Malcolm Douglas - Australia - Across The Top (Part 2) 1969

so [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] food deteriorates so quickly the aborigines go hunting every day this boy is collecting water lily bulbs [Music] quite unworried by the crocodiles he gropes in the mud for the bulbs [Music] the water lily bulbs are the aborigines substitute for potatoes although they taste more like wood [Music] the other type of craft used on the swamp is a stringy bark canoe it's just a long strip of bark bound together at both ends and held in shape by two pieces of stick this canoe is used in shallow water where its pointed bow can penetrate the reeds g'day and what today are hunting for tortoise and small crocs they hunt with the sun directly overhead so the quarry can be seen in the water [Music] so [Music] the canoe looks so easy to handle i just have to have a go aborigines have no feelings for the birds and animals they hunt but they never hunt for sport always for food this is really brutal primitive man spearing a pelican to death [Music] cruel you're saying well this is how man survives in the bush the pelican is food the man must feed his family and once his family has sufficient food the aborigine will not hunt again until everything is eaten [Music] on the main billabong pelicans rest but all's not well something has disturbed them it's a crocodile we have special permits to carry high-powered rifles in arnhem land for pest destruction and this crocodile could well attack the nangalala cattle so it'll have to be destroyed the secret of stalking is to keep low and move slowly so that no sound is transmitted through the ground to the crocodile dave can't see the croc so i creep in behind a cabbage tree palm and give him signals the croc is shot now it's a race against time i hop into my speedboat and roar into the water [Music] [Applause] [Music] i found him and now it's just a matter of getting him ashore [Music] [Music] dave has one last look at this forgotten land for now we must return to our boat and continue our travels after the long walk back to the river our luck runs out there's no water and our boat stuck fast in the mud we came up the river on the high spring tide but with the neap tide the water just won't come this far we wait for 24 hours hoping then decide to push the boat with its 800 pound load back towards the sea the heat is intense and this is truly a stinking job [Music] we labor for hours knee deep in the clinging mud and both collapse exhausted and then a change of luck the tide comes in first is a trickle and then as a gushing torrent and mill peru realizing that we might have been stuck has walked over to give us a push but he's too late so he picks up his spear and begins to jab it in the water the river is full of small fish they've come up with the tide to catch the insects caught in the sticky mud here mill peru demonstrates another lesson in [Music] survival [Music] [Applause] [Music] now the long trip back to nangalala from mill and gimbe we'll fly to elko island where we'll take a fishing boat to the whistle islands where we'll be shown a cave with paintings and then back to elko and so by plane to darwin over the last 20 years most of the aborigines have voluntarily moved into the mission and now there are over 800 full bloods half of these are children under 14 years of age if the bush people of arafura wish to they can travel to the mission and receive training in many fields one of the biggest centers of training on elko is the sawmill this boy has become skilled in his trade the large building behind the sawmill is a school eleven trained white teachers and several trainee aboriginal teachers give the children just as good an education as that received by children anywhere in australia the mission has also trained aborigines for commercial fishing the boats are supplied by the mission and the catchers are sent to darwin each week in their efforts to help the aborigines integrate the mission has taught them to fish for others not just a fish for themselves [Music] a fishing trip lasts up to a week this boat is heading for the wessel islands 70 miles to the northeast remote barren but beautiful with long white sandy beaches the natives are keen to stop here so they can hunt stingrays one of their favorite foods spears are fixed to warmers and there's the quarry gliding across the sandy bottom a spear is driven home and the excitement begins [Music] the rays when speared settle into the sand that are difficult to shift [Music] [Music] the boys make sure that they keep well clear of the long tail with its poisonous barb as soon as the ray is beached the barb is removed and tossed onto the sand for someone else to step on [Music] um [Music] they're heavy too and it's a long walk back to the boat on the fishing boat with us is old jingaloo this island is his tribal territory and he often returns here from the mission one day he promises to show us some paintings in a cave on the other side of the island he says he's only showing them because we're his friends it's a long walk and we begin to wonder whether it's worth it [Music] at last jingaloo shows us the opening to a cave under a hanging rock it's well hidden and it'll be impossible to find unaided and there are the paintings perfectly preserved how old well who knows but they are a record of early sailing ships which passed this way many years ago [Music] were they traders or explorers whoever they were they made quite an impact on the native artists of wessel islands [Music] jingaloo believes his grandfather painted most of these and he takes great pride in methodically explaining the paintings to us in the same way that he would teach the young men of his tribe [Music] here a superb painting of an early pearling lugger in full sail [Music] the boats are interesting but how about the strange men in top hats smoking pipes some have a diagonal cross painted in red ochre on their chests which suggests to us some kind of uniform you know