Malcolm Douglas - Australia - Across The Top Again (1989)

[Music] back in the 60s malcolm douglas and his mate dave old meadow spent four years traveling australia from this epic journey came one of the most famous and successful adventure films across the top a journey from darwin to cape york into remote arnhem land across the buffalo plains through the gulf country and finally up cape york peninsula to the top of australia now 21 years later malcolm douglas is retracing his steps from arnhem land he'll travel west to the buffalo plains south through the inhospitable gulf of carpentaria and north up cape york to the very tip of australia malcolm douglas takes you across the top again it's october the end of the dry season and malcolm is now deep in arnhem land following a track to the tribal lands of his aboriginal friends ahead is the remote settlement of gucci 20 years ago malcolm lived and worked with these people aborigines who still prefer their tribal way of life it's a warm welcome they remember him well malcolm asks after his great mate bulan bulan he's returning to camp tired after a long day hunting ducks and geese knowing that malcolm was arriving soon he's made sure there's plenty of fresh meat there's a strong bond of friendship between these two men years ago they travelled through the bush bull and bullon teaching malcolm the aboriginal way of life the following morning malcolm yarns with dick a tribal elder about their hunting trips into the swamps how he'll never forget that first day watching the men catching file snakes and tortoises how amazed he was when they killed the snakes snapping their spinal cord hearing that malcolm's looking forward to a good feed of snake everyone heads into the nearby crocodile-infested swamps the team spreads out forcing the snakes to the far end of the billabong the noise and commotion should drive away any crocodiles the snakes panic in the murky water and are grabbed among the claustrophobic tangle of weeds and snags these aquatic fish-eating water snakes are not poisonous but can inflict a nasty wound skill is needed to grab a snake by the neck and fling it onto the bank some of the snakes are killed for the evening meal but most are kept alive to be eaten later encourages malcolm to kill his catch in the traditional way the snakes are fat they'll be good to [Applause] eat [Music] on the way back to camp malcolm collects pieces of ant bed baked in the fire it's used to retain heat for cooking [Applause] traditionally the snakes are always cooked the same way first they're lightly singed until the skin is taut [Applause] hot coals and ant bed are pushed into a depression and the snakes are coiled up and covered an hour later the feast begins the meat sweet and tender like chicken is shared by all with the imminent arrival of the monsoons it's exceptionally hot and innovating the shallow swamps are drying rapidly in the intense heat daily the gutchy women hunt for tortoises an experienced hunter can spot the small oval hole in the mud leading down to the tortoise's nose and the exact location is easily confirmed with a digging stick when the water temperature rises rapidly the tortoises dig into the mud and estivate remaining in a state of torpor until the arrival of the wet season the women will hunt for tortoises every day until the planes are inundated again [Music] these families are fortunate they still live a traditional lifestyle [Music] cleaned of the sticky mud the tortoises are carried back to camp they kept for weeks to be eaten during the wet season when food is scarce and difficult to find there are now hundreds of tortoises stored in pits around the camp malcolm's permit to stay in arnhem land is due to expire so after many farewells and a promise to return within two years malcolm heads west back to the east alligator river the arnhem land border and out across the wetlands of maracai plains an area teeming with wildlife [Laughter] unpacking the trailer malcolm's startled by a slight movement and finds a big water python seeking refuge from the intense heat [Music] pythons are non-venomous they kill by constriction wrapping around the body of a victim and slowly crushing it to death [Music] a nocturnal species living in the immediate vicinity of stream and billabong and a good swimmer it takes to the water when alarmed when malcolm first ventured across the plains back in 1964 it was a wild no man's land supporting large populations of buffalo safari operators took clients out to shoot the so-called big game malcolm in across the top showed just how easy it was to drive his land rover up to a wild buff today it's a different story and the buffalo are being exterminated by professionals nearby the modern day hunters rest waiting for a radio call from the helicopter when the animals have been sighted the team swings into action its official government policy to wipe out all the buffalo they carry tb and brucellosis and could jeopardize australia's international meat trade [Music] it's an incredibly dangerous tough occupation flat out after terrorized animals that could turn on a vehicle in an instant with skill and tenacity the driver positions the buggy so that the motorized arm can control the beast [Music] the buffalo are quickly winched into a waiting truck for transport to the abattoir or shipment back to asia around 1850 a small herd was released when a settlement attempted by the british army failed thriving in the wetlands the buffs increased to over three hundred thousand today controversy rages tourists travel thousands of kilometers to see big mobs of wild buffalo but conservationists say that the feral animals are an ecological disaster and must be wiped out [Music] within weeks the rains will come to flood the plains and the buff catchers will pack up and leave their unique vehicles abandoned the few remaining animals will be shot from helicopters and the carcasses left to feed the dingos and feral pigs there's a short respite from the exhausting work while the team wait