‘It’s all a set-up’: the ‘fake’ Australian documentary TV series mining governments for millions
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- Electric Pictures received more than $4.7 million from Screenwest between July 2015 and June 2022, with $4.1 million earmarked for 'Aussie Gold Hunters,' a series distributed by Warner Bros Discovery to 40 million viewers in 140-plus countries and classified as a documentary to access the funding
- Prospero Productions' 'Outback Opal Hunters,' now in its 14th season and screened in more than 100 countries, received more than $850,000 from Screenwest since 2018, with internal production notes instructing crew to manufacture a scripted 'rock fall on digger roof' and stage a cliffhanger the day before shooting
- A former Electric Pictures employee told the Guardian that Discovery Channel pressured producers to manufacture outcomes, including directing crew to spray high-pressure hoses to simulate rain during the Kimberley wet season when prospectors were supposed to be 'sheltering' before a gold strike
- Production notes for an episode finalised on 29 August instructed crew to 'produce up the weather heating up' and ensure participants did not wear beanies, despite that being Australian winter with overnight temperatures dropping to 6C in Andamooka
- Screen Australia rules explicitly bar 'a reality TV program (other than a documentary)' from its 30% producer tax offset, and Screenwest grants rely on Acma's documentary definition requiring subject matter 'grounded in fact' — a threshold WA film insiders argue the shows do not meet
- The two production companies together absorbed 32% of all documentary-eligible production funding granted by Screenwest between 2015 and 2022, and Screenwest CEO Rikki Lea Bestall was previously head of production on 'Outback Opal Hunters' before being appointed to the funding body in May 2021
- Warner Bros Discovery did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment; Electric Pictures CEO Andrew Ogilvie said the shows had 'been found to comply with the relevant guidelines on multiple occasions' by funding agencies, while Prospero managing director Julia Redwood said production notes were 'a guide, not a script'
Why it matters: Public money is at stake: Screenwest is largely bankrolled by WA lottery revenue, and both shows are eligible for 30% federal tax rebates through Screen Australia. With Screenwest's current CEO hired directly from one of the implicated production companies and program-specific grant data no longer published after 2022, accountability for how WA documentary funding is allocated has effectively gone dark at the moment the controversy demands more scrutiny, not less.
