Skippy the Bush Kangaroo Season 1, Episode 16: When the Bough Breaks

1

Poachers

Sonny, Mark and Jerry investigate an expensive game fishing cruiser with three men aboard after Skippy and Sonny came across men trapping animals in the bush at night. Swimming out to the cruiser, Jerry overhears a conversation which indicates the men are stealing koalas for Dr. Stark's private zoo.

2

Sports Car Rally

An invasion of sports cars threatens the life of protected fauna in Waratah National Park, but when Matt leads a rescue squad to save the life of a driver pinned under his car in a serious accident, the rally organisers gratefully decide on another venue.

3

The Golden Reef

Skin-diving geologists discover aluvial gold on a reef at Seal Rocks, in the mouth of the Flinders River. Thieves move in armed with deadly spear guns, and once again Matt, Sonny and Skippy are there to stop them.

4

Long Way Home

Dr. Alexander Stark is determined to have Skippy for his private zoo. When Matt Hammond refuses to sell at any price, Stark has two of his henchman steal the kangaroo and she begins a tense series of adventures to find her way home.

5

Cage of Koalas

A research scientist who is to study marsupial wildlife at Waratah National Park turns out to be an attractive young woman. Her methods anger Chief Ranger Matt Hammond and she has to be rescued from serious trouble on a koala trapping foray into the lonely bush.

6

The Lyre Bird

Sonny makes a new friend Lisa, a young ballerina. Together they find an aged Botanist who has been missing in Waratah National Park and, with Skippy's help, bring about his rescue.

7

Dead or Alive

A mysterious disease threatens to wipe out all animals in Waratah National Park, and evidence points to Skippy as the carrier. Sonny is heartbroken at the possibility of losing Skippy, and disappears into the bush with the kangaroo. There he comes across a poacher, and Dr. Steiner discovers that the poacher's dogs are the actual carriers of the disease.

8

The Marine Biologist

Mark is unhappy when his father, Matt Hammond, tells him to accompany a marine biologist who wants to collect underwater specimens. But his misery turns to delight when he discovers that the marine biologist is a spunky young woman. The two of them quickly find themselves having to rescue Skippy and an unconscious Sonny from an out-of-control speedboat.

9

No Time For Clancy

Matt Hammond is faced with a human problem when one of his rangers moves to a new nature reserve up north, taking his wife and sons but leaving his daughter Clancy, who has exams pending, to board with the Hammonds. Clancy is in trouble from the moment she comes to stay, and she gets the idea she is not wanted and runs away.

10

Time and Tide

While working on a project for Dr Steiner, Clancy encounters trouble and is in risk of drowning when her leg becomes trapped underwater.

11

Can You Keep A Secret?

Sonny takes Clancy to his secret hideout where the pair are taken hostage by an escaped convict. Skippy brings help and jumps on the convict, allowing Sonny to get free of his clutches and for Matt to overpower the criminal.

12

The Swagman

An old tramp, Trundle, looking for odd jobs, fascinates Sonny with tales of adventure. However, Matt Hammond believes the stories are figments of Trundle's imagination and considers it a bad association for Sonny. Trouble begins when the old swagman gives Sonny an expensive antique watch as a parting gift. Matt discovers the gift, asks the police to trace the owner… and discovers the Swagman's secret. Trundle turns out to be Miles Vincent Archer, the wealthy chairman of a vast corporation.

13

The Honeymooners

When the greedy wife of a rich husband tries to trap Skippy, wanting her skin for a fur coat, Sonny finds himself locked in the cabin of a speeding cruiser, with no-one but Skippy aboard to help him.

14

Many Happy Returns

Sonny's birthday wish comes true — a ride in the helicopter, but not the way he expects. While flying over Sydney, Flight Ranger Jerry King collapses, leaving Sonny alone with the controls. To save their lives, Matt tries to use a tranquilizer gun to deliver the medicine to Jerry while flying alongside. When that fails, Sonny must be talked through landing the helicopter on his own.

15

My Best Friend

Sonny paints a picture of Skippy for his art class but before he mails it in, Mark replaces it with a 'better' one he made to help Sonny get a better grade. Sharing Mark's good intentions, Clancy unknowingly swaps Mark's painting for her 'better' version but when the painting is entered in a prestigious art competition and talk of an art scholarship begins, Clancy and Mark must come clean.

16

When the Bough Breaks

Skippy rescues a baby from drowning when the child's pram rolls into the river. Skippy alerts Sonny who brings the baby back to the house just as Matt, Jerry, and Mark are leaving to help the distraught parents search for their lost baby.

17

The Waratah Festival

A diamond thief loses a valuable necklace while on the run from the police in the park. The thief sees Skippy find it and places it in her pouch and follows her back to the ranger station where the Hammonds are busy building a parade float. The thief stows away on the float and a dramatic fight breaks out when he tries to recover the necklace as the float makes its way through the streets of Sydney.

18

Summer Storm

Ranger Headquarters is cut off by a violent storm as Matt Hammond lies poisoned by a snakebite. The phone line is down, the radio is not working, the serum is lost in the creek, the helicopter is out of fuel, the bridge is out and the ford is flooded. Skippy crosses an impassable gorge to fetch help, and the life-saving serum is parachuted to Ranger Headquarters just in time.

