[5] An old artist (Rolf Harris) sets up some paintings at Luna Park, Sydney, planning to sell them, but has trouble attracting any people, so he starts telling his granddaughter about their origins.

Six of these convicts are a young boy named Toby Nelson; his older sister Polly; "Big George" Tomkins, a blacksmith; Jake "Dipper" Davey, a professional pickpocket who has become old and slow; William Watts, a "village idiot" nicknamed "Silly Billy"; and Jack Doolan, a highwayman.

Sergeant "Bully" Langden tells Colonel Lightfoot's aide, Captain Pertwee, that the military need five men to work on the Government farm, and he selects Big George, Jack, Dipper, Silly Billy and Toby for the task.

The music sends Dipper's friends to sleep, allowing him to creep out of the hut and distract the guards by throwing some pebbles.

The next morning, George starts breaking the tools, drawing the attention of the soldiers and allowing Jack to untether a horse and quietly turn it towards the mountains.

A noise causes Bully and Weazel to wake in the guardhouse and see Toby's shadow between the wire fence and scrub.

As Toby continues to search for Jack, he gets a feeling that someone is following him, but he hears little and doesn't see anything when he stops to look.

Next morning, Wahroonga leads Toby along a dry river bed looking for hoof prints and other small clues to Jack's possible escape route.

Jack sends Toby to collect Silly Billy while he heads for the guardhouse to get the keys to Big George's cell.

A boomerang thrown by Wahroonga hits Bully on the back of his neck, sending his gunshot through a window of the Governor's house (causing a frightened Polly to drop the oil lamp she is carrying) before he falls unconscious to the ground.

But the flame of the dropped lamp ignites on the now-spreading oil, causing a fire which engulfs the house so fast that Polly and Augusta are trapped inside.

He then points his granddaughter to the nearby merry-go-round, where the people that she sees on it bear likenesses to the characters from his paintings and the animation.

[7] The movie's theme featuring the relation of convicts and Aboriginal people has been called realistic,[7] and mentioned in some scholarly discussion.