for nightfall they kill time competing against one another in a game only seen now in the remote stock camps of the north and now the most hazardous job of all a night chase the last of the rogue buffalo only venture into the open to feed after dark with complete disregard for their own safety the catchers use spotlights to locate and trap the animals they're tied by the horns to trees to be collected at daybreak most of the beasts will be slaughtered but a few disease-free animals will be retained for domestication and the rest exported to asia [Music] after a noisy few days with the buff catchers malcolm enjoys again the solitude of the bush an old goanna oblivious of malcolm's presence struggles to swallow his prey a big green frog malcolm notices that the old lizard is sluggish and checks it out normally very aggressive it's too weak to struggle it's covered with ticks they're literally sucking the life out of the ancient reptile he seems to enjoy the attention as malcolm scrapes off the bloated parasites [Laughter] um me the raucous pied geese anticipating the coming of the monsoon are returning to their breeding swamps just have a look at this g'day mate one of our old friends of the north the frilled lizard now just a word of advice about these lizards if you see one approach them very quietly if you rush at them like this see how they put the fill up and they'll hit you as a tail so just moving slowly i'm moving quickly again you watch see and he could hit you with that tail now the other thing is if you see these lizards out on the flat don't rush up to them walk up very quietly they don't always run away quite often they turn around and chase you they run right up your leg and they can bite you in a very embarrassing place i'm just going to pick him up slide my hand under him just very quietly so i don't upset him too much there we are take him out on the flat and i'll show you something [Music] [Music] this [Music] common throughout northern australia are green ants tree dwellers they construct complex nests among the leaves malcolm drained by the oppressive heat prepares himself a refreshing drink the nests are squashed and soaked in water the vicious ants inflict painful bites but malcolm tolerates the stings for a good bush drink this mixture is used by the aborigines as a medicine and it's also drunk on long walks to quench thirst [Applause] it's pleasant not unlike a lemon drink and the ants make a tangy snack full of formic acid they have a sharp fizzy taste daily now after the morning's intense heat thunderstorms build the winds increase and rain squalls lash the land as quickly as they arrive the storms dissipate and tranquility settles over the wetlands once more [Music] [Music] and the northern tropical swamps just fantastic people often say to me what do you do if you get stuck in one of these swamps well take my advice and get out as quickly as possible because there's usually crocodiles coming up behind you and big mobs of leeches but the main concern is food you've got plenty of water of course this water's always clean you just separate the weeds and scoop the water from the top it's always very clean food where you've got fish you've got file snakes and of course you've got tortoises they're very hard to get if you're knocked up or you've had an accident you're usually very tired you can't be trying to catch those sort of things but amongst these giant water lilies you can always get a bit of good bush tucker see these seeds that's the seed that forms after the flower of course now you open these up and inside you've got a nice pod in fact there's about a dozen in each of the exterior pods the large ones now these are just like a fresh pea beautiful if you don't like the taste of them raw gather up a few if you've got a billy and a fire boil them up and it tastes like mum's best peas now if you happen to get stuck out here without a hat i've lost my hat right i'm going to get sun stroke well here's a tip select yourself the biggest leaf you can find perfect hat the most extraordinary creature living in the swamps is the lotus bird also called lily trotter and christ bird because of its ability to walk across the floating lily pads its almost ridiculously long legs and feet enable it to stalk over the broad leaves with nonchalant ease foraging for food when threatened it can dive under the water to remain motionless for half an hour with only its bill and nostrils above the surface with the rains increasing it's time to move on down the stewart highway [Music] then east to the ropa river [Music] the roper the major river on the western side of the gulf of carpentaria is the home of the massive mud crabs deep in the mangroves malcolm knows exactly where to find a good feed there's an art to handling mud crabs malcolm uses a long hooked wire to catch one then it's quickly placed on flat ground before it can drop a nipper it's held firmly while the claws are secured this way the nippers which are the best part of the crab will stay fresh until it's cooked [Applause] it's a tough life in the bush 200 kilometers further south the gulf country is in the grip of a drought and the road is atrocious the next stop is borolulu now a thriving community 21 years ago the local hotel operated from a ramshackle shed as the gulf trading company the only suppliers of fuel and stores before the long drive east to berktown [Music] from burketown malcolm heads for manangura where on his first trip he made friends with andy anderson a real bushman and pioneer malcolm's heard that andy's family is still running the property on the banks of the worrian river malcolm soon realizes that not much has changed when he sees big mobs of goats andy anderson married a local tribeswoman and their son lennon anderson now runs the station lennon remembers malcolm and his mate dave old meadow arriving at manangura back in the early 1960s he shows malcolm exactly where they had stopped their land rover to meet his dad andy settled here in 1919 and left the property