The Facts of Life Down Under occurred during the continuity of the original series. Beverly Ann, Blair, Jo, Natalie, Tootie and Andy fly together to
Sydney,
Australia to meet up with Miss Carstairs (Barbara-Jane Cole) and the female students of the Koolunga School, their sister school establishment, where they will participate in a cultural exchange program. Blair and Jo get involved with jewel thieves and are pursued by two men, both of whom claim to be the police and who accuse Jo and Blair of these crimes. Jo and Blair place the jewel into Natalie's bag who is off exploring with Tootie. Meanwhile, Andy convinces Beverly Ann to take him to a sheep ranch owned by her old boyfriend Roger (
Noel Trevarthen). During their stay at the ranch, Roger and Beverly Ann slowly begin to rekindle their old romance and Roger shows Andy the ropes of sheep farming. Meanwhile, Natalie is exploring the great
outback with a cattle rancher named Ren (
Andrew McKaige) and Tootie is viewing ancient caves with a handsome American anthropologist (
Mario Van Peebles) who lets her think he is an Aborigine. Blair and Jo escape the jewel thieves and arrive at their Australian sister school where they hope to find Natalie with the jewel. Natalie admits that Ren tossed the seemingly-worthless stone out of a helicopter and the thieves are arrested. The girls are all surprised to hear about one another's adventures, and Beverly Ann explains that she is not staying with Roger after all and is remaining with her "new family". ==Cast==