In 1980, James Davern began writing what was then called "In General Practice" as an entry for a scriptwriting contest being sponsored by Channel 10. According to James' proposal, the script was intended to be the pilot for a serial program.

The script won third place in the competition but Channel 10 decided against producing the show. James subsequently took the script to Channel Seven, who thought the proposal showed promise. The original script was refined and expanded to better meet the needs of the proposed two-hour-per-week format. Many names and minor details were changed and the dialogue was tightened. The character sketches were fleshed out and casting efforts to fill those roles began.

The pilot episodes were filmed over a period of four weeks in early 1981. These episodes were shown to test audiences and the reviews prompted Seven Network to commission 13 more scripts and, later on, an initial run of 26 episodes. The show was renamed "A Country Practice". By the time the okay had been given for the initial run, some obstacles had cropped up that required some changes to the show. The character of Judy Loveday, meant to be a regular role, had to be scrapped for the time being because Wendy Strehlow was unavailable. James and his staff decided to introduce two new characters to take her place, one to be the flighty "ratbag" character and the other to be a nurse at the hospital -- and thus Molly and Brendan Jones made the move to Wandin Valley.

The rest, as they say, is history.