Malcolm Douglas - Australia - Kimberley Adventure (Part 1) 1997

[Music] [Music] do the kimberley coast in the far north of western australia is a wild dangerous place where few people ever go huge relentless tides surge between the rocky islands and over the coral reefs [Music] and the fishing is spectacular [Applause] malcolm douglas based on his crocodile farm in broome spends long periods exploring this remote part of australia these expeditions are rough tough and often dangerous come along as he sets out on another remarkable adventure malcolm's heading 200 kilometers north from broome up the dampier peninsula to launch his boat at one arm point [Music] the kimberley is a vast mass of uplifted sandstone eroded by spectacular gorges only the most experienced travelers can take on the extreme conditions of this wild corner of australia with its huge rise and fall of tide conflicting currents countless islands and uncharted reefs for malcolm it's a challenge he knows this coast well with a mate or two and his dog bundy he'll live for weeks on the sandy beaches and rocky outcrops this time he's heading for a particular bay it's impossible to find without detailed local knowledge the boat has to be maneuvered through the deeper channels on the dropping tide to a point where the water spills from the higher reef now up on the reef in front of me where that um where that waterfall is where we just came in and put the boat down is is a large area where the water gets trapped on the reef at low tide and in this waterhole all the fish congregate and it is one of the best fishing spots that i know in a few minutes i'll just walk up here and i'll show you what kimberley fishing is all about just down in front of me there are schools of gold and trevally jack flag you name it i've got them here i only get half a dozen fish here and then it all the others will clear out because i'll get spooked but you only need three or four bit feet a flick i've got a a popping lure it'll spin it'll go along the surface and show you what fishing is all about oh so [Applause] oh second cast 30 seconds of fishing i've already got the dinner that's what kimberley fishing is all about poor boy wool boy come on hey come back here let him go get another one malcolm enjoys trying out different kinds of lures many of them hand made by mates you gotta keep this when the rising tide pushes across the reef it's time to go the sea is calm between the islands strung out along the kimberley coast ideal for traveling long distances boats really venture into landlocked secure bay it's too remote a dangerous place of cross currents and whirlpools stirred up by the funneling tide for years governments have discussed how this extraordinary power might be harnessed for electricity well that's really awesome isn't it this is the main entrance in the secure bay and this is quite different all the other tidal gorges i've been to over the years it's in a very remote place right up in the top of the kimberleys at the bottom of collier bay and a lot of bureaucrats over the years have had this dream of damning this and using the power of the tide to turn turbines to create electricity i guess it's a wonderful dream but i really just prefer the wilderness as it is don't you so [Music] from secure bay malcolm heads further north to a small reef locked island 30 nautical miles from the mainland at high tide this is one of the best fishing spots on the coast they pitch camp on a small coral beach the only stretch of flat ground for miles around and wait for the tide to change in the shallows blacktip reef sharks prowl impatiently and with the tide come the fish skimming just ahead of the sharks [Music] ah high tide on the reef is the best time for trolling [Music] and that's what kimberley fishing's all about you try and catch yourself a feed and these black tip reef sharks come in and before you can get get your dinner out of the water you've got these sharks hanging on i had a meter out of the water and he's still hanging on a couple of bites and there's not much left of a 10 kilo trevally sharks all around me now so what i might do is i'll just throw this back into the water and we'll give you a look at just what all these sharks can do hmm the following day the men head out again across the reef to the shark infested waters last night when i was lying in my swag i was just thinking about all these sharks you can see there around the back of the boat already whenever you're angry and you've caught a couple of fish a little bit of the blood runs out of the stern here brings the sharks up very quickly and i thought what would happen if i fell in there perhaps nothing i'm sure i've had some sort of cut on me these sharks would go into a feeding frenzy very quickly so what i've done is tied a bag and a life jacket and an old pair of pants together with a couple of floats i've placed a couple of fish inside which if you stretch your imagination a bit it looks like me but what i'm going to do is throw this over the back here and see what happens all very quiet at the moment i don't expect the sharks to rush straight in give it a couple of minutes and see what happens so well that was