In Australian slang, "shiralee" means "burden." It also describes how itinerant laborer "Mac" Macauley (Bryan Smart, Gorillas In The Mist, Cocktail) thinks of his nine year old daughter, Buster (Rebecca Smart, Blackrock). Proud and stubborn, Mac ekes out a living - sometimes with his fists - on the dusty roads of the 1940s and '50s outback, with Buster in tow. Together they befriend a number of colorful characters and Lily (Noni Hazlehurst, Little Fish), a lovely rancher as maddeningly willful as Mac. At times grudgingly, Mac and Buster forge a father-daughter bond that hunger and hardship cannot break.