A friend of mine with a rusticated upbringing has taken
umbrage as my tentatively positive view of the ABC’s Colonial House. The occasional ‘hick’ has writ:

It’s awful and a waste of $$$. It doesn’t open
anyone’s eyes to how people survived, why they were there, what their real
options/backgrounds were at the time (ok, ok I heard the bit that staff was
hard to keep because of the gold rushes etc, but the journey we see here is a
contemporary one & I’m not learning much at all about the 1860’s). What it
shows is that a bunch of soft 21st century urban dwellers can get a shock when
they find out that the bush is hard work. Well, there’s a thought…

This format is about us ‘now’, not about us ‘then’. I
was disgusted by the rooster episode (kicking the chooks…!! look, if the
rooster is all that stands between you and dinner for the next few months
you’re not going to kick it…) and even more up—do off to see the lambing
ewes in the charge of a dismal sobbing incompetent.

Anyone who’s had anything to do with sheep knows
bloody well that picking up lambs and running after the mothers is a recipe for
failure & that feeding lambs cows milk from a bottle like that usually
drowns them. I was rather hoping the dog would give it a good bite and
get the nonsense over with. I suppose we’re going to see incompetence on horses
next, dirty clothes and everyone cross because some people have a nicer house
than others.

Fair cop gov, bang to rights.

But the most telling criticism of the whole thing was this: “What are all those pine plantations doing in the background?
And the paddocks are full of Patterson’s Curse (Salvation Jane)”.

Both are introduced species in this country and would not
have been around in 1861, there’s a little error or three by the continuity mob
and producers on the program.

In fact Patterson’s Curse was introduced into Australia
in the 1880’s as this helpful website says. Now why didn’t the ABC producers try and find an area
without it?