only once in 1948 to have his teeth out one of australia's great outback characters he died in 1974. goat meat is still the staple diet of manangura and through the long dry season the goats and all the horses have to be watered twice a day malcolm wades in to lend a hand after such a poor wet season the previous year the only fresh water on the station is drawn from a well and its arduous work in the 40 degree heat the goats are often so thirsty they rush the water carriers badly bruising their legs times are tough in this remote corner of the gulf andy's grandsons talk longingly of a pump or a windmill to bring up the water to make life just a bit easier but in many ways old andy's descendants are lucky they have their land and a simple lifestyle that so many city people can only hope to emulate dingoes often attack at night so at sundown all the goats are pinned the monsoons that are drenching the land further north have not yet reached the gulf and it's incredibly hot and dry the nannies are abandoning their young so andy's grandchildren make sure that all the thirsty kids get some milk early the next morning they're on the road again heading through woolagarang station and along the tracks that lead back towards the coast all around stately brogas strut and browse these elegant birds are common across the northern coastal plains an adult pair watch and trumpet nervously protecting their big check [Applause] the gulf waters warm and shallow are the home of the fighting barramundi after a 12 kilometer run west along the beach the men reach a small tidal river david field malcolm's traveling companion is the first to get a strike it's a nice barrier these remote rivers are a fisherman's paradise with the barramundi always on the bite in the pre-wet all the fish except one for a meal are released malcolm builds up a roaring fire to get the sand really hot he prefers to cook his barra the bush way wrapped in paper bark and baked in the ground [Music] uh [Music] 45 minutes later it's ready [Music] cooked like this the delicious flesh retains its moisture it's the best way malcolm knows of preparing a bush meal inland from the beach grow the remarkable cycad palms everybody's always talking to me these days about bush tucker bush food what you can eat out here and how you find it and how you prepare it well have a really good look at this cycad palm it's an old one and see how it's seating at the top well if you're walking around the bush and you're pretty hungry and you see those seeds well take my advice don't eat them because if you do chew on them there's a poison inside and it'll make you violently ill for about two or three days very ill but there is one way you can eat them so why the aboriginal people taught me years ago in arnhem land and i'm just going to show you quickly now if you want to get up high or grab a bit of timber make yourself a bit of a bush ladder just see if it'll hold yep that's okay righto now have a good look at these seeds pick them but before you do anything about eating them you have to soak them in water for 48 hours to leach out all the poison then you can pound them up with water and make a paste like a damper paste then you get paper bark and you put the paste inside the paper bark wrap it up and cook it in the coals in the fire and you've got yourself push damper it's a pretty rotten damper but it'll keep you alive but remember if you see the cycad tree and you see the nuts don't eat them until you've soaked it in water for 48 hours and you've cooked it in the ash [Applause] in the weeks leading up to the wet spontaneous grass fires flare blazing through the tinder dry grass black kites congregate feeding on the insects flushed out by the fire the birds revel in the thermals that rise high and hot [Applause] surprisingly this remote road from borolla to burketown is marked on maps as highway number one at last the northern territory queensland border through the gate into queensland the formed road immediately deteriorates into a rough dusty track all next day bulldust shrouds the trailer in billowing clouds like fine talc powder it makes driving extremely unpleasant if a vehicle is not dust proofed [Music] burke town stuck on a hot clay pan has nothing to offer rebuilt recently after being demolished by a cyclone it swelters in the pre-wet heat malcolm moves on anxious to get through normanton and upcape york peninsula before torrential rains cut the road normanton has changed little since malcolm's first visit [Music] the shire office and the wide streets still have the same sleepy look on the edge of towns it's a most imposing complex the normanton railway constructed from 1888 to 1891 it serviced the gold mining boom inland at croydon when the gold ran out the railway's fortunes fluctuated for a hundred years the recently renovated train still does the run to croydon carrying locals their stores and tourists and train buffs from all over the world instead of driving east to cairns malcolm heads north up the west side of cape york he's hoping to contact aboriginal friends running the crocodile farm further on at edward river to discuss their methods and see for himself their successful establishment a pilot trying to land a greater driver on the road has smashed a wing on a tree it was a close shave for the two men as they drive north the road deteriorates and malcolm's concern they could be stuck for months [Music] two days later after more rain conditions grow steadily worse and the roads are virtually impassable they're determined to go on and winching through the worst sections is a continual grind a soft snatch rope should always be used to avoid damage to trees when the tracks are this greasy it would be impossible to get through without a winch one must have a keen sense of adventure to tolerate such conditions daily the temperatures soar and the humidity is intolerable it's heavy work negotiating the bogs and the trailer has to be hauled through separately malcolm decides to leave the trailer and make