Probably the opposite today - and it’s the same in many countries. The pre-school market seems to be thriving but once you hit 7/8 the content thins out and by 11/12 you’re forgotten about.
Growing up in the 90s / 2000s I think it’s safe to say most kids grew up with at least 50% of produced local Australians content.
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In the mid to late 70’s there were lots of cartoons and other shows, many/most from the US, some from the UK and a few from elsewhere (e.g. Japanese cartoons), however, there were Australian shows like Mr. Squiggle, Adventure Island, Romper Room, Play School, Here’s Humphrey, Fat Cat and Friends, and others. There were other kid friendly programs like It’s Academic and Young Talent Time. At the very end of the 70’s there was Shirl’s Neighbourhood and Simon Townsend’s Wonder World.
Apart from the programs on the ABC, these Australian programs were often local and didn’t go to all of Australia. For example, Cartoon Corner and Hey Hey it’s Saturday were in Melbourne and Sydney, not sure about anywhere else. Adelaide had a different locally made program called Hey Hey it’s Saturday.
And fun fact, some of the cartoons were actually made in Australia!!! For example, Around The World in 80 Days, The Funky Phantom, and a whole bunch of 1-hour (with ads) cartoon programs that were on the TV from time to time. I remember seeing some of them and they were pretty good and saw Around the World in 80 days overseas.
Many of the cartoons were part of Australian shows with hosts, segments, characters etc. For example, at least in Melbourne and Sydney, Daryl Somers and Ozzie Ostrich hosted Cartoon Corner on weekdays and Hey Hey its Saturday on Saturday mornings.
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A lot of the live action children’s series were sold overseas in the 80s and 90s. I remember when I travelled overseas and visited my much younger cousins in Greece in 1989, they were big fans of Professor Poopsnagle’s Steam Zeppelin. I hadn’t really seen it in Australia but when I returned I noticed Channel 9 were showing repeats. My uncle used to watch it with his kids and told me they were fans of some others Aussie kid’s shows as well.
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I’m not sure what time period you are referring, but yeah 2000s ABC Kids was filled with Australian, British and Canadian shows, with several live action shows being a coproductions between ABC, BBC and CBC.
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This was late 90’s early 2000s. From memory, it wasn’t really filled with Australian content it was more overseas than some Australian. I’m mainly referring to ABC though. the other FTA channels would have more Aus content.
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