield and school.

Inspirations for the fictional station in the series include Anna Creek Station, which is bigger than the land mass of Slovenia.

The NT has proven to be popular for Australian productions in recent times. Two other scripted shows are currently in production in the state — Top End Bub, a sequel series to Miranda Tapsell’s rom-com film Top End Wedding, and the second season of Deadloch.