19

The Rustlers

Sonny, helped by Skippy, takes a job with a team of sheep shearers, not knowing they are rustlers, to earn money to buy a birthday present for his father. His absence from home puts Matt Hammond on the track of the three strange characters who have developed a variation of sheep rustling — they only take the wool!

20

Double Trouble

Matt Hammond's boss and a government Senator decide to sack him after it appears that Matt has run their car off the road and threatened them. It transpires that Dr. Stark has hired an actor to impersonate Matt Hammond in order to discredit him, but the whole scheme backfires and Dr. Stark has to honour the promise of a $10,000 donation to Waratah National Park.

21

Trapped

Dr Stark sends an operative into the park to collect a rare ant-eater specimen using a special gas-emitting camera. Clancy stumbles across the collector and is temporarily paralysed by the device. Skippy returns an incriminating audio recording of the encounter back to the ranger HQ leading to the thief's capture and Clancy's safe return.

22

They're Singing Me Back

Aboriginal warriors come to Waratah National Park to claim a run-away tribal girl. Head Ranger Matt Hammond defies their spears, convinces the elder that the girl's great talent for singing can help bring white and black people closer together.

23

Tara (1)

Sonny and Skippy discover the hidden entrance to a remote valley, thought to be inaccessible and uninhabited. There Sonny makes friends with an old Aboriginal living alone, whose tribe has long since migrated to other parts of the country. One day Sonny finds Tara weak and in a semi-coma — he believes he has been visited by a 'death spirit' and is going to die.

24

Tara (2)

Matt locates Mr Judd, the businessman whose life Tara saved, hoping he will help bring in people from Tara's tribe who will have the ability to free Tara from death.

25

Surf King

While Park Ranger Matt Hammond and Clancy are busy fighting a bush fire, Jerry makes a gallant attempt to win the Bondi Surf Championship — despite having just sustained serious injuries while rescuing a surfer girl in distress.

26

The Runaway

A young runaway holds Mark and Jerry at gunpoint demanding to be flown out of the park. Skippy leaps to the rescue and the boy flees on foot only to go over a ravine. Jerry risks his life the boy who would rather fall to his death than accept help.

27

The Last Chance

An aging film star attempts a comeback on a new movie being filmed in the National Park. When Skippy inserts herself into a scene, a new star is born — much to the annoyance of the leading man who tries to have Skippy 'taken care of'.

28

No Trespassers

Skippy stumbles on a secret boxing training camp illegally set up in Waratah National Park. A young champion, Rocky Miller, takes a forbidden joy ride in the helicopter with Jerry King, and a forced landing has surprise results.

29

Mayday (1)

Flight Ranger Jerry King breaks Waratah Park regulations when a helicopter flight is the only way he can keep a date with his girlfriend, Babs. A dramatic crash results — and Skippy again comes to the rescue.

30

Mayday (2)

Two Crash Detectives investigate Jerry's helicopter accident and are unable to substantiate his story of going off course to check on a bushfire. Skippy and Sonny head off to find the evidence needed to clear Jerry of the charges.

31

Date in Dalmar

With Sonny Hammond as a hostage and a rifle pointed at Head Ranger Matt Hammond's head, bank robber Keeler forces Matt to drive him from Waratah National Park to keep his rendezvous with accomplices.

32

The Empty Chair

Sonny travels to Sydney to persuade his friend Mr Trundle (alias Miles Vincent Archer) to return temporarily to his desk as chairman of a vast corporation and reverse the board's decision to despoil Waratah National Park by drilling for oil.

33

Ten Little Visitors

Sonny and Skippy become guides for foreign children stopping at Waratah National Park while touring Australia.

34

Aunt Evelyn

When Aunt Evelyn comes to Waratah National Park determined to persuade Head Ranger Matt Hammond that he should put his younger boy Sonny in boarding school in Sydney. Sonny and Skippy save Evelyn from death by drowning and Sonny is saved from a fate he'd consider worse than death.

35

The Bushrangers

Alone at Ranger Headquarters, Jerry is overpowered by burglars who take everything movable. Later, Sonny and Skippy come across a group wearing Ned Kelly armour entering a cave. Sonny suspects they are the burglars, but they turn out to be a pop group, 'The Bushrangers', who have set up their instruments in the Park after being driven from their town by neighbours complaining about the noise. The group eventually help catch the burglars after a sloppy mud fight.

36

Man From Space

Sonny has been placed in charge of an automatic recording unit deep in the bush of Waratah National Park, supervised by his father, Chief Ranger Matt Hammond. While servicing the box, Sonny finds an Air Force pilot who has ejected from his airplane. In trying to rescue him, Sonny slips and becomes trapped on a cliff face. Skippy goes for help and returns with Matt who rescues Sonny and, with help from Mark and Jerry in the helicopter, the pilot as well.

37

Be Our Guest

Thrown from her horse deep in the bush of Waratah National Park, Clancy is hopelessly lost and her mother is due at Ranger Headquarters to see how Head Ranger Matt Hammond has been looking after the teenaged house-guest. A band of aboriginal nomads find Clancy and bring her back to headquarters, just in time.

38

The Long Night

A pair of industrial spies, on the trail of a secret roll of microfilm, masquerade as detectives and try to cover their tracks by accusing Mark of a hit-and-run accident. Only Skippy is aware of their true identities.

39

View Matt

Overhearing the doctor tell Matt that he ought to marry again, Sonny tries his hand at matchmaking when he answers lonely hearts advertisements in Matt's name — and has to face the consequences.