Publisher: Australian Television Information Archive

As a long-time fan of the many Australian TV series that have aired here in Canada, I created this site in 1998 (a time when there was very little information about many of these series on the internet) to provide an accurate and comprehensive source of information for these and the many other Australian programs that have found fans around the world. The site has been updated continuously since 1998. The very first Australian series I saw was Paradise Beach which aired at midnight during the summer of 1994 on CTV. Far from great TV, watching this series was more about the novelty of seeing something from Australia among the usual glut of American programming we normally received in Canada. The drive to create the Australian Television Information Archive was born a few years later following the launch of a series of new programming-hungry cable channels in Canada which resulted in a continuous stream of Australian television series appearing over the next several years. The first of these series was the ABC drama Phoenix. I recall seeing the show reviewed on the CBC's Midday programme and made a note to check it out. This exceptional series was the true start of my fascination with Australian TV. This was following by Criminal Justice (Janus) and shows such as Fire, Halifax fp, Good Guys Bad Guys, Water Rats, Adrenalin Junkies (Medivac), Raw FM, Blue Heelers, and A Country Practice. I had discovered another world of tv beyond what I had known to that point and was hooked. However, being completely ignorant of the Australian entertainment industry, I had zero knowledge of the actors in these shows and after seeing a few series, familiar faces began to appear but I had trouble recalling what I'd seen them in previously. The solution was to start keeping track of what I was watching. Primarily this was in the tracking of shows' starring casts, but as time went on this expanded to writing episode summaries, and logging guests stars, writers, directors, and other assorted information. I filled notebooks with the information at first but eventually moved everything into one simple text file on the computer so I could search through it all. In late 1998 I organised the information and launched this web site on October 30th of that year with the goal of sharing the collected information with other viewers outside Australia. At launch the site covered just 20 series, almost all of which had aired in Canada. In the years since, the site has grown to cover over 500 series, miniseries and telemovies. From day one my goal has been to not just have a website about Australian television, but to have the best website about Australian television, to keep a high standard of accuracy and be known for that quality. I take a great deal of pride in making sure the content is accurate and wherever possible, I try to be the primary source for credit information so I am not simply repeating the errors found on other sites. I'm not trying to be too deep in my coverage either. I am all about episode guides and I believe I am unrivalled in that department. This site won't be able to cover every show ever made, it's just not possible. Fortunately, due to advances in technology, I'm now able to watch vastly more programmes than in the past when I had to rely on shows being broadcast in Canada (a very rare occurrence now). As a result I can keep up-to-date with all the new series and even catch up on older series I never had a chance to watch. All of this means I can provide more content for the site and keep it growing. I watch all these shows not because the site demands it but because I enjoy it. I truly am a fan of the entire Australian TV industry. I enjoy following careers: watching actors move from guest to supporting to starring roles, anticipating a new series by a favourite producer, or watching as a series or actor becomes an international success. If you've been coming to this site for a few years you will also know the look of the site is constantly evolving. I change the look of the site frequently, often just for the sake of change, so I don't get bored of looking at the same thing all the time. When I started the site I was also trying to learn about how web pages were built and working on this site has allowed me to learn about that craft. Every page on this site is still hand-coded by myself using nothing more that a text editor. I have no plans to stop now! The site will continue to grow as new shows go to air in Australia. - October 2010