1970s reality TV sent strangers into the wild to survive | RetroFocus

it's a very wet Saturday afternoon at Bangor Beach on the new south wales south coast and this is the first view we've got of the area we've chosen to try to survive in with me of five people who've been selected at random from the hundreds who first contacted us to come on this course our object is to try and see how perfectly urbanized man can survive in the bush with the very minimum of equipment the only proper food we're taking for the entire fortnight is this 40-pound bag of rolled oats which we're told will give us a basic starvation diet we each of us have a knife we have one X a flashlight one Billy can and some string a length of wire and because we're not very good at rubbing six together we do have a box of waterproof matches this afternoon although it's now raining fairly steadily we morale is still reasonably good we've had our last civilized meal for a fortnight and from now and we're going to have to fend for ourselves living as it were completely off the land but we have roughly two hours now to build a shelter because we have no tent so I suppose we'd better get on with it the location for the exercise was a private estate near Burma GUI on the new south wales south coast a rugged coastline with open paddocks and scrub shelving down to a rough pebbly beach the first priority was building a shelter and although we discussed more sophisticated designs it seemed sensible to make the best use of the low branch of a bottlebrush tree and leaned uprights against it Mike took the lead in selecting the young branches bear and Greg did most of the thatching Judith and Julie took it upon themselves to get the fire going it was never allowed to go out during the entire fortnight our spirits were still high we still had the remains of a good lunch in our bellies and the prospect of spending our first night on damp ferns were still something of a novelty having faithfully recorded our progress so far the film crew presented their compliments and withdrew for the night to the comfort of a hotel in Burma GUI it was a very long night when the crew returned the next morning most people were still catching up on their sleep the first and most obvious food supply which presented itself was rabbits we hadn't actually seen any at this point but we had seen their droppings and what we took to be their burrows Mike hadn't set a snare since he was 12 but still remembered enough of his expertise to show Gregg we needed receptacles for drinking and eating our initial search of the location had revealed no clay to make pots we didn't think it was cheating too much to use the inevitable beer cans and bottles we found washed up on the beach there was more treasure in one of the paddocks an endless supply of chicken wire which we cut up into lengths to make fish traps we needed bait of some sort beverly obliged by finding two dead turns in a fairly advanced state of decomposition what it was scarcely a textbook design but as we committed the fish trap to the deep we felt confident that at least some fish would be stupid enough to swim into it and not be able to get out again water at least was never really a problem there was a creek nearby and even if the water in it didn't look too healthy it tasted all right Judith became the official water carrier at first we cautiously boiled all water because we were worried about liver flukes from sheep droppings later it became a tedious chore the water tasted better unboiled anyway disease or no disease that afternoon the party prepared its first meal the various foraging expeditions had yielded nothing apart from a few ferns and half an apple washed up on the beach which we chopped up and put in the oats the porridge was thick gooey and most unappealing we were hungry but not that hungry it was becoming obvious that if we were to survive we must find alternative food sources those alternatives were among the rock pools there were plenty of winkles not just the black variety but the ones with candy stripes - - these were added muscles they were only small ones but there were scores of them on the rocks just for the taking but if there was variety among the shellfish the choice of edible plants was something of a disappointment the fiddlehead ferns varied enormous ly in taste some of them were crisp and full of SAP others were unspeakably bitter and awful we didn't know whether this was because the property owner had treated some of the paddocks with chemicals nettles too had been recommended to us but although apparently of some nutritional value were virtually tasteless when boiled we longed for fresh fruit of some sort there were a few wild blackberries but they weren't in season there were some mysterious green plants with white crisp roots which when boiled tasted like onions they turned out to be daffodils ironically things that we couldn't eat grew in profusion the Arum Lily looked beautiful enough but its roots and leaves are extremely poisonous the Burrow Wang pom has at its centre a spiny husk which apparently contains pratik acid the average and his boil them to remove the poison we weren't game enough the most successful plant find was pig face which grows almost everywhere on cliff tops when boiled it tastes like runner beans the dandelions were a moderate success to the few feeble specimens we found could be boiled as a green vegetable but more commonly we made coffee from them Beverly cut off the roots then dried them in a tin can pushed into the embers of the fire when they were dry she ground the roots into a black powder which when mixed with water made a substance not unlike coffee unfortunately