matthew flinders sailed this way in 1801 the animals are dingoes but who were these men in top hats who came here many years ago dutch explorers japanese fishermen police from brisbane or early pioneers it's a strange unanswered question about australia's early history but now we must leave jingaloo and his cave paintings and return to elko island in time to catch the plane for darwin one last look at mill and gimbee as we head for darwin [Music] darwin seems busy and unfriendly after the piece of the remote arafura swamp the famous steward highway it's tired and sealed all the way a thousand miles to alice springs [Music] at the turn off an accident the truck taking stores to borrow lulu has dropped its bundle the u-bolts holding the crate to the tray snapped and rations for remote stations are scattered everywhere [Music] drums of flower and a stack of grog [Music] the road to bora lula is fair and our progress good [Music] here's a typical bush sign changes in the wind doesn't matter how you spell a name so long as you get the right idea [Music] two frill neck lizards catch our [Music] attention disturb them and they become quite fierce snapping and puffing up their [Music] frills and so to the broken down forgotten town of bora luna the store owned and operated by the gulf trading company supplies station properties for hundreds of miles around [Music] and who remembers the old hand pump bowsers if you don't die of lung cancer you can always blow yourself up you know it's 100 degrees in the water bag and the petrol fumes are fairly visible but he couldn't care less and we never realized ourselves till we saw this film back in melbourne there's no other store for hundreds of miles so we buy up for weeks ahead it's shopping day in borough the girls from some distant station are having a day in town they've come in to pick up the stores that we saw scattered on the road 240 miles back east of bora lula along the gulf of carpentaria we're in some of the most isolated country in the whole of australia there are few roads no amenities and very little communication the outback stations in the dead heart with their two-way radios and airstrips are civilized compared with this at this stage we're running out of money so we decide to head for the coast where there's a good chance that we'll shoot enough crocodiles to pay for the rest of the trip we pull into manangora a 1500 square mile property owned by andy anderson he's almost a hermit these two old aborigines look after him this real territory character was a lifelong friend of the famous bushman and author bill haney and what a character he is andy anderson came back from the first world war with bill haney both of them settled in this never never land his tin shanty has a dirt floor split logs make a table and benches he lives on salt beef and damper and he gets his method in 44 gallon drums to drink not to light the lights he's only left the property once in 1948 when he traveled to townsville to have his teeth out andy anderson directs us to what he calls an ideal camp but the humid weather the stinking mud the sand flies and mosquitoes make it hell [Music] [Music] these tidal rivers and estuaries are the home of the big saltwater crocodile and we hope to get enough to pay for petrol film and food and to get us all the way across the top the first night we set a line baited with barramundi and this is what we catch it's an 11 foot hammerhead shark so heavy that we have to use the winch on the land rover to drag it from the water [Music] hammerheads are found in waters around the world but they're interesting because of the strange shape of their heads this shape allows the fish to swim with a minimum of movement the streamlining is almost perfect and with eyes mounted in the extremities of his hammer head the shark has nearly all round vision [Music] they're inquisitive too and they often give us worrying moments when they circle our boat we're after a feed of fish so we swim our gill net across the nearby tidal river and as we pull it in we find it's been completely raked the trapped fish have attracted dozens of sharks which have ripped through the net tearing it to shreds [Music] all that's left is a barramundi cleanly bitten in two [Music] only the smaller sharks have become entangled in the net the larger ones have torn themselves free [Music] look at them bronze whalers and blue pointers we're going to have to watch our step in this water disgusted we leave the sharks and the net to rot [Music] during the next six weeks hundreds of river miles will be clocked up as we keep on the move always looking for signs of the croc one must have complete understanding of their habits and environment before attempting to hunt them [Music] huge crocodiles often lie in the sun at the water's edge and only the slightest hint of danger they disappear under the muddy water once a crock is sighted the hunt begins after leaving this area for a few days we come back to find this fresh slide it's low tide and the croc must have slid into the water only minutes ago [Music] the belly and claw marks left in the mud suggest that it's the same croc possibly a 13-footer the only way to catch this one will be to leave a set baited hook heavy nylon cord connected to a chain trace and a large shark hook will do the job [Music] the hook is baited with a piece of rotten crocodile tail and it's hung just above high watermark crocs go for rotten meat and they have an acute sense of smell to help them find it there's a good chance that we'll hook him during the night [Music] early next day we find that we've been successful the crocs dead it's drowned itself attempting to break free it's heavy work dragging him up the slippery bank the dogs try to help but only make matters worse [Music] dave thinks it'll be a good idea if we hang him up in a tree to get a better look at his size [Music] so for three hours solid we struggle to get that carcass up above the ground we even tie up some of the trees when they sag