Summary

• Dive into Australia's top-notch TV shows on Netflix, offering unique storylines and quality entertainment for audiences worldwide.
• Discover gems like Lunatics, The Bureau Of Magical Things, and Pine Gap, showcasing Australian talent and captivating storytelling.
• From comedies like The Letdown to dramas like Stateless, these shows cater to all age groups and offer a diverse range of genres for viewers to enjoy.

Australia might be on the other side of the world, but thanks to Netflix, their top-notch TV programs are finding their way into homes everywhere and dazzling audiences from across the globe. Oz might not be known for cranking out worldwide entertainment, but what they lack in quantity, they more than make up for in quality. Many of the modest-budget productions listed below were never intended for a worldwide audience, but their unique storylines, refreshingly honest humor, and nail-biting dramas have made them all an international success.

Because of the way Netflix works, TV shows do come and go from the platform on a regular basis. While Netflix used to host a lot of Australian dramas and mysteries, the bulk of the Australian shows on the platform these days are family-friendly favorites. These are the best Australian TV shows on Netflix right now.

Lunatics

(2019)

Fronted by Australian comedian Chris Lilley, Lunatics isn’t for everyone, but its audience, the show is one of the most intriguing and underrated comedies on Netflix. Lilley is known for stirring up controversy and using a mockumentary style to allow himself to play multiple characters in the same projects, not unlike some of Eddie Murphy's older movies. Lunatics is the most recent series he's developed as many of his older series have been pulled from streamers due to the controversy they stirred up.

In Lunatics, Lilley takes on six roles that all have their own eccentricities and are very different from one another, allowing him to show off his performance skills. The downside to Lilley’s gifted performances here is that the characterizations of many of those roles are easily labeled as problematic. Lunatics is certainly a show to watch with a critical eye even while appreciating the talent and work involved in bringing it to life.

Wellmania

(2022)

...both hilarious and heartfelt.

This dramedy series might have only had one season before Netflix unceremoniously canceled it, but it certainly deserves a watch. Inspired by the memoir Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness by Brigid Delaney, the series follows a New York Times food writer on her journey back home in Australia. Her world is turned upside down after she experiences the offer of a great job opportunity as a judge on a cooking show, a health scare, and a trip home to visit her family.

Liv Healy (Celeste Barber) wants nothing more than to get back into her work, so she devises a plan - to write about her own personal wellness journey. The results are both hilarious and heartfelt. Barber is fantastic in the role, and it’s one she truly deserved to play for years. She was nominated for a Logie for her work even though the series didn’t move forward.

Boy Swallows Universe

(2024)

This limited series is one of the standout Australian shows to premiere in 2024. Based on the novel of the same name, the series is a coming-of-age story about a young boy who ends up caught up in Brisbane’s criminal underworld out of a desire to help his mother.

For a lot of international audiences, the draw to this series will be Phoebe Tonkin, who is best known for her roles on teen dramas like The Vampire Diaries universe of TV shows, and back in her native Australia, for her breakout role as a teen mermaid in H2O: Just Add Water. Her performance here is incredibly raw and vulnerable. The series, however, is stacked with talent beyond Tonkin, particularly Felix Cameron as young Eli as he struggles to help his mother.

The series is currently nominated for 24 Logies, including acting nominations for Tonkin, Cameron, and Simon Baker.

The Tourist

(2022-)

Answers are hard to come by in this series as they only lead to more questions...

Splitting its time between Australia and the UK, The Tourist is a twisty thriller that has managed to keep audiences guessing with every new addition to the show. The series kicks off in Australia with an Irishman (Jamie Dornan) who has amnesia after an accident. A local woman who re meeting him offers to help him recover his memories, but their investigation into who he is hints that he has a dark past he’s been trying to escape.

The second season heads to Ireland and involves a kidnapping to kick off events, so each season has become more twisty and full of questions than the last. Answers are hard to come by in this series as they only lead to more questions, but that’s part of what makes the show so fascinating. The performances are also stellar with Jamie Dornan receiving a Logie nomination for his work in the first season.

There’s been no word yet on a third season of the show, but the series has been nominated for the 2024 Logie for Best Drama Series for its second season.

Fisk

(2022-)

There aren’t a lot of legal shows out of Australia on Netflix. Crime dramas and miniseries, yes, but those focusing on the law itself are few and far between. Fisk is a comedy series that does that, but with its own unique flair, as it is also about a woman trying to put her life back together.

