217 DAYS

A limited documentary series · 3 × 60′

The hunt for Dezi Freeman

An elevated view over the township at first light, a fog bank lying on the river flat, forested ranges behind.

26 August 2025 · Porepunkah, Victoria

A cold, overcast morning in the Victorian High Country.

The Rayner Track road sign against dark bush.

Mid-morning

Ten police officers walk up a remote farm track to execute a warrant at an isolated property.

A tactical team and search dog sweeping the property in the hours after the shooting.

Minutes later

Two officers are dead. A third is seriously wounded. The gunman has escaped into the Victorian High Country.

Bare granite ranges and windswept alpine wilderness under low cloud.

217 days

The hunt begins.

This is what he walked into. Granite walls, snowgum, cloud closing over the gorge. Country that does not give people back easily.

Series pitch · logline

How does an obscure bushman become the most wanted man in Australian history?

A routine police warrant becomes a national tragedy, triggering Australia's largest manhunt. Over 217 days, a nation follows the search as an extraordinary story of family, community and unanswered questions slowly unfolds.

The dirt farm track where the warrant was served, bush pressing in on both sides.

Genre · Premium true-crime documentary thriller.
Format · 3 × 60′ limited series.
Engine · A real-time investigation, told through the people who lived it.

Dezi Freeman in the granite high country, years before the manhunt.

Series synopsis

Australia's largest manhunt should have been over within days, if not hours. Instead, nothing went to plan.

Dezi Freeman fled on foot into the Victorian High Country carrying little more than a handgun stolen from the constable he'd just killed. Police threw every available resource at finding him, yet every search ended the same way. Nothing. As days became weeks and weeks became months, the questions only grew more unsettling. He had survived the freezing winter. Then summer arrived, bringing bushfires. Still, there was no sign of him.

Eventually, police reached what they believed was the only possible conclusion. Dezi Freeman had to be dead. The manhunt had become a search for a body. Then everything changed. When Dezi Freeman was finally found alive after seven months on the run, just twenty minutes from his brother's home, Australia was left asking a different question. How was this possible? Was he an extraordinary survivalist, or did Australia's most wanted fugitive have accomplices helping him stay alive? And what finally changed after months without a breakthrough?

217 Days unfolds in real time through the eyes of the people living the manhunt. As each episode uncovers new evidence, fresh intelligence and unexpected revelations, the investigation builds towards the dramatic final siege that ends Australia's largest manhunt, while exposing new questions about the seven months that came before it.

An armoured police vehicle on a country road beneath the granite walls of Mount Buffalo.

The largest police operation in Australian history came to a valley of orchards and caravan parks.

The Chief Commissioner walks through bushland trailed by a media pack.

Why now

The headlines told Australia how the manhunt began and how it ended.

They never revealed what happened during the 217 days in between.

Built on exclusive access and previously untold evidence, the series uncovers a missing chapter of Australia's largest manhunt, revealing new information that has never entered the public record.

The officers

Two men went to work and did not come home.

Two lights. Touch each one.

Senior Constable Neal Thompson was eight weeks from retirement. Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart was 35, with most of his career still ahead of him. Their deaths changed families, colleagues and an entire community.

While 217 Days follows Australia's largest manhunt, it never loses sight of the people whose lives were forever changed on 26 August 2025. Their families now carry this story forward.

Neal Thompson on the water in his boat, his dog beside him. — Neal Thompson. He loved this country too.

Vadim De Waart-Hottart smiling in police uniform on an alpine ridge at sunset, snow on the ranges behind him. — Vadim De Waart-Hottart. A career of service, half lived.

A growing threat

Thirty-two months before Porepunkah, there was Wieambilla.

In December 2022, Australia was confronted with one of its deadliest acts of anti-government violence when two police officers and a neighbour were murdered at Wieambilla, Queensland. The attack brought sovereign citizen ideology into the national spotlight and fundamentally changed how police viewed the threat.

As Australia's largest manhunt unfolded, comparisons were quickly drawn between the two cases. Rather than accepting those comparisons at face value, 217 Days examines the evidence, the competing perspectives and the events that shaped one of Australia's most significant national tragedies.

A grainy black and white frame of Gareth and Stacey Train staring up into their own camera at night. — Gareth and Stacey Train, in the video they posted on the night of the murders. Archival.

The world of the series

A valley of orchards, WWOOFers and quiet arrangements.

This is not a compound story. It is a farm that took in volunteer workers, the way farms here have since 1981. A couple who gave a struggling family a place to park a bus. A tourist valley under Mount Buffalo where everyone waves on the road. The horror of the series is how ordinary all of it was, right up until the morning it wasn't.

