In the twenty-five years before the renaissance in Australian features in 1975, the major films made here were funded by overseas studios seeking exotic locations for films featuring foreign stars. Age of Consent is a robustly entertaining adaptation of a Norman Lindsay novel (with significant modification), set mainly on picturesque Dunk Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It starred—not altogether comfortably—the suave and urbane James Mason and introduced stage actor Helen Mirren. The première in then ultraconservative Brisbane sparked controversy with its depiction of nudity and its hint of cross-generational sexual liaison. A range of notable Australians feature as crew and cast, including editor Tony Buckley (Chauvel recipient 2003); composer Peter Sculthorpe, whose score was replaced in the release version but has since been restored; associate producer Michael Pate; screenwriter Peter Yeldham; and actors Frank Thring, Harold Hopkins, Neva Carr-Glynn, Michael Boddy, and Max Meldrum.

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