Kitty Flanagan stars as Helen Tudor-Fisk, a woman whose career and marriage both fall apart, prompting her to relocate to Melbourne. There, she gets a job in a law office that specializes in probate law, an area of the law not typically focused on in shows involving lawyers. Their specialty is proving that a deceased person's will is legitimate.

Flanagan won the Logie for Most Popular Actress in both 2022 and 2023 for her work in the show. The series has also remained in the top 10 watched live in Australia during both of its season runs. A third season of the show is currently in development.

Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire

(2021)

Netflix is known for having some of the most compelling true crime documentaries. While some of them are made for the streamer, others are acquired from outside networks. The latter is true of Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire. The three-episode miniseries was produced for an Australian network as a journalist painstakingly researched and reported on one of Australia’s most tragic incidents.

There’s now an AUD$1 million reward being offered to witnesses who might have information to help in the investigation.

In 1979, seven people were killed in a fire that broke out on the Ghost Train amusement center ride at Luna Park. While at the time, the tragedy was chalked up to faulty wiring and the area being understaffed, there have been allegations of arson and a cover-up in the years since. The docies explores that idea by compiling interviews with witnesses and family of the victims.

The documentary was compelling enough to reignite public interest in the tragedy more than 40 years later, calling for the investigation to reopen. There’s now an AUD$1 million reward being offered to witnesses who might have information to help in the investigation.

The New Legends Of Monkey

(2018-)

The legend of the Monkey King has been adapted for a lot of different media, but The New Legends of Monkey is actually a remake of a Japanese series from the 1970s. The series sees a monk go on a journey to find sacred scrolls with Monkey and a pair of other ancient gods that the population has largely forgotten about.

While the series is billed as a family-friendly fantasy (and has been nominated for children’s programming awards in New Zealand and Australia), it’s got darker moments and violence that young audience might not be ready for. The fantasy series is a creative take on a classic hero’s journey, and will definitely call to mind fantasy shows like Xena Warrior Princess, Hercules, or Beastmaster, all also filmed in New Zealand and based on myths that were given fresh takes.

The Deep

(2015-)

This animated series is a t venture between a Canadian and Australian broadcasting company with streaming access given to Netflix. It follows a family who are descendants of an ocean-dwelling people who set out to solve the mysteries of the deepest parts of the ocean. The Deep draws on some real-life oceanic creatures and events to create a compelling adventure for all ages to enjoy.

Unfortunately, Netflix only has access to one batch of episodes of The Deep at a time. Right now, the streamer only has the 13 episodes that make up season 3 available to stream, which is right in the middle of the larger narrative arc. Despite only having part of the story available, The Deep is still one of the best Australian animated series on Netflix, and the episodes will surely get families interested in the ocean.

The Unlisted

(2019-)

Like many of the best Australian series on Netflix, The Unlisted is aimed at a young audience, specifically teens. Netflix has picked up a lot of series on an international scale that appeal to teenagers in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, like this one. The series follows a group of teenagers who uncover a conspiracy in which a government organization seeks to control teenagers.

It’s not unlike the American movie Disturbing Behavior, though a bit lighter in tone. Teens who haven’t found themselves implanted with a tracker that allows their movements to be controlled call themselves “the unlisted” and work to expose what’s really happening to the world. The series focuses on twin Indian-Australian boys (played by Ved and Vrund Rao) and slowly expands to their circle of allies which even includes a gamer who is a well-known streamer, putting the anonymity of the group in danger.

The Bureau Of Magical Things

(2018-2021)

The human and magical worlds coexist...

Producer and writer Jonathan M. Shiff has a knack for Australian children’s television in that the shows he creates often don’t just appeal to kids. While they contain fantasy elements like mermaids or, in this case, fairies, the shows are always grounded in very real problems for the teens and their families at the center of the story. Shiff is the mind behind such Australian gems as Ocean Girl, H2O: Just Add Water, and Lightning Point, among others.

The latest venture from Shiff is The Bureau of Magical Things, taking the stories slightly away from the beach and leaning more toward urban fantasy. The human and magical worlds coexist, but magical creatures are an endangered species that work to keep themselves secret. When a young human woman stumbles on a magical book, she gets a crash course in all things magic.