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Head Start
A large banking corporation runs an ongoing competition to foster innovation, creativity and achievement for young Australians. Applicant's aged 18 to 21 submit projects in the arts, sports, science, business and community fields. Each winner receives a #20,000 grant to make the dream project a reality. They also get full board in a freshly renovated inner city warehouse with six other high achievers to keep them company. Living together in this hothouse environment opens the doors to hysteria, tears, innovative brainstorms and the odd flirtation with success. The successful seven are advised and directed by Garrett Quinn, a 40 year old former corporate high flyer who lost everything in the crash of '87. He now sees this job as a way of redeeming himself. Among this years' successful applicants are Loc Minh Vu, a Vietnamese internet programmer determined to set up a website to help refugees, Clare and Patrick Gormley a brother and sister combination from the country who are attempting to establish and market their own line of yabbies for the fresh food market. Basia Lem is a documentary maker striving to complete a film on the life of one of the country's pioneer female aviators. Seth Wallis and Kyle Richter, designer and promoter of a new automatic gear change prototype for bicycles, and Katherine Ingram, a classical piano prodigy who is putting together a recording of her own compositions. The series follows the trials and triumphs of this disparate group. We will see their personal lives collide as they try to make their mark on the world in their chosen fields. Along the way there will be casualties and successes, romance and heartache but nothing will dampen their spirit.
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Season 1 Episode Guide See All
Episode 1
Make or Break
Pac Star Banking Corporation funds the youth oriented scheme called Head Start. The scheme allows five project winners to live rent-free in a renovated foundry, as they pursue their dream. It's time for a new round of applicants and there's a long line of hopefuls. Kyle and Seth have developed an automatic gearing system for racing bikes. Confident that their invention is unique, they are shocked to discover that Terry, another applicant, has a similar invention. Kyle loses faith in his own project and become partners with Terry, leaving his best friend completely on the outer. Loc has developed a website which attempts to reunite refugees separated from their families. However, during his interview, his computer crashes. Convinced that he's out of the program unless he can get a more sophisticated machine, Loc enlists the aid of Tran, a local thug. To Loc's horror, Tran breaks into a computer shop right in front of him. The computer is there to be taken but Loc can't do it. The incident unfortunately leaves Loc both without a new computer and in Tran's debt. Basia is an aspiring documentary maker who plans to make a film about the life of aviatrix Amanda Villiers. Since stumbling upon the information that Amanda flew solo from Darwin to Bangkok in 1949, Amanda has remained an inspiration to Basia. However, Amanda has been a recluse for the last forty years and refuses to talk. Without her authorisation to make the film, Basia's chances of getting into Head Start are over. Clare and Patrick have driven all the way from Gunning with samples from their yabby breeding program. Their aim is to establish a viable aquaculture yabby farm from their own selected strain. Not only are they late arrivals but their car and presentation disappears prior to their interview. Struggling in a strange city causes Clare and Patrick to reconsider whether coming to Sydney was such a good idea. Katherine desperately wants the freedom to write and perform her own musical compositions. Her dominating mother, Moira, has other ideas and wants her to focus on classical piano recitals. Without Moira's knowledge, Katherine attends an interview for Head Start. If she's accepted into the scheme however, she'll have to face up to her mother-a task more daunting than the audition itself.