Aerial view of the farm at Porepunkah, tracks winding between sheds and gardens. — The farm that took them in

The bus and its corrugated annexe on the terraced hillside, tarps and camp life around it, chickens by the steps. — He called it his castle

Inside the annexe: the kitchen shelves, a guitar, and the family sign reading Buckland. — Inside, it was just a home

The red-roofed farmhouse under the tree line at Porepunkah, autumn colour around it.

The farmhouse under the tree line. The valley kept living around the search.

Evidence & timeline · the signature graphic of the series

Two hundred and seventeen days.

The dial winds as you scroll. Every tick is a day he is still out there.

Scroll to wind the clock

The clock stops at 8:30 a.m. The questions start.

The ground · interactive terrain

Time was on his side. So was the ground.

Every place the story touched, in one living relief map: the valley where it began, the escape theories of the first week, the plateau that hid him, the fires that moved him, and the container where it ended. Built in the show's own graphics language.

He fled into the one place in Australia built to keep a secret.

Drag to look around · select a marker

The theories · the first week

Within days, the escape theories were national news. The sequence below ran as the country argued about it: the river, then the trails, then the neighbours.

Published satellite map of the Rayner Track property showing the river escape theory, upstream and downstream.

The same map with the back country trail theories added.

The same map with the adjoining property theories added.

Theory one · the river

The first week · the theories at ground level

Three ways out. Every one of them searched.

Satellite view of the Rayner Track property at the forest edge above Porepunkah, the river junction below it.

Police vehicles and officers half-hidden in a dark tree line.

The investigation · the questions

Seven months of searching.

The warrant

The decision not to send a tactical team, for a man whose fear of police was on file for years, will be the inquest's first question.

The tips

1,700 pieces of intelligence, a command post in Bright, cadaver dogs, caves, mineshafts, ropes into gorges. Nothing.

The echo

One gunshot, heard minutes after he vanished. Suicide, warning, or misdirection: the acoustic reconstruction is a set piece of the series.

The container

How does a man survive an alpine winter alone, and surface 150 kilometres away beside a shipping container? Locals ask a harder question: did he do it alone?

The search · seven months on the ground

Mineshafts cleared one by one. Boot prints followed through snow. A dog carried across the Buckland on an officer's shoulders. This is what looking for one man in 1,900 square kilometres actually looked like.

A tactical column ascending a snow-covered ridge in single file.

An officer kneeling at the fern-hung entrance of an old goldmine, weapon raised toward the dark.

Two officers following boot prints along a snow trail through alpine ash.

An officer carrying the search dog across a river on his shoulders.

An officer prone in the rubble at a red-earth mine adit, pistol trained into the opening.

A barred and padlocked mineshaft entrance cut into the rock, leaves banked at the gate.

The property from the air. It began under those trees.

Tactical officers and a police dog moving through a garden.

Episode one

The Bushman

It should have been over in an hour. A routine police warrant ends with two officers dead, a third fighting for his life and the gunman gone. Then he simply vanishes. Helicopters fill the sky. Roads are sealed. Hundreds of police descend on the Victorian High Country believing they are chasing a desperate fugitive. They're wrong. Every search comes back empty. Every lead disappears into the mountains. As those who stood in his path begin to reveal the man behind the headlines, an unsettling possibility takes hold. This wasn't an escape. It was a plan. And the hunt has only just begun.

Freeman is taken down by police at a rally, a camera strapped to his chest.

Episode two

Kelly Country

Weeks become months and Australia's largest manhunt begins to unravel. Every search ends the same way. Nothing. No footprints. No campsites. No body. As winter tightens its grip on the High Country, investigators begin to wonder if Dezi Freeman is even alive. Then the people who know these mountains best reveal a chilling truth. The police have been playing someone else's game. They have been searching for a desperate fugitive when they should have been hunting a bushman who knew this country better than anyone sent to find him. As new witnesses expose the world that shaped him and the years he spent preparing for life beyond the reach of authority, an unsettling possibility emerges. If Dezi Freeman is still alive, he isn't just surviving the hunt. He's controlling it.

Aerial view of the Thologolong property: shipping containers, tarpaulins and an armoured vehicle.

Episode three

DF Found

Hidden deep in the bush, investigators uncover a trail of extraordinary evidence that rewrites everything they thought they knew about Australia's largest manhunt. After 217 days on the run, Dezi Freeman is finally found alive, bringing the search to a violent end. But as exclusive witnesses reveal the final days that led to the deadly siege, a new mystery begins to emerge. Who kept him alive? Who knew where he was hiding? And in the end, did someone finally tip off police? Solving the manhunt was only the beginning. The real investigation was just getting started.