down on us with the colossal weight crocodiles have enormous power in their jaws and tail and it's easily seen here how they can grab fully grown cattle and drag them into the water [Music] this crocodile will take two hours to skin and then the skin will be salted down and packed in the boat until we return to base camp and you know we have a problem shortly after we set out on this trip dave became a diabetic it was touch and go whether we could continue but dave doesn't complain he lives with his problem and nothing deters him from the hazards and excitements that many a completely healthy person would book at every morning he gives himself a shot of insulin not in the most hygienic conditions perhaps but without it he knows that he couldn't last many months [Music] while dave's having his insulin i'm getting breakfast so far one small crock and there's a snake i tend to grab it but it strikes and bites my hand [Music] it's one of the constrictor family it squeezes its prey to death before consuming it this is how he works incidentally watch for the blood on my hand from his bite he twists himself around his prey the pressure on my arm is only slight until he hooks his tail across his body and then every muscle tightens the pressure is tremendous within minutes he could stop the circulation in my arm [Music] the snake minus its head hits the coals along with two small crocs after months in the bush the taste is [Music] delicious [Music] a few fresh leaves on the ground keep the roast clean well-cooked snake and crocodile is very appetizing the meat is sweet and nourishing [Music] we're on our way back to camp when we smell a shocking stench something vile and from the jungle the sounds of all hell [Music] we've stumbled on a colony of flying foxes they're known as fruit bats they live in huge communities and they're found anywhere in tropical australia like all bats they are nocturnal they eat only fruit and they camp down at night time in such numbers that they often split the branches from the trees they migrate from place to place following the rightening fruit there are young ones in this colony clinging to their mothers who continually flap their wings to keep cool and as they hang they urinate and the excretor dribbles and mats on their furry bodies giving off the most revolting smell unable to get airborne from the ground they use their claws to clamber to the tops of the trees and from here they launch themselves into skillful flight but they land clumsily and sometimes crash after hitting the branches dave grabs one for a closer look but it's savage and it's hard to handle dave lets it go in a small clearing and stumbling awkwardly across the ground it heads for the nearest tree sinking its long sharp claws into the bark to climb to safety see the youngster still clinging to its mother dave gets the young one but it digs its claws into him it's got sharp teeth too that could give him a very vicious bite the wings are a thin membrane stretched between extended fingers he climbs rapidly to a high branch and settles down in a comfortable position [Music] from here we're traveling east across to burke town normanton and cairns and then to satisfy our own ambition up the cape york peninsula to the very tip of australia but we must lose no time the wet is on its way and we could get caught in torrential rains [Music] the rains come early flooding the almost non-existent track and we are bogged up to the axles [Music] dave built the winch he fitted it onto the front of the land rover in 1964 and once again it proves its usefulness so many times it's pulled us out we must get moving before this rain sets in hundreds of miles to go and no way of knowing just what lies ahead [Music] [Music] with the table wrapped around the trees the winch worked so well we almost overturned we persevere and eventually get going [Music] again [Music] dave and i are worried now the map we're using seems to be inaccurate cattle properties are marked but they don't seem to exist or have we passed them petrol is low and to be honest we don't know where we are there's a cattle station marked within two days drive so we head for that situated on a beautiful lagoon abandoned is the homestead that was going to supply us with so much information the isolation of the great distance from markets crippled the pioneering spirit of these early australians [Music] we move on hoping for contact with someone anyone we don't know whether we're in queensland or the territory along the track a donkey braves he's watchdog for a mob of brumbies wild horses roaming free after escaping from some station probably the last one brumbies are a common sight in many parts of australia occasionally they'll round up some and give them to a horse breaker [Music] for the moment the rain has gone the country is arid we heard later that 10 days after we passed berktown torrential rains isolated the town completely [Music] burnt down did i say here it is a forgotten dump stuck on a hot clay pan never have we driven into such an inhospitable spiritless town in the local cafe what have you got we asked nathan they say so we get some petrol and leave here's normanton it's bigger than berkton and look at that dog he didn't come down in the last shower see how he keeps cooler in the shadow of his friend [Music] from normanton to the east coast the going is easy each town looks like the last one a main street a few houses a pup or two here an old gas light catches our attention for a few seconds but that's all we keep going [Music] at last the green of the sugarcane and the blue of the pacific and what a marvelous sight after miles of dust but the journey must go on the rain is threatening and it's a long hazardous trip up the cape york peninsula that's musgrave station and there's the flying doctors plane there could be trouble here yes there's been an accident a stockman's been thrown and while the doctor tends him the pilot refuels he's anxious to get away before the rains come [Music] these