a dash for edward river before the rain really sets in the black soil plains have turned to mud so thick the vehicle sinks down to the axle there's only one way out backwards reversing slowly and using another essential piece of equipment a hand winch [Applause] never in 30 years of traveling australia has malcolm experienced such a bog only after hours of solid work is the vehicle free [Music] [Applause] [Applause] malcolm checks ahead but there's no high dry ground reluctantly he accepts that the track will be cut until the end of the wet a good six months off so they pack up and head south as ominous storms build all around them [Music] beside the tracks stand bizarre shaped termite mounds these tenacious insects are busy all through the rainy season adding damp soil to their extraordinary [Music] spires before heading east onto the sealed roads the caked mud is scoured from the wheels and front end if this is not done the steering and wheel balance is badly affected malcolm had intended to rejoin the cape york road from edward river but with the track impassable he has an 800 kilometer detour to the east coast near cairns over the great dividing range then north again to cohen cohen is a small service centre halfway up cape york back in 1967 cattle ambling across the dusty main street were the main features now they've updated with a couple of kilometres of bitumen on the edge of town looms a giant microwave antenna that handles all northern communications for many years contact with the outside world was through the famous cape york telephone line the service track alongside helped travelers like malcolm to tackle cape york now the line is being removed and within a few years this famous link with the past will be gone forever [Music] times are changing on the bank of the wenlock river there sits a brand new public phone box connected by radio with the outside world daily the afternoon storms become more frequent the wind lock is rising and malcolm's concerned that when it floods their return route south could be cut the rains increase in intensity and pitching camp is often a rush job [Music] in the morning malcolm leaves the trailer behind it would impede progress if the monsoons do set in back in the old days the track north was atrocious malcolm and his mate battled for days trying to reach the top few people attempted the journey it was just too rough these days the track has been upgraded and a newly completed road bypasses all the worst creek crossings now the trip is easy and can be safely and comfortably completed in a few days so the more adventurous head east to the beach and drive north along the foreshore the track reaches the sea at captain billy's landing progress is limited to low tide and the trip should never be attempted alone it's too dangerous [Applause] meeting up with another group they joined forces to tackle the beach run [Music] the most obvious and distressing feature is the amount of flotsam and jetsam all along the beach every conceivable object imaginable has been washed up the main shipping lane is only a few kilometers offshore inside the barrier reef anything not wanted is thrown overboard and now hundreds of kilometers of australia's northern wilderness is a vast garbage tip even a fuel dump has floated in they find 1 600 liters of diesel lost by the army two years ago when malcolm contacted the defence forces they immediately made plans for a party to retrieve the fuel some of the rubbish is from new guinea malcolm wanted to pick up this dugout canoe but it's just too heavy however he does collect fishing flotation balls for decoration at his broom crocodile park as more people try this route disasters are frequent vehicles bog the tide comes in and all is lost this is why the beach run should never be attempted alone coconut trees flourish along the shoreline mark owner of the accompanying vehicle makes the climb look easy [Applause] progress can be made only on falling and low tides the major obstacle is orford bay malcolm checks the water and spots something on the far side [Applause] within minutes his inflatables ready and he's off to investigate it's a toyota submerged on the high tide an ominous warning the driver paid dearly for his mistake malcolm watches anxiously as mark heads out first across the mud at dead low tide it's five kilometers across the bay and the men had carefully mapped out their exact route as the mud flats were exposed with mark safely across malcolm follows ahead lies the abandoned truck malcolm saw earlier it's a dismal sight over the past 12 months at least six vehicles have gone under most were retrieved by their owners for parts it only shows how a simple bog can suddenly turn into a disaster if a vehicle is not pulled out ahead of the incoming tide malcolm's concerned about the number of inexperienced travelers taking this beach run it should not be tried without a good understanding of tides at least two vehicles with power and hand winches and plenty of time the last obstacle is the logan jack river negotiable only at low tide with hours to wait malcolm's after a feed and soon has a good strike a queen fish a fierce fighter on light gear will make a great meal for the team [Music] after four days averaging 20 kilometers a day the travelers arrive at usher point where the remains of a crashed single-engine plane mark the turn-off inland again until recently people heading up the old track had one last challenge before the top the mighty jardine river malcolm and his mate dave old meadow crossed successfully on christmas eve 1967 today's adventurers have it easy crossing downstream on a ferry north of the jardine the track runs through lush rainforest and then it's a short walk to the very tip of australia [Music] as malcolm looks out to sea he's already planning another journey to the little-known islands of torres [Music] strait [Music] you

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Length: 44min 39sec (2679 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020