The series launched on Monday 28th August 1967. The last was broadcast on Friday 23rd December 1977.
It was suggested that many, if not all, episodes of the show were taped over accidentally during stocktake years after the show ended. Its archival status remains unclear, though some editions are known to still exist.
The show was actually the first Australian soapie to make it to the UK: in April 1972 52 episodes were sold to ITV regional broadcasters Thames, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees for weekday screenings from July, with Thames purchasing an additional 24 editions the following year.
Interiors were taped at ABC's Ripponlea studios in Melbourne on Thursdays and Fridays, comprising four fifteen-minute episodes a week. This followed two six-hour rehearsal days. Mondays saw the weekly script conferences, with writers working three months in advance of transmission.
The series fact-sheet revealed that Bellbird was founded in 1842, "situated about 200 hundred miles from Canberra ... on the Weerang River ... the centre of a fertile district which produces a wide range of crops and has varied mineral resources. The town's present population is approximately 3½ thousand, but - as with any country town - arrivals and departures go on all the time, particularly with young people. The settled older population remains more constant."
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