Formed in 1945 as Hector Crawford Productions by brother-and-sister team Hector and Dorothy Crawford, the company initially specialised in radio serials including ?The Melba Story?, along with the talent quest ?Mobil Quest? (won by Joan Crawford in 1950), and live ?Music For The People? concerts, before moving into the crime genre with hit series ?D.24?, ?C.I.B?, and ?Consider Your Verdict?.

Upon the arrival of television, the company quickly produced a procession of quiz and game shows including ?Wedding Day?, ?Raising A Husband?, ?Hutton?s Family Quiz?, ?The Peters Club?, and ?Don?t Argue?, along with Australia?s first TV sit-com, ?Take That?. Their first attempt at TV drama came with the play ?Seagulls Over Sorrento? in 1960, which was followed in 1961 by a TV transplantation of ?Consider Your Verdict?. 1962 saw their local version of the U.S game show ?Video Village?, while a panel discussion program ?Fighting Words? (1963-67) was also added. In 1964, the landmark police series ?Homicide? debuted, from which point the company prospered. To this point, with the exception of ?Raising A Husband?, ?The Peters Club?, and the ?Export Action? documentary series, virtually all Crawford output had been produced for Melbourne?s HSV-7. Now, they were expanding and moving forward rapidly ? in 1965, they produced the talent quest series ?Showcase? (1965-70) for ATV-O, a second one-hour drama, the ambitious spy series ?Hunter?, went to air on the Nine Network stations from 1967, while they also came up with the discussion program ?Encounter? (1968-69).

However, it was their second police series, ?Division 4?, which cemented their position as Australia?s premier independent drama production house. Immediately successful, it led to a third police series in 1971, ?Matlock Police?, for the beleaguered O-10 Network. 1972 saw the private-eye drama ?Ryan? for Seven, while ?Homicide? moved to all-film colour. The company resurrected ?Showcase?, and added the O-10 ?sex-and-sin? drama serial ?The Box? (1974-77) to their production roster in 1974, also attempting sit-com again with ?The Last Of The Australians? (1974-75) for Nine. At this point, the company had three one-hour weekly dramas going to air, in addition to ?The Box? and ?Last Of The Australians?, and the future appeared bright indeed. However, disaster struck in 1975, when all three of the police dramas were cancelled within a brief period. The company was forced to sack a large number of staff, its fortunes initially saved only by the continuation of ?The Box?. A ?Matlock Police? spin-off,. ?Solo One? was cancelled by the Seven Network before screening, with the network confounded when it rated strongly ? the lead actor, Paul Cronin, had already moved on to ?The Sullivans? (1976-83), a serial set in war-time Melbourne, which rated strongly and gave the company a much-needed hit. A disastrous sit-com, ?The Bluestone Boys?, followed, and attempting to revive the police genre with the idiosyncratic ?Bluey? in 1976 was unsuccessful (although the program enjoys cult status today), but marrying the familiar police format with the now industry-dominating serial format paid dividends with ?Cop Shop? (1977-83). Another sit-com attempt with 1977?s Bobby Dazzler? was again unsuccessful, while country vet series ?Young Ramsay? (1977-78) met with only minor success. Serials set around airports (?Skyways?, 1979-81) and island resorts (?Holiday Island?, 1981) were less successful. Period serial ?Carson?s Law? (1983-85) fared slightly better, but the company?s big-budget return to police drama with 1984?s ?Special Squad? failed to find an audience.

The company dabbled in the 1980?s mini-series trend, scoring an immediate success with the marvellous ?All The Rivers Run? in 1983, and the sequel in 1988. Other efforts in this vein included ?Alice To Nowhere? (1986), 1985 saw the mini-series ?The Flying Doctors?, which was quickly spun-off into a weekly series which ran for seven years, giving the company another much-needed success. A third attempt at a period serial, the 1960?s-based ?All The Way? (1988), was a notable failure. Modest sit-com ?Acropolis Now? was added in 1989, in which year the company ceased to be a family business. However, the new owners were unable to improve the company?s fortunes, its on-air presence being restricted to ?Acropolis Now?, the hybrid game show / whodunnit ?Cluedo? (1992-93), and the telemovie series ?The Feds? (1993-96). By 1997, the once industry-dominant company had but a single (and co-produced, at that) program on the air, in the form of ?State Coroner?. Since the demise of that program, Crawfords concerned itself mostly with renting studio space to other production houses, with the Canadian-Australian co-production ?The Saddle Club? being their only production of any note.

Crawfords Australia is now owned by WIN Corporation, but the company now effectively exists in name only, with a skeleton staff administering the company?s back-catalogue.