are real stockmen the real australian cattlemen they work vast areas of cattle country in a land so remote they don't even look upon themselves as queenslanders peninsula rights they call themselves [Music] there's a note of urgency in our traveling now we've got to get going the wet has well and truly started and the tracks are packing up [Music] this champ in an old v8 is attempting the same feat as ourselves but at least we have a reliable vehicle we pull him out and he drives ahead of us up to cohen [Music] the old mining town of cohen 200 miles north of cooktown is the last settlement on the peninsula it's a small service center and appears to support more cattle than people the grassy patches in the main street give some idea of how many vehicles pass through this way it's our last chance to buy petrol and supplies and from here to the top of australia we're on our own [Music] the locals say it's sheer madness to try it now the wet started six weeks ago the rivers will be in flood the track washed away we think about it decide to give it a go we know that the locals won't be able to help us if we get stuck but it's just another risk we'll have to take a telephone line running up to thursday island is our only guide ahead the monsoonal build-up looks a forbidding barrier during the months of dry season a contractor keeps the road open for the men who service this lonely line of communication and as soon as the wet season begins they pull out and the road is left to wash away it's now two weeks before christmas the wet starts at the end of october the rivers are rising the track in places is gone storm clouds intense heat and the unbearable humidity remind us constantly of the urgency and danger of our trip abandoned the old v8 we find the driver's tea leaves boiled over and over again he had no food no rifle bald tyres and an almost useless car later we heard that he'd been found stumbling delirious through the bush by a station hand making the last quick trip before the rain [Music] [Music] eighty miles north of cohen to our amazement we come across a man with a huge truck hopelessly bogged he has coal hours the private contractor from cairns who keeps the track open for the pmg he's lifted a bit late getting out and the road is collapsed under the heavy vehicle [Music] we spend two precious days sweating and swearing until we drag that truck clean out the mud the five-ton four-wheel drive vehicle is bogged deeper than the axles the truck's own winch is broken so call attaches are come along tree puller to it plus the winch on his land rover and the winch on ours oh it's a terrible job the first day we make no impression at all [Music] overnight cole pumps the water from the bog with his small portable firefighting unit and with our chainsaw we cut down trees to wedge under the wheels and you think we weren't pleased to see this site cole's so excited he just about wraps the cables around his front end exhausted but smiling he climbs from the truck a few words of thanks a warning about the road ahead and we're off the track already washed out in many places batters the land rover savagely [Music] the rains come down the rivers rise and still we press on in the last 120 miles we crossed 93 rivers and streams [Music] the four-wheel drive drags the land rover forward the dogs are covered to keep out the fierce sun and the little trailer carrying precious petrol follows faithfully behind even after 140 000 miles the land rover never lets us down another crossing she's rolling this is a terrible situation we could be stuck in a river that may rise 20 feet any hour axles bearing springs could easily be broken beyond repair the wise old owl thinks we're fools [Music] dave stutters the situation yes it's bad how are we going to get out of this one [Music] dave begins backing and so far so good till the body jams the wheels so i have to give a helping hand and the trailer jack knives but at least the vehicle seems all right [Music] the winch comes to the rescue once again [Music] ever had the feeling of being watched by a slice of queensland pineapple without the winch this situation would have been hopeless with no way of moving the land rover a hurried conference and david i decide that the boat must go there's too much weight riding on the top and the land rover's rolling crazily we'll pick up the boat later if we make it back silva is dying after traveling with us for three and a half years he's not going to make it back to melbourne he is to die at the top of australia of a fatal heartworm disease transmitted by mosquitoes the last major crossing is reached this is the jardine river only 20 miles from the tip of cape york peninsula this wide fast flowing stream has had us worried now for weeks in cohen the locals told us that even if we did reach the jardine it would be far too deep to cross at this time of year and it does look grim wet season clouds threaten any hour from now the river could rise 10 or 20 feet if we do get across it could rise behind us and trap the land rover at the top for six months we decide to wait overnight and watch the river carefully a marker is fixed in the water and the river levels are noted [Music] at every deep water crossing dave waterproofs the electrical wiring with grease removes the fan belt and covers the motor with a rubber sheet this careful preparation could mean the difference between success and disaster [Music] so [Music] next morning we're very relieved to note very little difference in the water level and the crossing of the last barrier to the top begins [Music] [Music] half an hour later we drive past an old wartime jetty still used by the local torres strait [Music] islanders [Music] after traveling together for nearly four years we stand together at the top of australia looking out towards the torres strait islands realizing that this is the end

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Length: 45min 40sec (2740 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020