Blue Hills' legacy lives on 50 years after iconic radio drama ended

It's been 50 years since the iconic theme music for the beloved rural radio drama swelled for the last time, marking the end of an era for Australian radio. The show, which told the stories of rural families living in the fictional town of "Tanimbla", was broadcast from 1949 until 1976 and remains an enduring part of the country's cultural heritage.

A legacy of rural storytelling

Throughout the 1950s, former broadcaster Ian Doyle said "one in two radios in Australia were listening to the Country Hour and Blue Hills" at 1pm. "It was compulsory listening for people in regional Australia," he told SA Country Hour's Cassandra Hough.

"You couldn't go into a country store in the 50s and expect to be served between 1 and 1:15. Anybody selling insurance and knocking on the door in regional Australia, of course, the door wasn't answered. You had to sit and listen to Blue Hills because everything was so compelling."

A devoted fan base

Lorraine Greenfield grew up on an isolated station in South Australia's north and the radio station was the only one the family could tune in to. "My mother was an absolute devotee of Blue Hills and after I was married, my father-in-law was also a big fan and very strict, so at 1pm everything stopped," Mrs Greenfield said.

"I felt sorry for the stock agents who travelled three or four hours to see him only to be told he couldn't speak until Blue Hills was over. He carried that through until the end of Blue Hills. It was a very sad day when it ended, I still think about Blue Hills."

The making of Blue Hills

In the late 1940s, author and playwright Gwen Meredith had been tasked with writing a radio series to encourage returning World War Two servicemen to "grow better crops and increase production". That show, The Lawsons, would be the genesis for Blue Hills.

"It was a piece of rural propaganda, one way or the other," Mr Doyle said, adding that the rural department went to great lengths to make sure the show gave an accurate depiction of climate, crops and harvest times as well as new innovations in the farming sector.

"[It was an] attempt to try and improve the production of Australian farmers … [its] connection with the rural department was fundamental and important and she had to be across a whole lot of material to ensure that she got it right."

Reflecting regional Australia

In an old interview, Ms Meredith recalled how the rural department wanted the show to have as much farming information as possible and this was met with some resistance from the drama department. "[They] said, 'It'll only ruin the story. It'll all bog [it] down. And I had to run a middle course," she said.

At the show's height in the 1950s, the White Australia Policy was in effect, as was the Assimilation Policy for First Nations people, as well as segregation and state protection acts. Against this backdrop, Ms Meredith had written an episode where a relative had a baby with an Indigenous person to try and better reflect Australia's multiracial identity.

"That caused enormous controversy, but she wanted to introduce the idea of the fact that there was multiracial involvement in Australia, and she pushed it as far as she could go," Mr Doyle said.