What were some of your favourite Australian TV shows?

The Chaser’s War on Everything

Round the Twist was 4 seasons of straight bangers

Have you ever, ever felt like this?

Bluey is a parenting program cleverly disguised as a kids' program. It's my favourite show on TV at the moment.

This. I know OP asked for old shows, but Bluey is so good you can (luckily) watch the same episode a hundred times over and still enjoy it.
Skip the first season though - it was clearly run on a shoe string budget and doesn't have nearly the same quality as season two onwards. Go back and watch it when you're a fan.
- My daughter is 9yo, and well and truly no longer watching Bluey. But I still download it...

Anyone remember water rats? Peak 90's crime of the week show with as much drama off the set as on.

Bloody loved Water Rats! Aaron Pedersen was fantastic.
That whole era of Police Rescue / Water Rats was such a good time for TV!
Edit: oh! Something in the Air!

The Curiosity Show
Skippy
Ask the Leyland Brothers

+1 for curiosity
- There's quite a lot of Curiosity Show clips on YT, with more being added all the time. Brings back great memories...

Ones I already have:

Acropolis Now
Bush Tucker Man
Kingswood Country (missing 15 eps)
Mother and Son (the original, not the shithouse remake)
Rake
The Hollowmen (only have shitty DVD rips, would love something better)

Ones I want, but haven't started looking for:

Stingers
The Late Show
Hey Hey
Full Frontal
Fast Forward
Comedy Company
The Big Gig
Good News Week
Front Line
Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventures (I have the 2018 eps - not the early 2000s ones)
All Together Now

Ones I enjoyed, but am on the fence about committing storage space to:

Kath and Kim
Caron's Law
The Sullivans
Blue Heelers
Rafferty's Rules
Cop Shop

How embarrassment I don't know if I should watch it again or just hold the happy memory of acropolis now.
I think Kath and Kim is a keeper. Like Kingswood Country, the suburban social commentary runs deeper than the gags make it appear. Based on your mention of The Sullivans, I would also recomend Power Without Glory if you can find it. That is a largely true story from that era which was very well done.
- Ah, I forgot Power Without Glory. Good memory!

Rake is excellent, and pretty grounded in real events, boy eats universe is new, and they're probably cultural relevance to some of the dozens of reality and daytime/morning shows out there, and the chaser for the same reason. I also think a lot of kids' stuff is worth archiving - some because it's great, others because it's bizarre, others because it's a cultural touchstone that'll almost certainly be lost - round the twist, Liftoff, Aggro, cheez TV, ship to shore, ocean girl, the ferals... I'm showing my age.

I think the ABC have some kind of archive that's probably a great start for home grown content.

Let the Blood Run Free

A pisstake of A Country Practice. Comedic gold adapted to TV after an improv theatrical run.

A phone-in Choose Your Own Adventure style narrative from show to show, was cutting edge interactivity in the 90s.

Greatest Aussie show ever (yes, I know Big Gig, D-Gen, Late Show and DAAS were a thing).

Do yourself a favour and search out some episodes on your favourite video services.

(* I saw Peter Rowsthorn in Fremantle on the street, and I was too slow to shout out a "W W W W Warren")

I remember it being over the top gross and phoning in after every episode.
- So hilariously and ridiculously gross. The fake blood cost must have been half the show budget!

The Big Gig

In case you weren't aware "The Archive" runs a pretty substantial repository of Australian TV shows. r/DownUnderTv has instructions on how to get access.

For now, The Archive is shutdown. It's uncertain if it's coming back but, if anyone here is on their Discord, please share what you know.
- Oh, that's a real shame. It's been a while since I found it and grabbed some old shows not available anywhere else ( The Chaser, CNNNN, The Mole). Hopefully it makes a comeback at some point.

I liked watching Amazing as a kid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A*mazing

There's a bunch of kids game shows that are very difficult if not impossible to find these days.

I was going to suggest Plasmo, but it turns out some mad lad has already upscaled it to 4K! Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2U98Joe6Hs

Upscaled to 4k, what's the big idea?

The one about a big city lawyer going to a small seaside town. Sea Change?

The one about a big city ~~lawyer~~ heart surgeon going to work in a small hospital in the outback. Heart-something?

The one about a big city lawyer going insane. Rake.

The one about a quirky Melbourne OB/GNY and her quirky family.

The one that had great promise, but was cancelled after one season. Oh, there are 100 of those.

Second one might be heartbeat? Literally know nothing about it other than hearing ads for it as a kid
- Doctor Doctor (also known outside of Australasia as The Heart Guy) is an Australian television drama created by Tony McNamara, Ian Collie and Alan Harris, which premiered on the Nine Network on 14 September 2016, lasting five seasons, concluding on 23 June 2021. The cast includes Rodger Corser, Nicole da Silva, Ryan Johnson, Tina Bursill, Hayley McElhinney and Steve Bisley, and follows the story of Hugh Knight, a rising heart surgeon who is gifted, charming and infallible. He is a hedonist who, due to his sheer talent, believes he can live outside the rules. His "work hard, play harder" philosophy eventually comes to 'bite' him.

Mr Inbetween. First season is gold.

The girl from tomorrow. I see it's on Stan now.

Love is a four letter word.

All of Mr Inbetween is incredibly good. It's just a shame they stopped at three seasons. And hat off to Fox for actually making some good Aussie content for once.

Skithouse

I watched a lot of crap. I didn't realise it was crap at the time, I just didn't know any better. In the 80's/early 90's I was watching:

A Country Practice
Early Home & Away
Flying doctors
Some show where Georgie Parker was a female firefighter (Gasp!).
Some hospital show with Georgie Parker as the main character
Comedy Company
Hey Hey its Saturday
Its a Knockout
Hey, Dad (This one has been tainted now it turned out that the Dad was not wholesome at all)

As to what to actually preserve, some of those shows likely haven't aged well. The Paul Hogan Show was great, but a product of its time. I'm sure it would never be allowed on the air today. Same with Number 96 (not that I was supposed to be watching that one).

While these are the answer to your question - what were my favourite shows at the time, I wouldn't nominate any of them for preservation.

From a Pom:

I liked Rake .

Prisoner Cell Block H was cult here too .

Then, Angry Boys, Chris Lilleys comedy.

Um, Under Belly about Tony Mockba was good I think .

Any Ashes cricket where we didn’t lose 5-0

The Henderson Kids.

Anyone remember Secret Valley? At one point my family was planning on moving to a largish property in/near bushland and me and my brothers had drawn up detailed blueprints for a fortified base complete with treetop platforms connected by rope swings, pitfall traps and catapults, inspired by the show.

MCGLUUUUUUUUUURK!

Soup Opera and Trapdoor

I remember loving the show Good Guys, Bad Guys when I was a teenager. Occasionally look for it on the torrents but never found it.

Maybe it'll go on sale one day at jb - Good Guys Bad Guys.
Haha I got it on sale a JB. I should make a digital backup of it actually. Can't believe I haven't done it yet...
- let me know if you need some off site storage of you digital backups...

Recent show, 'Pine Gap.' US/Australian electronic intelligence monitoring station. Political drama, and interpersonal drama. Supposedly getting a second season.