Water Rats

Water Rats was created by John Hugginson and Tony Morphett for the Nine Network, based on the real-life work of the Sydney Water Police who patrol Sydney Harbour and surrounding areas.

The show was cancelled after six seasons; executive producer Kris Noble blamed escalating production costs, though the series had also suffered a ratings decline following the 1999 departure of stars Colin Friels and Catherine McClements.

The first season of the series cost $16 million to produce.

Season three was originally meant to contain 32 episodes, but only 31 aired because of Colin Friels' illness.

The show was largely filmed on and around Goat Island in Sydney Harbour, with the fictional Water Police headquarters set there, while the real Sydney Water Police headquarters was actually located at Pyrmont.

The exterior of lead character Frank's house was filmed near the Agar Steps in The Rocks, New South Wales, while the interior scenes were shot on a set built on Goat Island.

Early in the series, real morgues were used as filming locations before a morgue set was eventually built on Goat Island.

Actress Catherine McClements had prior working relationships with several of her Water Rats collaborators: she had appeared with Colin Friels in the film Weekend with Kate (1990), with Scott Burgess in Just Us (1986), and with series creator Tony Morphett on the telemovie My Brother Tom (1986).

A 2003 exhibition on Australian police dramas at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra featured scripts from Water Rats as well as a plastic corpse prop used in one of the episodes.

A Water Rats soundtrack album was produced by Les Gock in 1999, featuring songs like 'Goldie's Theme' by Cathi Ogden and 'I'll Dream of You' by Hugh Wilson, plus tracks sung by cast members Raelee Hill and Jay Laga'aia.