The Makeshift Mining Towns Of The Australian Outback | TRACKS

paper was light gold in medieval times [Music] i want tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong [Music] deserts the driest places on earth covering more than a fifth of all the world's landmass as dangerous to life as the highest peak or the coldest glacier but in these harsh and barren wastelands nature endures people have lived in the desert since the beginning of time resilient and resourceful they have developed unique cultures and deep spiritual bonds with these arid lands [Music] but the modern world of commerce and industry is encroaching on the desert claiming its resources changing the delicate balance of life now more than ever desert people must adapt to survive this series tells their story of struggle and endeavor of humanity's continuing relationship with the most challenging places on earth [Music] this is the story of life in the australian outback a place so forbidding it looks to be incompatible with human life but for tens of thousands of years people have called this place home living a difficult sometimes brutal existence it's not a very pleasant task for them but it's got to be done in their isolation they've developed a thirst for adventure and a knowledge that pulling together is key to survival the outback is a place of dramatic transformation of untapped wealth and secret histories [Music] whether braving the elements or hunting for treasure it's like looking for a needle in a haystack it takes a certain kind of person to live here day or night the arid lands of the australian outback are full of staggering stories of extreme existence [Music] almost all of australia's population lives along its coastal fringes inland is a vast arid space where everyone and everything seems to work in a different way it's first light anna creek's cattle ringers are bracing themselves for a long hot day in the desert their task is to locate and corral a thousand strong herd of cows the process known as mustering will involve gathering a herd together and driving them non-stop over 30 kilometers in the blistering heat of the outback in the past this work was done on horseback but when your farm is this massive it's best to use horsepower of a different kind and go at it from all angles [Music] a hundred years ago the practicalities of managing a farm this size was unthinkable stretching out over two million hectares of the south australian outback anna creek station is the largest cattle station in the whole world cowboys are known as ringers the head stockman takes to the skies a shepherd with a bird's eye view of his livestock his airborne directions keep his young jackaroos and jillaroos on the right trail they hear his petrol driven sheepdogs who find the cattle and drive the herd together in summer the temperature can reach 50 degrees it's like working in an oven but for cowboy biker nathan keogh sweating it out is just part of the job an old fellow once said to me they're no different people if someone just woke you up one morning and said you've got to walk 30k today and you had someone behind you poking you with your stick trying to make a jog that 30k where you're probably only going to get about 10k and then you're going to sit down and want to have a rest so that's where you've got to sort of think like a cow which is not that hard really you know they just treat them here you sort of think that you'd like to be treated if you're in their situation [Music] despite being one of the driest places on earth plenty of grasses and shrubs have evolved to grow in the desert soil [Music] by constantly roaming around the enormous paddocks the cattle find enough food to thrive and keep the farm in profit they're the money-making machines that sort of keep me employed pretty much so you've got to look after it the santa gertrudis breed is known around the world for withstanding hot dry environments they're also unfussy eaters and can graze on almost any vegetation they find the young jackaroos and jillaroos come from all over the country to work on the station but it's a grueling existence for newbie sophie evans it's a tough learning curve no it's i don't know probably 30 something degrees that is hot especially on the bike because it's really really hot like the engine gets hot quickly so yeah sitting on a hot bike and the hot sun doesn't help very well the reason i came here was because of isolation freedom basically just being out here doing the work is freedom basically because you've just got so much open spaces like it's unbelievable how big it is apart from antarctica australia is the driest continent on the planet with desert claiming almost one-fifth of the mainland although the cattle can find food by grazing vast areas to survive in the outback they also need plenty of water and in this sun-baked land the skies don't supply enough [Music] but in fact there's plenty of water here if you know where to look beneath the earth there's a geological phenomenon an immense subterranean body of water [Music] the great artesian basin extending beneath almost a quarter of the country it holds a staggering 65 million megaliters that's enough water to submerge all the land on earth it's australia's greatest natural reservoir [Music] fresh water often rises to the surface in a series of springs a life-giving force in an otherwise barren landscape it was these ribbons of water that enabled the early settlers to overcome the challenges of living in the desert by tapping into the basin they became masters of their own destinies and sowed the seeds of an agrarian revolution in the outback with their cattle safely penned the ringers turn their minds to tomorrow when they will be branding and preparing the herd for market that is if the weather holds [Music] just 20 kilometers from anna creek farm lies william creek one of the smallest settlements in australia though it's in the middle of nowhere for the ringers and farmers of the outback stations this is the local village [Music] with a permanent population of just three it also boasts one of the most remote pubs in the world the william creek hotel [Music] history runs deep at this watering hole since it was established by the pioneering outback explorers in the 1880s it's been a gateway to the desert with plenty of regular customers one of those soaking up the atmosphere is old-timer bobby evans who's been a ringer all his life tomorrow he'll be at anna creek helping jilleru sophie wrangle the bulls yeah so here's my niece and i am proud of her carrying on the traditions to bobby and his friends this place is much more than a pub william creek angel is the heart of the community it has been all my lifetime with walls festooned with decades of memorabilia the pub is a museum of times gone by chronicles of mate chips and a few rowdy nights [Music] in the outback they know there's nothing better than getting together with friends it's key to