Historian Michael Cathcart introduces William Wentworth and the "Emancipists", a loose-knit group of former convicts and their children who take on British Governor Ralph Darling in the 1820s in a struggle for independence and civil rights in colonial Australia. John Wood as Governor William Bligh John Brumpton as William Charles (WC) Wentworth Leeanna Walsman as Mary Putland Tony Llewellyn-Jones as Governor Lachlan Macquarie Patrick Dickson as Governor Ralph Darling Peter O'Brien as John Stephen Jnr Geoff Morrell as John Macarthur Heather Mitchell as Elizabeth Macarthur Sophie Cleary as Jane New John Gregg as Sir Joseph Banks Nicholas Hope as Judge Advocate Richard Adkins Les Hill as Sergeant Sutherland