Visual language · filming approach

The interview look · Cam A

Centred, punched, the character looking slightly off lens. 2.0 frame, shot so the background is part of the interview: little or no depth of field. Where the interview takes place is part of the character. Warm.

Reference frame for interview camera A: a centred portrait, hands folded, the room part of the character.

The interview look · Cam B

2.0 frame, angled with a zoom lens to capture mediums and close-ups of each character. Shallow depth of field. The operator listens, and zooms when needed for dramatic effect.

Reference frames for interview camera B: long-lens close-ups with shallow depth of field.

The b-roll look

Cinematic. Wides. Silhouettes. Cool. Warm. Portraits of our characters.

Cinematic wide reference frames: silhouettes against dusk skies and open country.

Cinematic reference frames: weathered light in rooms and along fence lines.

Director of Photography

Tim Noonan

Tim Noonan (Director of Photography) is an Australian three time Walkley Award winning cinematographer and filmmaker with more than 20 years' experience filming in some of the world's most challenging environments. As the Director of Photography on 217 Days, he brings the survival filmmaking expertise behind Alone Australia, Extreme Engagement and productions for Netflix, BBC, Discovery and SBS.

The contributors · development access

The people who were actually there.

Development access by Last Word Entertainment. Extensive pre-interviews are complete.

Inside the hunt

The people who lived, understood and led Australia's largest manhunt.

Richard Sutherland · The Story Nobody Has

Despite relentless media attention following the final siege, Richard Sutherland has never spoken publicly. Until now.

The owner of the remote property where Dezi Freeman spent his final days, Richard reveals for the first time what he discovered after police left: his own shipping container had become Dezi's refuge. Inside were a transistor radio, camouflage clothing, handmade bedding and everyday items that raise extraordinary new questions. What was Dezi's last meal? Who brought it to him? How did Australia's most wanted fugitive survive for 217 days?

Exclusive to this series

Richard Sutherland inside the shipping container, holding the camouflage clothing left behind.

Neil Sutherland · The Only Civilian Witness

Living beside his brother Richard in a remote valley, Neil had no idea Australia's most wanted man had broken into Richard's property and had been living just metres from him. He woke to military helicopters thundering overhead, armoured police vehicles converging on the property and gunfire shattering the morning silence. By the end of the morning, he was the only civilian witness to the final siege.

Neil Sutherland on his property, holding an old pitchfork, burnt ranges behind him.

Cassie Zervos

The Reporter Who Lived the Hunt

As Seven News' Chief Crime Reporter, Cassie Zervos was on the front line of Australia's largest manhunt. She spent months covering the story from the Victorian High Country, often finding herself just steps behind the search.

Through her first-hand reporting and personal experiences, Cassie takes audiences inside the emotional toll of a manhunt that gripped the nation and reveals what it was like to cover a story where nobody knew how, or when, it would end.

Steve Mallett

The Bush Had the Answers

Bushman, former outlaw bikie and survival expert Steve Mallett challenges everything Australia thought it knew about Dezi Freeman. Dezi wasn't a sovereign citizen, Steve says: he was a prepper. Drawing on decades in the Victorian High Country and his experience leading the prepper group Dezi joined, Steve reveals the hidden trails, bushcraft and survival mindset that made 217 days on the run possible. "They were looking in the wrong places," he says. "This is Kelly country."

Andrew Stamper

Inside the Police Mind

Former Head of Homicide and a 36-year veteran of Victoria Police, Andrew Stamper led some of Australia's most complex homicide investigations. As the Senior Investigating Officer on the Russell Hill and Carol Clay investigation, he understands the challenges of policing the Victorian High Country better than almost anyone.

Andrew takes audiences inside the operational thinking behind one of Australia's largest manhunts, revealing how police assess intelligence, adapt search strategies and pursue an armed fugitive across some of Australia's most unforgiving terrain.

The making of a fugitive

The people who witnessed the relationships, conflicts and beliefs that shaped Dezi Freeman before the shootings.

James Filby

My Brother Dezi

No one knew Dezi Freeman longer than his brother, James Filby. Drawing on exclusive family videos and never-before-told stories, James reveals the man behind Australia's most wanted fugitive: their complicated relationship, the warning signs he witnessed, and the brother he struggled to understand.

His extraordinary access provides an intimate portrait that exists nowhere else, while confronting the devastating consequences of Dezi's actions.

Bruce Evans

The Road to Radicalisation

Long before the shootings, Bruce Evans was one of Dezi Freeman's closest friends. Arrested alongside Dezi during COVID protests, Bruce filmed many of the defining moments that were later broadcast across Australia and spent years debating law, government and justice with him.

