Directed by Cherie Nowlan and written by John Doyle, it was the first mainstream television/film project to address the issue of the Government of Australia' refugee policy, a topic it approaches by chronicling the emotional journey of one young man during his year off after graduation, in his fictional rural home-town of Brackley, Australia.
The storyline of Marking Time was inspired by the real-life experiences of Afghan refugees and their hosts in the rural town of Young; however much of the outdoor scenes of the series were actually shot at Singleton.
An Afghan father and his daughter, Randa (Bojana Novakovic), arrive in Australia to escape the Taliban.
The main character who finished secondary school the previous year, Hal (Abe Forsythe) begins to feel sorry for her and over a course falls in love with her.
Although her father initially allows them to date, there is a lot of tension with their culture differences (Randa is a practising Muslim, Hal an atheist).
He uses the money his mother left to him to buy a plane ticket and the series ends with Hal unsure about what will happen in his search for his love.