The film of The Man from Snowy River stays largely true to Banjo Paterson's poem except for the romance between Jim (Tom Burlinson) and Jessica (Sigrid Thornton), which is an entirely new addition. In fact, there are no women mentioned in the poem at all.

The romantic storyline was hugely popular with Australian and international audiences and The Man From Snowy River was the highest-grossing Australian film at the local box office until Crocodile Dundee (1986).

Tom Burlinson was born in Canada and moved to Australia from the US when he was nine years old. He'd had a few years of TV roles under his belt before he was cast in The Man from Snowy River (1982), his first film.

Sigrid Thornton started as a child actor; she had a long list of TV credits and had appeared in half a dozen movies before playing the romantic lead opposite Burlinson.