Nadine Garner returns to the samll screen in Savage River

Working with one of Australia’s most respected film directors Jocelyn Moorhouse, known for her feature films How to Make an American Quilt and The Dressmaker was reason enough for actress Nadine Garner to join the ABC TV’s new crime drama Savage River, filmed in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

“To have Jocelyn Moorhouse and cinematographer Don McAlpine, who have both had incredible international careers, attached to an Australian television project was very alluring,” says Nadine Garner who started acting at age 13 in The Henderson Kids.

Savage River is set in a creepy abattoir town that isn’t so welcoming when Miki (Golden Globe nominated actress Katherine Langford) returns after serving an eight-year murder sentence.

“The workers who come to this town have come from somewhere else – and I like that Savage River explores all those facets of what makes Australia,” Garner says.

“These are the people who come here to do horrible jobs that white Australians don’t want to do. Often, we see country towns with lots of white people, and I think it’s refreshing to introduce this notion of people coming to Australia to be in towns away from everything they know,” she says.

Garner plays Miki’s mother, Lynne Anderson, who watches her daughter try to shake her past and find a place in this unforgiving town.

“Playing the mother of a child who has been sent to prison allows me to explore that grief process – that is what interests me,” Garner says.

“My character is an animal rescue worker, so while she’s busy saving animals from their grief, she struggles to do that for her own child. It’s a juxtaposition that really hits a nerve,” she says.

The animal rescue scenes were filmed in Warrandyte, where Garner was surrounded by cockatoos, baby joeys and a baby doe.

Garner, a mother of two who lives in Melbourne, has split her career between television work and theatre for three decades, and says she’s grateful she never got too famous.

“I don’t ever feel I was damaged by being in the spotlight from a young age,” she says.

“My appearance in Neighbours [in 1985 as Rachel] wasn’t a hyped moment like it was for Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.  I certainly got a lot of followers, and that series still resonates with people and I feel blessed I didn’t have to navigate that sort of popularity from a young age. I took that experience and kept building my acting career,” Garner says.

Having scored regular roles in shows including City Homicide and The Dr Blake Mysteries, Garner has no regrets about not heading overseas to pursue an international career.

Born and raised in Melbourne’s outer suburb of Knox, Garner didn’t follow anyone in her family when it came to acting.

“My childhood was lower to middle class suburban. Knox is a very hip place now, but it wasn’t when I was growing up. It was paddocks that turned into suburbs and Knox City got built when I was a kid. I was the first generation in my family to pursue acting,” Garner says.

She’s hoping that more local dramas will continue to attract high-profile names and give established female actors a chance to be part of them.

“Once TV dramas were the poor cousin of cinema,” Garner says. “Now we have series coming into their own and attracting the great talents, and in turn it’s great for people like me.”

SAVAGE RIVER PREMIERS ON ABC TV ON SEPTEMBER 4TH AND AVAILABLE ON ABC IVIEW