South Solitary

Meredith Appleton (Miranda Otto) arrives on South Solitary island with her elderly uncle George Wadsworth (Barry Otto). Her uncle has been sent as the new replacement Head Lighthouse Keeper as the previous one committed suicide. Her uncle is shown to be a gruff man very critical of the slightest disorder. Meredith meets the girl Nettie (Annie Martin), a local girl whom she asks to care for her lamb. She then meets the mother, Alma Stanley (Essie Davis) and her two sons, Tom (Reef Ireland) and Robbie (Benson Adams). The father, Harry Stanley (Rohan Nichol) takes the George for a tour of inspection. George is disapproving of the state of the loose animals, the absence of lighthouse keeper Jack Fleet (Marton Csokas), and a previous history of lighthouse outages. The first night, as Meredith is preparing tea for her uncle, she hears baby birds chirping in the stovepipe. She douses the fire and is not able to prepare hot tea for her uncle. During Jack Fleet's watch, he has a panic attack brought on by his war experiences. Nettie introduces Meredith to the emergency message system using homing pigeons. Nettie tries to send a message that all is well on South Solitary but the birds return to their coop thus rendering the system useless. While having afternoon tea with Alma, we learn that Meredith is unable to give birth. She lost her fiancé in the war, then became pregnant during an affair with a married man. Complications cause her womb to be removed. Harry visits her during her bath, and seduces her. Alma becomes aware of her husband's infidelity as Nettie saw Meredith and Harry in bed together, and informs George, then forces her family to leave the island on the next passing ship. While pushing up a store of supplies from the beach, George is forced to overly exert himself and becomes very ill and dies from a heart attack. Jack must keep solitary watch as there is no one else. They bury George and provide a eulogy for him. A whole gale forms while M