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Centred on the casework and conflicts that encompass Aboriginal police detective Jay Swan, Mystery Road has become a reliable franchise at the heart of the ABC’s schedule. Spun off from Ivan Sen’s two Jay Swan movies, 2013’s Mystery Road and 2017’s Goldstone, the outback crime drama and star Aaron Pedersen switched to television for seasons in 2018 and 2020. They were followed by the Origin prequel, with Mark Coles Smith playing a younger Jay Swan, which successfully debuted in 2022 and now returns for a second stint.
Mark Coles Smith as Detective Jay Swan and Robyn Malcolm as Simmo in Mystery Road: Origin.
That’s a sturdy output, and critically whatever the iteration, Mystery Road has never become timeworn nor merely dependable. The sharp edges just beneath the procedural storytelling – notably the lingering racism of Australia’s colonial past and the painful push-and-pull Jay experiences between his career and his community – can still rear up and knock you sideways. There’s a scene at the start of the new season’s third episode so historically potent, I gasped the first time I watched it.
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“The series has the courage to explore some of the regressive attitudes that we have inherited and passed on through the colonial history of Australia,” says Coles Smith. “Some of these are unexamined, and I think the show has the courage to put it right in front of your face. It says, ‘Hey, this is the kind of stuff that has taken place, this is what we need to talk about’.”
Origin’s sophomore season is set in 2000, months after the events of the first season. Jay Swan has gained a new assignment, in the fictional small town of Loch Iris, so he can be with his wife, Mary (Tuuli Narkle), who has returned to where her mother grew up and is working at the local hospital and caring for her niece, Anya (Sue Pitt).
Even before Jay’s arrival in the township takes an unexpected turn, it’s a fraught moment in time. In 2000, Cathy Freeman’s quest for gold at the looming Sydney Olympics is on the television, but the failings of the 20th century, and those who were part of them, are still present. At the hospital, the records reveal a home for pregnant single mothers who had to give up their children, while locals casually tell Mary that her mother’s nickname growing up was “the Runner” because she kept trying to escape the local Indigenous mission.
“What a lot of Australians sometimes fail to grasp is just how recent the collective challenges and injustices for Indigenous people actually are. In 2000, there’s a lot going back into the recent decades that has left a tangible impact on the lives of families and young Indigenous people at that time,” says Coles Smith. “For Jay, it’s not just a matter of coming to terms with what’s going on in that town now, it’s what’s gone wrong across generations in that township.”
Tuuli Narkle as Mary and Mark Coles Smith as Detective Jay Swan in season two of Mystery Road: Origin.
Coles Smith pulled off the transformation of Jay Swan in the first season of Origin with polished ease. With a few quiet words of encouragement from Aaron Pedersen, who he’d long known, the Kalgoorlie-born actor showed how Jay Swan started on his uncompromising journey. The character’s signature white cowboy hat sat at ease on Coles Smith’s head, but he was well aware what was at stake.
“When I did the first season there was this period of cognitive dissonance where I had a job to do, but I wasn’t sure if I would be accepted or even embraced in that role,” says Coles Smith. “For season two, that was gone. For season two, there was a sense not of ownership, but a deep amount of care for the character of Jay and telling another part of his story.”
Aaron Pedersen as Jay Swan in the original Mystery Road miniseries, which was a spin-off from Ivan Sen’s 2014 movie of the same name.
Coles Smith was patient while the show’s producers, Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey of Bunya Productions, carefully assembled the right creative team and found a story worth telling about Jay and Mary. But once the script work began, he was “very, very invested” in shaping Jay, marking up dialogue and offering notes on how the character played in scenes. It paid off: Jay’s dynamic with his new boss, the long-time Loch Iris copper everyone just calls “Simmo” (Robyn Malcolm), is a menacing slow burn.
Bunya’s stewardship of Mystery Road has not only put another Indigenous perspective into prime-time, it has also given opportunities to Indigenous creatives behind the camera. The process comes full circle in the new season with filmmaker Jub Clerc directing several episodes alongside set-up director Wayne Blair (The Sapphires). Six years ago, Clerc was on attachment shadowing director Rachel Perkins on the first season of Mystery Road, learning everything she could while Perkins honed Clerc’s self-worth.
“Rach really trusted me in that role, and we got to be a collaborative team. I thrived under her guidance and trust,” says Clerc. “Now I love collaborating. I say, ‘This is the story, and we stay honest and true to the writing, and we work as a team to understand what the story is.’ When you put story above all else, ego just goes out the window.
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“We can’t help it, as First Nations people, that when we see shows like Mystery Road that champion our storytelling in this country, we all – by default – feel like it belongs to us,” she adds. “So we absolutely protect it. We protect the people telling the story, we protect Jay Swan, whoever is playing the role. As First Nations people we all understand how important that role is and how many people look up to this deadly Black detective.”
It’s a responsibility not lost on Coles Smith. He has plenty more to say and do as Jay Swan, but if the time ever comes when the series concludes, then he has a must-see idea for the closing season of Mystery Road: bring back Aaron Pedersen for a story that features the two eras of Jay Swan, cementing the link between their complementary performances.
“It would be my dream to share a season with Az, and do a story that takes place across two timelines,” says Coles Smith. “If this season does really well, I’ll lean in and encourage the ABC. That would be an exciting crossover to put us both inside the same story.”
Mystery Road: Origins (season two) premieres at 8.15pm on Sunday, September 21, on ABC and ABC iview.
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