That’s Australia People, Place and Story

Streaming video - 2015

A charming series of short documentaries that take you to the heart of Australian outback life. Biggest Banana: One of the most important days of year for Tweed Valley Banana growers is Murwillumbah’s King Banana competition. After the weigh in and judging the King Banana Proclamation is read out aloud and the winners including the Queen Banana are announced. A Ringers life: Boys as young as 15 and 16 leave home to become ringers out on the backblocks of stations like Mulla Bulla in the Kimberley. It’s a tough life. Getting up at 3am and in bed on dusk. They spend all day in the saddle and get a feed of beef before going to bed under the stars. Designer Bride: In an upmarket bridal salon in Melbourne all the gowns are designed and made ...in- house. 24-year-old Antoinette is the designer. We see her drawing sketches, the gowns being made and a fashion shoot of the finished product. Wild West frontier: As the only town in Australia to be exempt from the white Australia Policy, only male workers were allowed in. Broome has an exotic and colorful history. Riots, opium dens, grog and debauchery were the flavor of the day. Rodeo Riders: Colin Fuller and Maxie Holt are True Aboriginal men of the Kimberley and live for that 8 seconds of fame on the back of a bull and have the scares to prove it. Fastest Shearer: Hamilton is the wool capital of Victoria and hosts national sheep shearing competitions. Here we see some top local talent go head to head with Kiwi guns. Fast and furious shearing action and the crown goes wild. Stone Shed: The Tohl family run a sheep station in the south west of Western Australia. While the kids are off to school inventor dad tries out his latest machine, a rock driller. Mountain men: In the Hills overlooking Murwillumbah two self proclaimed hill Billies live in an old shack. They spend most of their days in a daze. Singing cowboy: Wayne Swan is a Kimberley identity. As well as being a rodeo legend he’s known as the singing cowboy. For work he drives massive trucks for the Argyle diamond mine. Diesel warriors: A small band of merry men take away old cooking fat and turn it into perfectly good fuel for their diesel vehicles in a backyard shed. Shaddap Already: In conversation with the singer songwriter Joe Dulce on the eve of his hit songs 25th anniversary. The song is still the biggest selling song ever to come out of Australia. Memory Vault: In Broome an order of catholic nuns has established an interactive computer archive project as a means of reconciling with the descendants of the “Stolen Generations”. Horsing Around: The Knight family from Walcott, NSW are obsessed with rodeo and travel thousands of kilometers in their giant horse float/caravan/home to compete. The youngest daughter is keen to be a trick rider and can already stand on her horses back at a trot. Doug’s New Dugout: In Coober Pedy sharing an underground dugout has become positively claustrophobic. Doug decides to look for new digs and finds the best solution is to dig his own dugout. Les under the Bar: In Wyndham an abattoir attracted army of meat workers. One of them was Les Anderson. When he went to the great meatworks in the sky his mates made buried him under the bar. Jandamarra: Known as the Aboriginal Geronimo, Jandamarra held police at bay for years preventing pastoralists from occupying rich pastures of the Kimberley. Today he is regarded as a folk hero and stories abound of his superhuman abilities. Broome Air Attack On the 3rd of March 1942 the unsuspecting town of Broome was devastated by continued strafing attacks by the Japanese. 29year old pilot Gus Winkle had little idea that he would become the only person to shoot down an attacking aircraft on Australian soil. Disappearing Tribe: High Cliffy Island off the Kimberley coast was once home to the Yawijibaya people. Who lived here for about 7 thousand years. But soon after a French film crew visited in 1929 the Yawijibaya people vanished sparking one of the North West’s greatest mysteries. The Boab Story: Boab trees sit like ancient monoliths amidst the harsh Kimberley terrain of northwest Australia. But why are they here and where did they come from. Iron Island: A little known fact is that many of Brome’s pearling lugers carried tons of almost pure iron ore as ballast. The source of this rich mineral deposit is a few hundred kilometers to the north of Broome in the Buccaneer Archaopaeologo at Koolan and Cockatoo Island. First Contact: Stumpy Brown is a Wangkujanka woman who lives at Christmas Creek in the Kimberley. Stumpy has seen many changes throughout her lifetime but nothing so dramatic, when as a teenager, she saw a white man for the first time. Small Island Big History: The Lacepede Islands are small atolls rising out of the sea north of Broome. They were once a rich source of guano or phosphate fertilizer but they also played a fascinating role in shaping the north west including being claimed as part of America. Cyclone Ally: From Nov to April each year Australia’s North West is threatened by one of nature’s most destructive and unpredictable weather systems, an intense tropical cyclone. This has earnt the coast between Broome and Port Headland the nickname “Cyclone Ally”. Kimberley Rock: Art Amidst the remote and inhospitable landscape of the North Kimberley coast lays the distinctive style of ancient rock art known as the Bradshaw Paintings. But what do the locals have to say about these Paintings created by “foreigners”. Bull Buggies: Some mustering jobs need a little more horsepower than others. Deep in Kimberley cattle country we meet Station manager Louie Dolby and his unique work vehicle – the Bull Buggy. Broome Shacks: At the height of Broome pearling the hundreds of shacks that lined the shores were makeshift affairs often constructed from whatever was laying around. more