"District 9 meets the Dreaming."

That's the hugely ambitious description of Cleverman by ABC director of television Richard Finlayson on the ABC's forthcoming drama set in a dystopian future, but then it's a hugely ambitious and daring show.

Set to be one of the highlights of ABC's programming for 2016, a full outline of which was revealed Tuesday night, the hotly-anticipated Cleverman is among a raft of local productions as the ABC aims for a target of boosting its local content to 60 per cent, with first-run Australian dramas to feature on screens every week during the next ratings year.

The mix for 2016 also includes Barracuda, based on the novel by Christos Tsiolkas that looks at the national obsession with sporting heroes. There will be new series of familiar favourites including The Code, Rake, Jack Irish, Janet King and The Doctor Blake Mysteries, coverage of the Australian of the Year Awards for the first time, plus a huge bent on comedy and digital exclusives on ABC iView.

Finlayson paid tribute to the ABC's upcoming 60th birthday next year. "ABC strives to be the independent home of Australian stories, culture and conversations," he said. "While the digital revolution sweeps the media and new competitors arrive, our audiences both young and old just keep telling us they want more original Australian shows and that's what we're working on."

Cleverman, from the same producers behind The Sapphires and directors Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell, sees Aboriginal mythology mixed with a futuristic world in a "high-concept" drama featuring a cast including Iain Glen, Frances O'Connor, Deborah Mailman and Tasma Walton and special effects from the Weta Workshop.

Walton said she spent three hours a morning in make-up as a character based on the Yowie, the Aboriginal mythological characters. Despite the 3.15am starts to compensate for her physical transformation, she said it had been a fascinating production to work on.

"It's that feeling you have when you know you're working on something that is different," Walton said. "It's special and it's exciting and it's something that we don't do often in Australia – tackling that enormous multi-character, multi-storyline world."

She said she hoped the show would be an "entertaining and thrilling" production, drawing parallels between issues faced in Australia as well as the plight of refugees worldwide.

"Cleverman tries to illuminate what the reality and humanity is of these situations. It's so easy in our technological world today to have a distance and a detachment from what is happening with people, but these are mums with babies, these are brothers and sisters, dads and sons. They're like us and they are going through real horror.

"Hopefully, in some way the world of Cleverman will have those parallels and show those parallels in a compassionate and illuminating way."

Richard Roxburgh is back with season four of Rake, promising the biggest storyline about the legal larrikin. "We did think that we would have to have a really strong idea and we came up with a fantastically fun arc," he said.

Also joining him in the ABC stable next year is his wife, the actress and presenter Silvia Colloca, who will have a dinner party/cooking show affair with Silvia's Italian Kitchen, where a collection of personalities will share recipes and stories.

"There's going to be a very big communal table around which I gather with friends and talk about what's the role of food in their lives, because in Italian culture food is an excuse to get together and celebrate life, [and talk about] heartbreak and death – it always revolves around food," she says.

Digital exclusives will include the popular YouTube duo Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan's The Katering Show, which skewers trends and food allergies.

Comedian Luke McGregor takes a raw look at sex with Luke Warm Sex and will also join with Celia Pacquola in Rosehaven, a comedy set in rural Tasmania.

Documentary content will include a profile by former prime minister John Howard on the longest-serving prime minister Robert Menzies, Howard on Menzies, and a spotlight on the healthcare system using 100 cameras filmed over 24 hours in Keeping Australia Alive. 

And, also celebrating a birthday next year will be Play School, which reaches 50 years old, and which will see Miranda Tapsell joining as its 90th presenter.