The idea for a drama series based on Australia’s mining industry was conceived at least six years ago by Harvey Taft Productions, though the reliance of the Australian economy on resources makes the show seem more relevant than ever today.

Taft said that he and business partner and co-producer Michael Harvey started to look at mining stories in the news and realised the industry was a fundamental part of Australia, recognising the potential to create good drama using the industry as a backdrop.

“What happens is that, in our discussions with television networks, there’s always a desire for something new and different, but the something new and different has to have an engine – has to have something that will drive good drama and good stories,” Taft told MiningNewsPremium.net.

So the producers started doing some research and ended up with an 80-page research document, after travelling to mining areas and meeting people in the industry.

The show focuses on the battle to save copper, gold and nickel miner Cockatoo Creek Resources from collapse, as its parent company, London-based Albion Energy, appoints a new chief executive officer to turn the company around in six months.

Taking place in both the mine and the boardroom, the characters have a range of financial, environmental and safety issues to contend with.

Taft said the show was very timely and topical, especially given the global financial crisis.

“It was filmed during the boom and it’s now going to air at a time – I don’t want to say bust, but it’s certainly a time of difficulties,” he said.

Despite the show’s storyline seeming more relevant than ever right now, Taft admits that during filming a year ago, he and Harvey became concerned that the storyline might be silly and farfetched.

“Who would believe that an Australian mining company would be in difficulty?” he said.

The cast, which includes Joel Edgerton, Freya Stafford and Shane Connor, met with people in the industry to prepare for their roles, while filming on location in mines also helped.

“Having to do an induction, having to see what’s involved, having to wear the gear and walk the walk helped them talk the talk,” Taft said.

The series was filmed in Ballarat, Cobar, Broome and Fosterville, in working mines and old mines and quarries, while the boardroom scenes and some of the underground mining sequences were filmed in a Melbourne studio.

While Taft would not reveal which mines Dirt Game was filmed at, he said filming among real operations gave the show a sense of authenticity.

“That’s a bonus for us because it looks fabulous, but of course it comes with inherent problems,” he said.

“We can’t ask people to stop working and so we’re working in and out of truck movements and shift changes and so on to try and get what we can without interrupting the operation of the mines concerned.”

Taft said time for inductions had to be built into the filming schedule and shooting in safety gear was not ideal.

“It was a challenge but it was one we met,” he said.

“Everywhere we filmed, everybody was so helpful and so available to advise and help and that also made that kind of authenticity possible.”

There is even an episode set at an annual Western Australian mining forum, which Taft said is “absolutely” based on Diggers & Dealers.

“We called it the Downunder Forum and it’s somewhat reduced in scale than Diggers & Dealers,” he said.

“Part of the research was that Michael went to Diggers & Dealers a few years ago and he wrote an episode based on his experience of what he saw.”

Taft said it was too early to say whether a second series of Dirt Game would be made, with budget being the determining factor.

“The ABC has been promised more money in the federal budget but we’re in difficult times and we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

“The sixth episode has an ending so you’re not kind of left hanging, but we’ve set it up in such a way that we could go on and we would hope that we would.”

Dirt Game will premiere on ABC1 on Sunday, April 19, at 8:30pm.