pretty scary it puts me off swimming up here i'm just going to pull it in and i'll i want to get my plastic bottle it was in the in the bottom of the pants it's falling out and taking off with the currents i want to get it before i lose it with the fish on the bike the men are reluctant to leave and at sundown they're stranded [Music] at midnight they'll float off but in the meantime with a little ingenuity malcolm sets up the primus burner well away from the fuel-laden boat and boils the billy morning finds them again waiting for the tide malcolm calls this wait a while country always waiting for the tide to come in or waiting for it to go out [Applause] the dorsal fin of a good sized fish catches malcolm's keen eye so [Music] i only get a shot like that about once every 10 years up here always carry a hand spear in a survival situation they're essential we're stuck on the reef here waiting for the tide to come up we may not get any fish today because we've got strong westerly winds so we can eat this fish raw and later on we can cook it it's a beautiful eating fish just have a look at that uh that wire see how it bended up that's just uh almost too weak for this sort of fish but i don't use these a lot but uh when you need a feed uh you can always pick a fish up with one of these if you practice a lot you've got to really practice before you're any good with a with a hand speed i learned how to use a hand spear up in arnhem land with the aboriginal people in the uh early 1960s practice day after day hour after hour always carry one on the boat don't use it a lot but when you pick a feed up like that quickly it's well worth it when you're out on the islands and you go to camp overnight there's not always much firewood so you can just take a fillet off a fish just get rid of that skin there just take that skin off quickly and you can just take a bit of fish and you can eat it raw and it's tough but it's sweet and very good for you the japanese are famous for eating raw fish and if you really upmark it you can bring some vinegar and a little bit of onion which we still have in the boat so tell you what that fish is nice now chuck the onion in there some vinegar and we'll just marinate the fish oh you know 15 minutes to a couple of hours and it's very nice you can do this in the boat too if you caught anywhere anger off at night you can't get ashore you catch yourself a fish bit of vinegar and uh it's not too bad i'm just taking out these small pieces dropping them in the vinegar and onion and leave it there a couple of hours and it'll be very nice i haven't got a lot of vinegar in there because we're out in the bush for quite a while we don't want to waste it all but that's only been in there for three or four minutes and already the flesh is starting to turn white here it is half an hour later it's marinated the flesh is nice and white and it breaks apart and it is beautiful and sweet mmm at sunrise malcolm begins the long journey to a remote corner of the northern kimberley the hunter river two days later the boat passes the eroded rock formations that mark the river mouth the pockets of rainforest here are the home of a rare snake that's never been filmed a mate of malcolm's john weigel from the australian reptile park in gosford has been trying to locate this snake for years malcolm is to rendezvous with john who's walking over land [Music] but there's no sign of john's party [Music] [Music] malcolm's hoping a shot from his magnum will draw a response working with crocodiles permits him to carry a handgun in case of emergency 48 hours later there's still no contact the pre-arranged plan was to meet here but the men are now well overdue and it's decided to search the next river system malcolm leaves a note to say he'll return in three days time three it's possible john and his party might have reached the headwaters of the row so on the rising spring tide he motors as far as possible up the river [Music] as the tide drops there's a dramatic change the water literally disappears exposing huge boulders [Music] malcolm's in trouble he could be stranded here for weeks and john's party is depending on him we came up the river right to the top on the big tide yesterday afternoon put the boat up here so we could have a good night's sleep and during the night the tides dropped off now the tides during the day are a lot higher but i can tell you i'm a very worried man because if we don't get the boat off here around about one o'clock this afternoon we won't get out of here for two to two and a half weeks and it's that hot and it's that innovating i'm not looking forward to waiting two and a half weeks and i'm very worried about the other guys that we're looking for at the moment it's decided to unload everything including 600 liters of fuel so the boat will float clear of the rocks when the tide does come in the tides are dropping off and if they don't get the boat down to the water's edge they'll be stuck for days [Music] a desperate attempt to maneuver the boat free on logs fails [Music] the high frequency radio is moved to a rock face well away from the boat and contact is made with a helicopter on the mitchell plateau the pilot office