as we later discovered to our discomfort the dandelion drink acted as a powerful laxative by this stage the first rush of enthusiasm was wearing a bit thin with our reduced diet it was becoming increasingly difficult to perform simple tasks like humping wood up the hill to the bivouac a calorie intake had dropped by 80% just the business of keeping the fire going became extraordinarily exhausting it wasn't surprising that judith the oldest member of the party began to feel her age did you want to give it all away this morning very much sir very very much so I haven't seen anything worthwhile eating around here and I mean that wood we had four kilos that was very very nice but I don't think I could stomach that again and I just haven't seen anything else I mean look at the fiddle ferns and all the rest but nothing oh I couldn't I couldn't there wasn't much success with the rabbits either Mike had taken it upon himself to do the rounds of the snares every morning and evening but the first results were anything but encouraging if there were occupants of the burrows they were giving us a wide berth no good it was back to the winkles and oatcakes again but as evidence of our lowering morale we were beginning to miss other things from the city - I miss a comfortable bed and I do have some hand cream there pull hands like sandpaper my nice warm bed and a nice a big hot bath with plenty of bubbles then my toothpaste that's all the goanna which blended into our camp represented the first real meal that any of us had had for nearly four days it sat watching our pathetic efforts to catch it with studied indifference no one thought about the ecological consequences of slaughtering it we were much too hungry for that [Applause] we cook the guyana aboriginal style in the ashes of the fire it was four hours before it was done even after three days without food some of us were understandably squeamish about eating it the cookin it's right hmm what's a line members noise hmmm good not bad hey one of these a day but so long as you at it quickly enough and didn't think about it it was tolerable afterwards we made goanna stew which lasted two days our bellies were full and we were blissfully unaware that we had just incurred a $200 fine by slaughtering a protected animal Greg and Bev were collecting mussels when we killed the goanna he didn't approve that I wasn't particularly taken with it it sort of brings up a problem that I've been not a problem that I sort of a misgiving that I've had about the whole thing from the outset which was his knocking over native Australian fauna needlessly if you like you know and I thought about it and I thought that after a while we'd probably need to but I just don't feel at this stage it was really needed you know I don't feel it was needed for me put it that way you don't feel hungry enough not to overcome that which is I suppose is a kind of a an essential sort of an urban over sensitivity to the bush or something but you know it's there nevertheless death oh I wish I'd seen it killed you'd feel better about it you know it doesn't really bother me thing and hang up like that now I had qualms yesterday about killing those crabs but once they were dead you know yeah it's probably different if you sort of saw it being at that age thing do you think we were justified in killing the Guayana Mike sure yeah if under the same situation you're not to kill the care if it'll mean there if I'm hungry I don't want to live not interested in Australian fauna my want to leave and leave like I know I've got that tomorrow it may not be there you know at the end of the week when wages come round I don't say I'll save until next week I don't need it this week but I take my wages every Friday just in case next week doesn't come a lot of people watching this program Mike will probably say that it was very unfair of us to kill the gunner what would your attitude to that be let him come out he know yeah sure it probably would have been and I think if we could have sneered rubbage and if we could have caught fish then our gravy big that it was sort of we didn't have to do it but as we are not catching rabbits and we're not catching fish and two of us have been sick already on them the stew that we cooked up last night we've just been a fine and there alternatives halfway through the first week it was becoming obvious that the first camp was a disaster it was too cold on the ridge every morning found us huddled around the campfire trying to keep warm we couldn't face the drudgery of chopping down branches to make a new hut so we use the driftwood we found on the beach ecologically it may not have been as attractive as hot mark one but at least it was warmer and it kept the rain out better but as it happened the weather improved and the nights were warmer our new campsite had its share of previous tenants a couple of small black snakes miniscule but still very poisonous less lethal but more numerous were leeches which clung to our wrists and ankles and ticks which plagued us all day and night over the past six days it's become obvious that sleep rather than food or the lack of it have become as become our biggest single problem none of us has really had a decent night's sleep since we came here mostly because it's been so very cold far colder than we expected even now in this new shelter where we've got a degree of protection from the wind and so on it's still been very uncomfortable even though we're going to sleep at sir 8 o'clock at night we're waking probably every hour to restock the fire and the nights just seemed to go on forever by now all of us had assumed various roles in our daily routine Mike became the