Catacombs International Guide
Around The World

Australia

Thanks to Stephen Herbert, John Trone.

Space: 1999 was shown on stations belonging to Australia's Seven network. At the time, Australia had one national government-funded TV network, ABC (based on Britain's BBC).The major metropolitan areas of each Australian state (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth) had several commercial stations each: Channel 7, Channel 9 and a channel 0 or 10. These commercial stations were local and independent, but created alliances to share content. These alliances become the Seven Network (the channel 7 stations), the Nine Network (the channel 9 stations) and the Ten Network (channel 0 and 10 stations).

Australia introduced colour television on 1 March 1975, and Space: 1999 was one of the first series broadcast in colour. See the article What you'll see on color TV from 19 February 1975.

• Australian press from the 1970s (mostly Melbourne)
• Australia TV Times Nick Tate interview from 1977
• Australian press from 2003-4
• Sunicrust Bread promoted the series with a 50-card set, mentioning HSV-7 showing the series (which in the event only showed one episode in 1975, see below).
• In 1995, six episodes were released on VHS by CEL Entertainment
• From 2003, DVDs were available from Magna Pacific and re-released in box sets by parent company Beyond Home Entertainment in 2009 and 2016. They were identical to the UK Carlton releases.
• In 2021, Blu-ray The Complete Series was available from Impact.

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory - CTC7

The channel 7 station for Australia's capital, Canberra, was CTC7. It had built the first colour studio in Australia in 1974, and was the first station to broadcast the majority of its output in colour. It was keen to show off TV series in colour, and so it was the first broadcaster to show Space: 1999 in the world.

Space: 1999 began in Canberra at the late timeslot of 10.35pm on Friday 16 May 1975. It finished in November.

Year 2 started on Friday 2 September 1977 at 7:30pm with, oddly, The Mark of Archanon. The Metamorph was shown the following week, on 9 September at the later time of 8:30pm. Later episodes reverted to the 7:30pm slot. In 1978 it shifted to Saturdays in the same slot until March. The series returned in November 1978 on Wednesdays until February 1979.

Melbourne, Victoria - HSV7

In Melbourne, HSV-7 previewed Breakaway on Monday July 28, 1975 at 7.30pm. The local press called it a "world premiere", although the show had been running in Canberra for 2 months. No other episodes were shown before it started its regular run on Monday 23 February 1976 in a 7:30pm slot.

Year One returned at 7:30pm on Tuesday 9th November 1976 (with Breakaway, followed by Earthbound, Matter of Life And Death, Another Time Another Place, Ring Around The Moon, ?, Mission of The Darians, Missing Link, ?, Troubled Spirit, Full Circle, then dropped January 25th for Love Thy Neighbour).

In 1978 it shifted to Saturday midday (known dates 7 January Immunity Syndrome, Sunday 8 January 1pm Dorzak, 25 March Metamorph, 8 April Beta Cloud 22 April Immunity Syndrome)

The series re-appeared in mid-November 1978 in a Saturday 7.30pm slot, first with repeats of Year One followed by Year 2.

Advert from HSV and Sunicrust Bread in Melbourne newspaper The Herald, dated Monday 28 July 1975.

Sunicrust & HSV7 Launch... Space: 1999 7.30-8.30 Tonight!

With 2 great competitions to celebrate blast-off!

Blast-off No.1 Simply colour this scene from Space 1999 in your most outaspace colours. (You'll get your hints from the exciting full colour swap cards now appearing in Sunicrust loaves.) And simply send your entry to Space 1999, HSV-7, Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, 3205.

Big prizes right through the week! Starting Tuesday, July 29th, and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights . we'll be selecting the winners of 10 Timex space-age watches a night. And, on Monday, August 4th, during Space 1999, we'll be selecting the winner of the Colour TV. So keep your set on Seven!

And now the super blast-off Sunicnust competition!

You could win a holiday for four in Disneyland-all expenses paid plus $500 spending fabulous money!
Or one of 500 Timex space-age watches! And it's so easy to get yourself a Space Alpha Space Shirt-just like they wear on Moon Base Alpha!
All you have to do is collect the full colour Space 1999 swap cards now appearing in 680g Sunicrust loaves of Sunny White Sliced, Toast and Wholemeal.

• Press

Sydney, New South Wales - ATN7

Year One started on Sunday 3 August 1975 at 7:30pm and continued until Sunday 7 December.

On Tuesday 9 November 1976 it reshowed Breakaway at 7:30pm, followed by Earthbound on 16 November, Another Time, Another Place 30 November, Ring Around the Moon 7 December, Force of Life 14 December, Mission of the Darians 21 December, Missing Link 28 December, The Last Sunset 4 January 1977, unknown episode 11 January. It reappeared on Saturday at 6:30pm on 5 February 1977 with Collision Course, Voyager's Return 12 February, The Testament of Arkadia 19 February, War Games 26 February.

Nick Tate was interviewed by Sydney film critic Bill Collins on his ATN7 show at 10:30pm on Sunday 8 May 1977.

War Games started a new run at 1pm on Sunday 12 June 1977, followed by The Last Enemy on 26 June, Space Brain 3 July, and an unknown episode at 4:30pm on Sunday 17 July.

The first Year 2 episode appeared at 5pm on Sunday 14 August: Journey To Where. There was nothing else until Force of Life at 7:30pm on Monday 7 November 1977, End of Eternity 14 November, Death's Other Dominion 21 November,

The Sydney Morning Herald on 27 November 1977 said (of the Thursday, 1 December premiere of The Metamorph) "Space 1999 (ATN7 7:30pm) continues to go overboard on technical effects and short on good, sensible scripts. As for the acting, Barbara Bain is the best looking robot I've seen."

The following episodes were The Exiles, One Moment of Humanity, and other episodes followed in 1978, including Year 1 repeats.

Adelaide, South Australia - ADS 7

The series started at 7:30pm on Saturday 21 February 1976 and continued until 1 May 1976, ending a run of eleven episodes.

It resumed Saturday 4 December 1976 in the same 7:30pm slot. On Saturday 12 March 1977 it moved earlier to 6:30pm, until it finished on 26 March 1977.