to search for the men and get back to malcolm within a day or two very faint mate but that's okay are you out of do you think you might be out of range very relieved he heads off for a feed of fresh fish i've just walked up the gorge to where the salt water and the fresh water meet whenever you find a spot like this at the top of any of these kimberley rivers it's usually a really top place to catch a fish very few people come up to these places so the type of lure doesn't really matter because the fish are uneducated i've just got a little homemade wooden cedar lure here green and black drop it on go down there and i reckon i could get a couple of beautiful jack for lunch just just below that waterfall there so his first catch is an undersized barramundi so he lets it go [Applause] almost every cast brings in a nice pan sized mangrove jack the best way to cook your fish out here in the bush is straight onto the coal but no flame the flames will cook it burn it give it an awful taste don't scale the fish you can gut it if you like straight onto the coals there one two three [Music] four [Applause] you can use the aluminium foil which we do at home on the sunday barbie slide out this way if you cook it in the foil gut it because the skin is very nice cook this way just straight in there the way we do it at home just right on the coals leave it for 10 minutes and it's just beautiful mangrove jack is just about my favorite fish probably even better than barrow when they're fat that is just so sweet because it was fat when i caught it a fish that is skinny in other words when you gut it it hasn't got any fat in it it won't taste any good it's got lots of fat in it which this one did and have plenty of juice in it it'll be very sweet the following day comes the news they've been waiting for the helicopter pilot has picked up john weigel and his team everyone's relieved and excited to have finally made contact so what actually happened john from last tuesday to when we've met this morning well malcolm we tried to uh according to our plan walk across the plateau from mitchell falls all the way to the hunter but uh wasn't mourning about a day's hike and we found out that the country was um much rougher than we thought we went gorge over gorge over gorge uh after one day's hike we'd only traversed five kilometers we made the decision uh it was better to turn back and try and get a helicopter in to meet up with you on on schedule if we don't get that bait off today we're going to be here for nine days we yeah yeah well you can't move for hours everyone including the chopper pilot pitches in picking up timber to slide the boat out in the deep gorge it's hot exhausting work i'll take it all right all right i position your feet on the count of three one two three oh i got an inch breather one two three the boat's gradually edged into position ready to maneuver it out on the rising tide later in the day it has to be moved at least 20 meters before there's any chance of it floating [Applause] ready to take off you want to just sort out these ropes angle hook on there i'll just check it though after so much effort the boat's in danger of sliding stern first into the mud so the anchors wedged behind a rock towards me now on the count of three one two three okay he's ready to fly [Applause] with the boat now ready for reloading the pilot heads back to base and the men can concentrate their efforts on looking for the elusive rough scale python [Music] next morning everyone's relaxed as they head for a particular pocket of rainforest where they'll search once again for the snake so rare that an adult specimen has never been seen alive for years on his annual holidays john weigel has been scouring the rainforest hoping to find this unique reptile now what's your program for the next week or so john well we're going to have a good look in this rainforest patch here this is one of the best patches of rainforest in the whole kimberley and that's the reason we're up here really is because the fauna in this rainforest area of the kimberley is absolutely unique a lot of the reptiles we're going to see have never been described some of them have been described only in the last five years to science but the one we're going to look for in particular is a rough scale python and that's why i've come up isn't it because this particular python you're looking for has never been filmed or never been photographed well that's not quite right didn't you find one we found we found a juvenile last year and photographed it a nice little baby but i still haven't seen an adult rough scale python in the flesh no rough scale has been filmed before and this will be our ideal opportunity the climatic conditions are good this rainforest looks terrific and we'll give it a good shot days are spent combing the vine thickets hoping to turn up any evidence of snakes trent spots something in a deep crevice he's hanging onto you he's got a good hole it's a giant cave gecko a very aggressive lizard with a savage bite they've got strong jaws hey john he's got a cape gecko here oh that's better one of the largest geckos in australia it's found only in the northern kimberley and western