hunter every day he left the camp to inspect his snares and six days running he came back again empty-handed finally on the sixth day Mike found his first rabbit only a small one but it was the first food we'd seen in six days that looked in the remotest way to be acceptable [Music] disease to hell with the pain we had been told to steer everything rather than grill it because it was more nutritious the first rabbit was the most delicious that any of us had ever tasted Mike's expertise at catching and skinning rabbits had already made him the leader in some people's minds was he aware of this I do I think what I have to do somebody's gonna do somebody's gonna catch the food and I'm the logical one really for catching the food I think does he do irritate you that some of the others of us are not so competent at catching food oh well you tell must be honest it does sometimes you know I say I'm just lying about doing virtually nothing I mean I'm not worried because I don't really get worried about anything but I am concerned I suppose concerned that at least people should try at least give a token if it you know I'm not saying that what they're doing is wrong possibly they would survive longer than me because I am expending so much energy and they're sort of taking it easy which is what everybody says you should do you know if you read all the books and the experts they say oh just lie down relax and take it easy till somebody finds you I'd rather be found alive than just a skeleton the final score of rabbits was five including a baby one which we took as a pet which sat in silent disapproval as we consumed his relative by the beginning of the second week we were starting to get into an established routine although we were weak it was obvious that we would have to move further afield in search of new food sources we'd seen a tidal Inlet about five miles away optimistically we set off in search of better fishing grounds and perhaps oysters it was only when we started to walk any distance that we realized how pathetically weak we'd all become it took us nearly three hours to walk the five miles and we had to rest frequently a small supply of oatcakes and our water bottle were all we had to keep us going we did find an oyster bed but someone had been there before us the expedition yielded a couple of dozen muddy specimens enough to fill one corner of our rapidly contracting stomachs it was to be the only luxury of the entire fortnight most of our efforts to catch and snare animals failed dismally but our manufacturing projects were nothing you've got ingenious Beverly made Fish Hooks from the bits of tie wire and toughened the wire by flattening it on a stone Mike and I made a bow and arrow in the hope of hunting a wallaby we'd seen Julie plaited the drawstring for the bone the bow worked well enough that we never got near enough to anything to hit it frankly we had to admit Stone Age man would have been better equipped Julie made a fishhook out of a piece of guarana backbone and baited it with rabbit guts but invariably the seas were too rough when she ventured onto the rocks to try to catch something we lost count of the number of makeshift hooks lines and sinkers that she lost it's not that we're going wrong it's just that the conditions answered of all that so we just got a fond um but a night clear water you caught one fish they didn't hear that was a bit of our fishing line that we found on the wood heat and a safety pin but I think it was just luck because I tried for about one and a half hours after that and I didn't even get a nibble do you think perhaps you haven't been trying hard enough yes yes so what are you going to do from now on do you think well I don't see that there's much I can do and they might even see that marks the lead in that light gloves do you think Mike's the leader oh definitely definitely he's he's more or less done everything hasn't he really does that really mean though we can sit back and let him do everything what about if something happened to Mike oh I think we'd be gone Judith to became embarrassed about the contribution she was making but it was Judith who did all the boring unpleasant tasks washing out the billy and the drinking tins tidying the camp collecting the firewood having left the comfort of her suburban home she was unconsciously recreating those comforts in the bush all of the party to some extent were still clinging to vestiges of 20th century life well I can't keep up with the hunters I'm very good at the fishing and I certainly can't go around eating a periwinkle King winkles or whatever it is that Greg does I couldn't do that I'm no good as an official taster so everybody's okay I'll just drop behind try and keep the place tidy does it worry you that you appear to have adopted the same role here as you would in your own home and taken us all as your family no disappointed I thought I would be able to do things do more things under I pictured myself tripping across the fields gaily chasing rabbits and things to like it it's just too fast for me no no doesn't worry I've come to terms with it in deeper water our homemade fish traps might have been a success as it was they took a terrible battering among the rocks Greg made three and on the third attempt his vigilance was rewarded it's just as well we didn't have to rely on fishing for our sole source of food otherwise we would certainly have starved The Rock Card measured about eight inches which gave us all two mouthfuls by the tenth day we had started to fantasize about the food we were missing around the fire the conversation invariably turned to the food we would most like to be eating beautiful big orange orange