This Wild West-style action series was set in Australia in the 1850s.
Peter Graves (of Mission: Impossiblefame) starred as stagecoach company owner Chris Cobb and the series featured his adventures in the constant struggle against bushrangers, aborigines and competitors during the country’s formative years.
Chris also seemed to spend a lot of his time helping people find missing relatives and friends or resolve land disputes.
Anthony Wickert featured as his helper, Dan, while the bad guys in the series included George Wallace Jr and Chuck Faulkner – who had been Australia’s first newsreader and weatherman back in 1956 for Channel 9.
Although filmed in Australia, the series did all it could to look American – even the bad guys were émigrés. The locals were mostly reduced to lines like “You’re an American – you’re the only one who can stop them.” And, as might be expected from an Aussie Western, there was not an Indian in sight!
Whiplash was taken from the experiences of an American, Freeman Cobb, who migrated from Boston to Australia in the 1850s, began a Wells-Fargo-type transportation system across the big empty land and made it the best available until the railroads came in 1910, putting the company out of business.
At the peak, Cobb harnessed 6,000 horses a day and covered 20,000 miles of runs.
The Whiplash company filmed part of the time at stud ranches and sheep and cattle stations and the remainder of the time at Artransa Studios in the Sydney suburb of Frenchs Forest.
Graves became friendly with an aboriginal leader called Nose Peg during filming. After spending a day before the camera, Nose Peg apparently wanted to change his name to John Carter as he felt it would give him more dignity as an actor.
TRIVIA
Peter Graves and James Arness (Marshall Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke) are brothers.
Christopher Cobb
Peter Graves Dan Ledward
Anthony Wickert Kuanspa/Kuraba/Mundaru/Dalgowlie
Robert Tudawali Dillon
Philip Ross Billy Jo
Henry Murdoch Chad Karpner
Barry Linehan Mike Jacky
Ken Goodlet Norris
Guy Doleman Cassie
Annette Andre Anna
Margo Lee Jeremy Quicksilver
Stuart Wagstaff Edwin Regnor
Nigel Lovell Arnold Lofton
Joe McCormick Catherine Lachlan
Janette Craig Dundee
Grant Taylor Bunyip
Tom Farley Barrow
Reg Lye Sheridan
Terry McDermott Adam Douglas
John Brunskill Harry
Roger Cox
Episodes
Convict Town | Rider on the Hill | The Legacy | The Other Side of the Swan | Barbed Wire | Episode in Bathurst | The Twisted Road | Dutchman’s Reef | The Actress | Divide and Conquer | The Remittance Man | Sarong | Solid Gold Brigade | Stage for Two | The Bone That Whispered | The Day of the Hunter | The Canoomba Affair | The Rushing Sands | Fire Rock | The Hunters | Stage Fright | A Portrait in Gunpowder | Ribbons and Wheels | The Wreckers | Storm River | Flood Tide | A Dilemma in Wool | Dark Runs the Sea | The Magic Wire | The Haunted Valley | Love Story in Gold | Secret of the Screaming Hills | Act of Courage | The Adelaide Arabs
Video
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At the peak, Cobb harnessed 6,000 horses a day and covered 20,000 miles of runs.
