This picture was one of fifty Australian films selected for preservation as part of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Kodak / Atlab Cinema Collection Restoration Project.
Bob Jewson, this film's writer, was a prisoner in the Bathurst Jail when the 1974 riot that inspired this movie took place. Jewson was serving a sentence for safe cracking in the minimum-security wing of the gaol.
The screenplay for this film was developed with the assistance from the Prisoners' Action Group (PAG). The PAG was a voluntary organization for prisoner welfare.
A few of the principal production team were ex-prisoners. These included writer Bob Jewson and actors Gary Waddell and Les Newcombe. A number of Gladstone Jail's ex-prisoners acted as extras for the riot sequence.
This film is loosely based on the February 1974 Bathurst Prison riots in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia and its subsequent Royal Commission. During the riots, there was a fire and a rampage of destruction, and prisoners were allegedly beaten and gunned down.