‘Happier than I’ve ever been’: Lisa Millar on Muster Dogs and life after News Breakfast
After 36 years reporting the news, 12 of them as ABC foreign correspondent in London and Washington, DC, Lisa Millar never would have dreamt a show about farm dogs would become a career highlight.
But for the “little kid from country Queensland who dreamt of becoming a journalist”, Muster Dogs is a joyous homecoming. After narrating two seasons of the reality contest, which crowns the best of five dogs-in-training around Australia, Millar takes an on-screen role in the four-part follow-up, Muster Dogs: Where Are They Now?
Lisa Millar with Zoe and her dog Buddy on Muster Dogs: Where are They Now?
“Being in regional Australia feels familiar to me … When I go out on a Back Roads trip or Muster Dogs, and you can see the stars, you hear the roosters in the morning, I love it,” says Millar, from Bali, where she is “fixing the work-life balance” after exiting ABC News Breakfast in August. It’s the first time she has visited Indonesia without reporting on “terrorist attacks or Australians doing the wrong thing”.
Grateful that she accepted what she initially thought was an unusual offer to narrate Muster Dogs in 2022, Millar is blown away by its success. By the second season, which aired in January, more than 1 million Australians were tuning in. Overseas audiences have – pun warning – lapped it up, with fan mail streaming in from the US and the UK. Israeli viewer Shai Lieberman was so inspired he contacted trainer Frank Finger, who owns season one-winning kelpie Princess. Lieberman appears in the special, learning the trade at Finger’s Clermont property in Queensland, with the aim of operating a therapy farm back home.
“None of us expected Muster Dogs to take off as much as it has,” says Millar. “We must all desire a bit of kindness. We need people not backstabbing each other. It’s something kids can watch with their families. Whether you’re in the city or the country, people love dogs, and also, their dogs love dogs. The number of videos that I got from people wanting to share their dogs getting excited when it was Muster Dogs time and barking at the television. That happened on the first night it went to air.”
Millar travels the length and breadth of the country to check in with the series’ stars, including season two winner, Buddy the border collie, trained by Zoe Miller on a Northern Territory cattle station.
Season two contestant Lily with her dog Snow and some new pups.
“Of course, people want to know, did the dogs end up working well?” says Millar. “Is Lucifer still a bad boy? What happened to Lucky, the deaf dog? Have the dogs had pups? We’ve also spent time with the trainers to reveal a bit more about what it meant for them to be thrust into the spotlight.
“I think the reason Muster Dogs worked is that it’s so authentic. They’re not signing up to boost their Instagram followers. They have some funny stories about how they’ll be in the middle of nowhere and people will stop to get selfies with the dogs.”
Living in an apartment in Melbourne, and juggling a hectic filming schedule, Millar doesn’t own a dog. She grew up with a family dog, but not a working one. Back then, she was more interested in honing her interviewing skills on her father, the late National Party MP Clarrie Millar.
She treasures a cassette of one such “grilling”, recorded when she was 10 years old. “I’d asked him about the Olympics and politics and boycotts, and he was doing such a lovely job of answering me seriously and trying to help me learn, and I’m cutting him off, like, ‘Well, thanks very much Clarrie!’”
Miller will soon head off to shoot another episode of Back Roads, a program she treasured watching with her late mother after returning from overseas postings. With that, season three of Muster Dogs under way, and its second companion book out on December 4, Millar is content doing “the best job at the ABC”. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been, and it’s a wonderful feeling.”
Muster Dogs: Where Are They Now? starts Sunday, December 1, at 7.30pm on the ABC.
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