arnhem land what is that john the common tree snake is a harmless distraction from the search for the rough scale python how come these nations climb better than the others they're really well adapted for it they have a keeled row fin pops himself full of air you'll never get him out a hundred years the kimberley rock monitor is one of the most striking of all the goannas with its distinctive body markings and exceptionally long tail it flattens its body to hide in deep narrow cracks in the rock john calls it the ferrari lizard because it's so fast and sleek like much of the kimberley fauna there's very little known about this beautiful reptile tail is nearly three times the length of the body which makes it one of those another extraordinary animal is the fringe-toed velvet gecko recently discovered and described it lives only in this remote northern kimberley region [Music] well we better put him back late on the third night the men are excited just for a few seconds when they thought they'd found the elusive rough scale python but it's only a common species known as a children's python its defense is to roll up into a tight ball and wait until the predator loses interest all night and into the morning the hunt goes on [Music] i don't believe it [Music] the country is so rugged and so remote that in over 200 years of european settlement this is the first time that this snake has ever been filmed alive i can't believe it that's the alpha hey how many years have i been trying to get one of those well i feel like well we don't want to frighten him in a frightening display of aggression the python reveals long curved teeth previously known only from two dead specimens in the western australian museum that were collected in the early eighties herpetologists have been trying to find a live animal ever since john weigel believes that it lives in the rock crevices and hunts in the trees the huge teeth and gaping jaws are perfectly adapted for grabbing birds and small mammals such as native rats malcolm has been deliberately vague about the exact location of the snake it's classified as rare and endangered and there's always a concern that unscrupulous collectors will find specimens to smuggle out of australia this is the first one that's ever been filmed isn't it this is the decide film of a rough scale fight i'll give this back to you i think this is uh this is the i would say this is the kimberley ecological equivalent to the green tree pod i'll bet you these blokes are living most their life in the trees and ambush feeding birds and rats and so on that come into these fruit trees god it's beautiful very very rough to touch very keeled scales this is the only python in the world with keeled scales very unique part of the kimberley rainforest fauna and i've been looking for this fellow for years this is my holy grail non-venomous pythons constrict their prey to death what i can't work out john is how it's taken so long to find this snake i'll tell you what i've been coming up here this is about the tenth trip to northern kimberley for me and apart from that little juvenile that my offsider trent found last year along with me uh this is the first one i've seen but why can't you collect a few of these and start a breeding captive breeding program for them so we can learn a lot more about them well i think an application needs to be large to do just that i think the zoo the zoological uh community in australia needs to get onto animals like this these are unique components of our fauna and a lot can be learned i mean that behavior we just saw with that defense which we uh we just filmed that has never been reported in anything like this before that's that's completely new there you go now what would this animal be eating oh birds look at the length of those teeth because of that huge dip yeah that gets through the feathers this is now that i've seen one an adult i can tell you it's just ecologically got to be similar to a green python it's got the same huge bulbous jowls very tall head to accommodate those long teeth and that's to get through the feathers and grab those birds well what do you think a few still photos this is going to be the most photographed python in australia and then we'll let him go i'll tell you what see where he goes john reluctantly releases the snake that's been his obsession for so long [Music] within the hour malcolm begins the long run back to broome and john and his mates fly out of the wilderness heading back to sydney malcolm's keen to get amongst the fighting barramundi on the other side of the kimberley north from wyndham in part two of kimberley adventure malcolm reaches the berkeley river where the mighty barramundi are on the bike [Music] he travels through spectacular gorges spends weeks attempting to reach the tidal rush at talbot bay meets up with colorful kimberley wildlife watches a kilometer long waterfall form as the huge tides drop off and experiences the danger of the rushing rising tide be sure to watch kimberly adventure part 2 with malcolm douglas [Music] you

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Length: 45min 9sec (2709 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020