very juicy boiled potatoes and baby carrots for all for days and days and now it's a set of four lovely poached egg I think the only thing really would be a nice good steak and my wife makes a delicious chocolate pudding that's already and a beer of course a beer at the moment I wouldn't mind a nice big bake dinner with plenty of potatoes and pumpkin and gravy and parsnips towards the end of the second week we were all gripped by a stultifying lethargy our bodies were now lacking essential vitamins and proteins it had its psychological effects - Julie couldn't catch any fish and felt depressed about her lack of contribution Judith felt the need to hunt for food instead of just cooking it but we probably all took her practical work about the camp for granted Bev felt the presence of the camera crew was adding an artificial dimension to the exercise Greg didn't feel happy about killing native animals and was more interested in foraging for native plants and shellfish Mike the self-made man didn't have much time for the academics but on a survival exercise he was the strongest and most self-reliant of us all not just physically but morally as well unquestionably without Mike we would all have starved all of us had a good night's sleep last night probably the best night's sleep we've had so far but we still got this terrible listlessness that I felt today more than any other time just to give you some example I was trying to cut the top off this can this morning to make a baked in with my knife and I couldn't do it I just hadn't got the strength to do it I got so angry I just threw the can down again then I was trying to make another fishing line and I went down onto the beach just a few yards down onto the beach to get a pebble of the right size and I sat there and I couldn't think why I'd gone down onto the beach mom my brain was just completely dislocated I did finally find the pebble and I must have sat there fully for about five minutes before I remembered why I'd gone there in the first place another thing that's quite extraordinary today for the first time I actually resented the crew of filming this coming in because they were so fresh and obviously had a good night's sleep from their beds and so on and I sort of resented their intrusion I'm coming to a stage now where I'm I'm sick of rabbit meat and dandelions I'm sick of going on the beach and hurting my feet every time I walk on the pebbles I'm sick of smelling all the while and other people smelling the in fact come to think of it I'm sick of talking to the camera as well our last attempt to catch food was perhaps our most pathetic a duck trap made of chicken wire and baited with outs Mike and I sat under a tree in the drizzle and waited no ducks came could we have survived here indefinitely oh not on this particular spot you'd have had to move around a bit but eventually you know I mean basically what we were doing was learning how to do it really and sort of to take a much much longer time than two weeks to get really to get skills proficient I don't know I think we're doing pretty good yourself I think the only the biggest killer amongst us here is we're tending to go individually instead of sticking together I think if we all pull together we could survive here especially now we know there's rabbits and ducks and things like that around do you feel you've been doing more than your fair share of work well not today because you know I don't mean today I mean last what your the weeks I have thought this year certainly most days I've thought has that aggravated you at all it has it's also made me go a little bit harder to you know are you suggesting that some of us aren't pulling their weight I don't think really any of us have pulled our way they say excluding myself I think if I hadn't have been here I have wondered what you would have done for food really in the end it was the wet and the cold and our empty stomachs and the endless drudgery of just trying to keep alive that beaters the Land Rover which came to take us out on the final day was a tangible reminder of civilization itself physically we'd reverted to a level of primitive existence but psychologically we were still clinging to vestiges of civilization the irony was that we were living in a primeval world yet using the most modern of technologies to record what we were doing we were all humbled by the experience we drove back to Burma GUI and our first normal meal in nearly 14 days steak sandwich with everything please it took about two hours of solid eating to replace all the fats and poisons in our bodies that we'd so willfully eradicated in the previous two weeks it was all the wrong food crammed with cholesterol and things that were bad for us but we couldn't care less in an afternoon's gorging we largely replaced the average of 10 pounds we had all lost for the first time we'd known what it was like to be desperately hungry and to be plucked from the comforts of everyday living it was an ordeal that none of us wanted to repeat ever again it's actually on a plate

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 1,031,042

Keywords: Australia, archival footage, retrofocus, from the archives, survivor, lost, reality tv, new south wales, bermagui, survival, nature, wilderness, bushland, plane crash, desert island, 1970s, survivor tv show, outwit outplay outlast, survivalist, self-sufficiency, camping, bare essentials, a question of survival, greg mead, beverly mead, four corners, nostalgia, preppers, prepper australia, classic tv shows, survival skills, survival lilly, off the grid

Id: cVqQjVQ15Fk

Length: 30min 47sec (1847 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2019