Treasure & Dirt review: an outback murder mystery with grit

Decapitation! That’s something you don’t see every day. And with someone’s head lopped off, Treasure & Dirt is off and running – well, the dead guy isn’t running anywhere, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a part to play.

Treasure & Dirt is the latest in a proud (or at least, long) tradition of small town murders on Australian screens, which means various boxes have to be ticked. For starters, is the small town in an aggressively scenic location? It’s the bone-dry and dusty opal mining town of Nullah (the series was filmed in Coober Pedy), so that’d be a pretty big yes.

Is the investigating officer a fish out of water type who ruffles feathers while needing things explained to them? Or alternatively someone returning to town after years away, only to find the welcome isn’t as warm as might otherwise be expected? What Treasure & Dirt says is: why can’t we have both?

Taking on the outback

Ivan Lucic (Michael Dorman) is the big city cop who sleeps with his holster on and who expects this to be an open-and-shut case, even if the person who called it in was a ‘Ratter’ (an opal thief). He has bad dreams, he usually works alone and hopefully he’s arranged for someone to look after his cat.

With him is new detective Nell Buchanan (Liv Hewson). She’s the one with experience in and around Nullah, which is why she expects this to be a tricky situation. To be more specific, she’s expecting a shitshow, no matter what reassuring words her boss comes up with.

Small towns in these stories come with bad attitudes (optional) and secrets (always). It’s clear from the start that Nell doesn’t have a lot of fans among the locals, which you’d think would be a disadvantage but they’re all so dodgy and sexist it’s not like they’d help out even if she was everyone’s best mate.

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‘We’re a violent backwoods inbred bunch but at least the parking’s free,’ is how local sergeant Pat Richter (Sarah Peirse) describes the place once she finishes taking a nap behind her desk. It’s the kind of place where the police bash a suspect first and collect the evidence later, which may or may not explain how the dead man’s head has gone missing.

What at first seemed like a fairly clear-cut case of robbery – there are rumours around town that the dead man found a very profitable black opal he was looking to sell – soon becomes more of a freak show.

The town is full of wacky characters, not to mention a cult of some kind out there under the ground. And when the dead man’s daughter Elsie (Arnijka Larcombe-Weate) turns up with a sick child looking for her inheritance, things get even more complicated.

An uncertain partnership

But the real twists here point back at the investigating duo. Nell gets a call from Internal Affairs, wanting to have a chat about Ivan. Does she really want to get involved in investigating her partner on her first ever homicide case? And will Ivan – who has secrets of his own – even let her turn a blind eye to his violent side and erratic behaviour?

As things progress, the class of possible criminal goes up, as a mining magnate (Kris McQuade) and a tech billionaire (Eamon Farren) interested in rare earths both step into the frame. There’s also a secret underground gambling den and fighting ring that’s used as a shortcut to justice by the local cops – as you do – and by the time there’s a big town-wide celebration (just to let off steam) it’s pretty clear that Nullah has bigger problems than just one headless miner.

We’re not quite into Wake in Fright territory here, but the off-kilter outback location and a seemingly upright cop who rapidly starts coming apart (or does he?) gives this a slightly similar vibe. Which is a good thing. As murder mysteries go, this is the usual wander around between suspects (it’s based on a 2021 novel by Chris Hammer) but Ivan’s opaque status and Nell’s quandary as far as Internal Affairs goes – not to mention the way her skin seems to be crawling at being back in Nullah – gives proceedings a bit of a spark.

Where this really takes off is with the town’s off-kilter residents. Nullah doesn’t exactly operate by the usual rules, and the quirkier types – a silent giant, a ‘mayor’ who parties hard, the aforementioned underground (literally) cult – give the setting the feel of a dream – or nightmare.

Director Madeleine Gottlieb does an excellent job of constantly setting characters against empty space, whether it’s the vast landscape or a police station located inside a building twice as big as it needs to be. Cramped spaces get their due too. With all that emptiness above ground, it’s no surprise a lot of people spend as much time as they can below the surface.

As a mystery, it’s solid work. As an atmospheric ride through an almost hellish carnival, it’s not afraid to push things a little. Despite the initial cliches, Treasure & Dirt finds its way towards being something a bit stranger and more powerful than the usual small town murder investigation. The rewards are there for those willing to dig.

Treasure & Dirt premiered 19 July on ABC and ABC iview.

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