Mcleods Daughters was amazingly good in seasons 1 through 3, but I fear the departure of Lisa Chappell caused major problems with storylines.
The desperate attempts to keep bringing Mcleod's "Daughters" out of the woodwork is annoying and obvious. If the writers were to allow themselves to move away from this premise and try to be original (as it used to be) I think things would be fine.
The only saving grace for Mcleod's Daughters at the moment is a rare few set of strong, different characters. One has to ask how the show will survive without its original characters Tess and Nick.