The thirteenth and final season of the Australian police drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 1 April 2006 and aired on Saturday nights at 8:30 pm.

When, in late 2005, the time came to renew Blue Heelers, Seven commissioned eleven further episodes to be produced, but its future after this was still undecided.

This season focuses primarily on the show's main protagonist, Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon, his failing health and his personal troubles.

John Wood, who portrays Croydon, is the only actor to appear in every episode of Blue Heelers and is, indisputably, the pillar of the show.

[3] The final episode of the thirteenth season aired as a 2-hour, movie-length tribute starting with an introduction from John Wood, and concluding with a compilation of Blue Heelers moments from over its 13-season run.

Due to Tom's illness, Falcon-Price takes over the operation of the station and the team must deal with his constant presence and the pressure which they are put under.

The finale focuses on Tom's attempts to reconnect with his family, and recover from his debilitating illness, whilst dealing with criminal charges brought against him by a vengeful ex-officer as well as the fact that the Mount Thomas police station, which he loves so dearly, may be closed down.

It also features the return of former cast member Damian Walshe-Howling, reprising his role as Adam Cooper, still very bitter about his treatment by Tom.

The news was broken by television critic Robert Fidgeon on radio station 3AW, and was shortly followed by the official announcement which appeared on the front-page of nearly all of Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Melbourne Herald Sun, The Melbourne Age and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

[20] For this thirteenth season, Seven chose to move Blue Heelers from its Wednesday-night, primetime timeslot,[5] which it had occupied for 10 years, to the lower-rating Saturday night timeslot, which also saw it up against popular British police programme The Bill and Network Ten's Australian Football League (AFL) coverage; this move was slammed by cast member John Wood.

[6] The final episode, "One Day More", achieved 1,512,000 viewers in the five major Australian cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.

[7] This could be partially attributed to the magnitude of support thrown behind Wood in his bid for the publicly chosen award: Nova 100's Michelle Anderson, for example, ran a campaign and had T-shirts made up in his honour stating: "Ten years, it's high time the pillar of society and acting god that is John Wood be rewarded with gold.

[3] As well as this prestigious award, Wood was also privileged to win the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, which he had won in 2005 and had been nominated for a further 6 times, over thirteen years, for his role as Tom Croydon on Blue Heelers.