Drawing on his personal archive and first-hand experience, Bruce reveals the grievances, beliefs and influences that shaped Dezi's worldview. His extraordinary insider perspective traces the path from activist to armed fugitive, providing a rare window into the radicalisation that preceded one of Australia's largest manhunts.

Loretta Quinn

Her Neighbour From Hell

For years, Loretta Quinn lived next door to Dezi Freeman. Through exclusive home videos and first-hand testimony, she reveals the campaign of intimidation, legal warfare and escalating behaviour that made her fear violence long before the shootings. Her account raises one of the series' central questions: if the warning signs were so visible, why was nothing able to stop what came next?

Zar Rosario

The Story Behind the Headlines

Millions of Australians heard Dezi Freeman's version of his dispute with neighbour Zar Rosario on A Current Affair in 2018. This series gives Zar the opportunity to finally respond.

His first-hand account debunks Dezi's claims, exposing the reality behind one of Australia's most publicised neighbourhood disputes and revealing the tensions that preceded the shootings.

The human cost

The families forever changed by the tragedy.

Diane Thompson & Lois Kirk

The Cost of Duty

When Senior Constable Neal Thompson was murdered, his sisters Diane Thompson and Lois Kirk lost a beloved brother. Their deeply personal account reveals the devastating impact of that day on Neal's family and honours the man behind the uniform.

As the series reaches its emotional conclusion, Diane and Lois ensure the story never loses sight of those who paid the ultimate price.

Jeremy Dellanova

Remembering Vadim

As Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart's cousin, Jeremy Dellanova offers an intimate portrait of the man behind the badge. Through his family's memories, he reveals Vadim's warmth, dedication and commitment to serving the community, ensuring he is remembered not only as a police officer, but as a son, cousin and friend.

His deeply personal account honours Vadim's life while revealing the lasting impact his death had on those who loved him most.

The bigger picture

The voices that place the story within Australia's broader social, cultural and policing landscape.

Don Watson

The Australia That Made Dezi

Award-winning author, historian and former Prime Minister Paul Keating's speechwriter, Don Watson is writing the first major book on the Dezi Freeman case. Having spent decades exploring the changing character of regional Australia, he asks a deeper question: what social, political and cultural forces gave rise to the anger, alienation and distrust that shaped this story?

Drawing on a lifetime studying Australia's history, politics and rural identity, Don places the series within a broader national context, exploring how isolation, resentment and anti-government sentiment created the conditions in which Dezi Freeman's worldview took hold.

Drawing on a lifetime studying Australia's history, politics and rural identity, Don places the series within a broader national context, exploring how isolation, resentment and anti-government sentiment can create the conditions in which radical beliefs take hold.

Ariel Bogle

Understanding Radicalisation

Award-winning investigative journalist and co-author of Conspiracy Nation, Ariel Bogle has spent years investigating Australia's growing conspiracy movements, including sovereign citizens, QAnon and anti-government extremism. Through extensive reporting and interviews, she examines why ordinary people become drawn into these belief systems and how they can reshape lives.

Drawing on her investigations, Ariel places the Dezi Freeman story within the broader rise of conspiracy culture in Australia, exploring how distrust of authority, online communities and personal grievance can contribute to radicalisation.

Senior Constable Randall Kirk

Surviving Wieambilla

You walk up a driveway expecting a routine police job. Within seconds, you're being hunted.

Senior Constable Randall Kirk survived the Wieambilla ambush after being shot while wearing a body camera that captured one of the deadliest attacks on police in Australian history. His extraordinary first-hand account reveals what it feels like to become the target.

Randall's story places the Dezi Freeman manhunt within a broader national context, confronting the growing reality that routine police work can become a deadly ambush without warning.

Access pending

Victoria Police access

Formal interview requests have been lodged with Victoria Police for investigators and key personnel involved in the Dezi Freeman investigation. Access is pending the conclusion of the coronial inquest and is expected to be granted once the inquest has concluded.

Gloved hands opening an archive box of photographs and tapes.

Comparable titles

Proven appetite.

Netflix

American Manhunt

The anatomy of a nation-stopping search, told from inside it. Like American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing, the series unfolds as a real-time investigative thriller, told through the eyewitnesses, searchers and key figures who experienced every twist of the hunt.

Netflix

Waco: American Apocalypse

Anti-government ideology, a prolonged siege, devastating police loss and extraordinary archive. The closest tonal relative to the final siege.

Hulu · 2026

#SKYKING

One man, one impossible act, and a country that turned him into folklore in real time. Proof that audiences will follow a fugitive story all the way to its ending, and keep arguing about him afterwards.

Evening light breaking through cloud over the ranges, rays falling across the valley.

This series remembers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart-Hottart.