Tammy Lee Rock is a Pakana actor, artist, filmmaker, writer, director and producer from Lutruwita (Tasmania) with a lot of life under her belt. “I’ve done it all,” Rock says, only half-joking.
From working as a hairdresser to raising three children solo, earning three degrees (one bachelor’s and two master’s), touring her one-woman show I Don’t Wanna Play House worldwide, starring in hit dramas like Mystery Road: Origin, The Warriors, The Sapphires, and High Country, writing children’s books and a novel, and working as a teacher, speaker, singer and MC – Rock really has done it all.
Today, Rock is focussed on telling the kinds of stories that remain severely underrepresented – stories written, produced and performed by Aboriginal people.
Rock’s new short film, Queens To The Front, is a documentary exploring treaty and sovereignty through the lens of Federal Senator Lidia Thorpe and will premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival as part of VicScreen’s Sovereign Shorts initiative.
Before embarking on the project, Rock contacted her team and said: “These are my ideas: I want it to be artistic, adventurous, experimental, bold, audacious, and stylized; let’s f*** it up a little bit.” The result, Rock hopes, will echo the film’s protagonist; agitating, political and a little bit gritty. “We’re talking about treaty and sovereignty… Victoria is living through this moment as we speak, so we don’t know the answers,” Rock explains.
“We filmed this documentary in the Royal Suite at the Windsor Hotel on Spring Street… that’s the birthplace of the [Federal] Constitution. That’s where it was drafted back in 1898. So, there’s a metaphor there of how people in power, world leaders, play with us like a chess board. I’ve incorporated a game of chess throughout the story. And ‘Queens To The Front’ suggests that the matriarch needs to be put to the front now. Women need to be given the chance to change the world.”
Tammy Lee Rock on her latest project Queens To The Front
There were plenty of narrators in Rock’s life who have helped her arrive at this point in her storytelling. “As a child, I was always around people telling stories,” she says.
“I come from a colourful world of characters back in Tasmania, Lutruwita, so I’ve got an Aboriginal background, English, Irish and Scottish. And everyone loved a good time (or a bad time), and there were always stories and music.”
Rock’s childhood was also marred by the kinds of experiences we struggle to talk about as a society, domestic violence and child abuse; a lived suffering Rock managed to weave into a one-woman play titled I Don’t Wanna Play House.
“I took that show out of the theatre, and I placed it within prisons, I trained judges, I took it to universities, high schools, drama schools, refugee centres; out in the desert, in the outback, under the stars, and all around the world. I even took it to the Highlander Center, where Martin Luther King did his teachings, and I learned the power of silence in the story. You do become a virtuoso of your craft that way, don’t you?” Rock reflects. Touring I Don’t Wanna Play House for 25 years has made it one of the longest continuous theatre productions in the country’s history.
Rock went on to appear in many more stage shows, including Stolen, The Call, Walking into The Bigness, The Seasson, and Trustees to name a few. Moving from the stage to the screen was a natural, albeit tough transition, Rock considers. As an actor, she’s played memorable roles on iconic Australian productions like Blue Heelers, The Sapphires, High Country and Mystery Road: Origin. She even worked as Assistant Director on the seminal Melbourne series, Offspring. However, getting her own stories onto the big screen remained a distant challenge.
“I always felt like I wanted to get my storytelling out of the theatre space and onto a bigger platform.”
But it takes connection and a lot of money, Rock acknowledges. “So, I met with Adrian Holmes [Film & Television Lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA)] who said, ‘We want you at our school.’”
Rock joined VCA’s Master of Film and Television program where she made three short films and cemented her newfound passion for directing. She also collected a handful of coveted awards in this time becoming the inaugural winner of The Uncle Jack Charles Award, as well as winning The Uncle Bob Maza Award and The Creative Journey Award for Master of Film and Television (Narrative) supported by Fiction Films. Then, towards the end of 2025, First Peoples Strategic Lead at VicScreen, Sarah Bond, contacted Rock about the inaugural Sovereign Shorts initiative. “Sarah said, ‘Tam, I’ve got this initiative coming up and I really want you to have a go… She gave me the nudge I needed to throw my hat in, and here I am making Queens To The Front.”
It hasn’t always been a linear path for this jack of all trades, however, taking the scenic route is underrated Rock thinks.
“I’ve skimmed rocks across the Mississippi River, I’ve been to Elvis Presley’s house, I’ve been to Sun Studios, Nashville, Knoxville, New York, Canada. I’ve been to Japan and from one top of Ireland to the other. I’ve met incredible people and had a great rapport with the world.”
All these experiences have shaped her into the kind of artist and storyteller driven by a need, not just a want, to share what she’s learned about the world and its people.
“I love people, I love humans, and I love stories” Rock continues. “I think I’ve walked through this world in constant amazement. Every day I find something that’s magical. When you come from a world where people don’t have much, less is more. And who’s measuring anyway? I’ve got a new flower in my pot plant, and I think it’s the most beautiful thing ever. And I’ve got a granddaughter on the way. I have five grandchildren and another miracle coming into the world.” There’s a never-ending stream of inspiration to keep Tammy Lee Rock’s creative engines firing, and she’s just getting started, she says.
Learn more about partnering with talented filmmakers like Tammy. Contact VicScreen’s Head of Incentives, Joe Brinkmann, at [email protected] or visit vicscreen.vic.gov.au