staying alive and still smiling a fact no one knows better than landlord bruce [Music] the pub's about as often as you can get we're in the middle of nowhere we're 200 kilometers from the nearest outback town our community are our mates [Music] [Applause] every fortnight the william creek pub receives its regular supply of food and grog though demand is so great the bar can easily be drunk dry in the outback there's no such thing as a guaranteed next day delivery so bruce is always thinking ahead you've always got to have a contingency plan so you make sure you've got plenty of food and booze tonight especially bruce is bracing himself there's a rumor of freak weather on the way a rainstorm is brewing in the outback despite the forecast at anna creek stock camp the ringers are preparing for a brutal day of cattle wrangling with rain on the horizon they'll have to work faster than ever to get the job done but to rush things is risky one slip of the finger can end in disaster as nathan knows i lost him in a machine about 1996 farm accident with a national herd of over 26 million cattle australia is the second largest exporter of beef on the planet to get this much meat to market the aussie cowboys do everything on an epic scale it's a brutally effective process the station is a living production line punctuated by ruthless rituals during which the calves are separated from their mothers yeah mark here that identifies the beast of this property then there's an age mark it's just a number tag so it says it's branded this year the smell of burnt flesh and cries of distress fill the air but for the young bulls there's worse to come any male cards that come through they'll get castrated it's not a very pleasant task for them but it's got to be done finally bobby arrives to give his niece sophie some urgently needed help managing the bigger more dangerous cows you do get a bit worried but you have to have confidence in her you have to be aware and you can get hit if you're not paying attention the pleasure i get nowadays is watching the young people perform dehorned and finally market ready the beasts are prepared for the next stage of production a one-way trip out of the desert [Music] the road train rumbles in weighing almost 200 tons these ships of the desert are the monsters of the open road they are the largest trucks in the world and the only way to get the cattle to market on time the clock is ticking the cowboys know the impending reigns will turn the desert tracks to mud they must get the cattle out before the first raindrops fall working together bobby and sophie try to direct the beasts up the ramp and onto the wagons but after several hours of being pushed around in the heat the cattle are distressed and confused when things go wrong like i don't know it's just time consuming really it's annoying one beast can take up a lot of time if it doesn't want to go on the truck a piece of tubing and a plastic bag is all that's needed to coax the cattle to move hey it's hard now only because they're being stubborn and they won't go up on the race so makes it harder the best thing about today is when it's over finished [Music] some animals prove more difficult than others it's back-breaking work but with guidance from the more experienced cattlemen sophie eventually empties the stockyard at last the road train gets on its way they've beaten the rain finally the skies open [Music] [Applause] [Music] at the iconic uluru or ayers rock the seldom seen sight of rainwater heralds a spectacular beginning to the water cycle in the outback it's been 20 years since rain like this [Music] though wondrous and vital to desert life the rains spelled disaster for outback driving [Music] here roads are few and far between but bisecting australia's mainland from north to south is the 3 200 kilometer steward highway known as explorers way it's the longest single stretch of bitumen in the desert outside of which there's little but dirt track no driver wants to be stuck on these routes in a storm [Music] almost a thousand kilometers southeast of uluru at william creek the rains have not yet arrived but one man is preparing for the worst local pub manager bruce ross accompanied by his canine companion pig is changing the road signs to alert drivers of danger ahead although right now it's safe to travel when it rains out here it happens fast suddenly the roads become a muddy mess anyone ignoring bruce's warning will be slapped with a big fine yeah i am king of the road out here really gives you a bit of power the danger for drivers is not just getting stuck in the mud once the rains pass the churned up tracks set rock hard in corrugated ruts making them a potential death trap [Music] people get a bit agitated and scared they're out of their comfort zones and um they think that we've changed the signs to keep them in the at william creek so we can extract more money out of them but farther from the truth we'd rather not have them here when it's sweating it costs too much money to maintain the place [Music] [Music] with the roads now closed there's only one way to traverse the desert and it takes a special kind of person to do it pilot tay shepard has a long day ahead a former champion surfer a few years ago she left her life on the coast to live in the bush i never thought i'd find myself in the desert out here particularly because the whole of my life i've been living basically alongside the beach so i didn't didn't expect that i'd be living and working in the desert and actually really enjoying it in this remote region desert-based aeroplanes are so much more than a way of getting from one township to the next i think airplanes are definitely the new camels of the desert nowadays um we're using for everything out here now in the airport departure lounge come gift shop old pictures on the walls a testament to the victorian pioneers who arrived here by horse camel and rail but um yeah it's uh it's but these days bush aeroplanes have conquered the tyranny of distance providing a lifeline to the most isolated homesteads no matter how harsh the elements a lot of places you put your address and people just laugh at you and they go well where where is that so you have to explain to them we don't even have a postcode here so so it makes it hard to even explain to them [Applause] tay makes a living from a mixture of scenic flights mustering cattle and community services in these remote parts the mail is usually delivered once weekly by road but with rain on the horizon tay is lending a hand [Music] it means a lot for us to be able to do this for the community because you know they uh everyone really supports us in kind of everything we do and um and it's it's good to be able to see the smiles on their face when they actually get their mail when they think that they they're not going to be able to get it because the roads are closed so it's good to be able to help out [Music] we uh fly over pretty arrogant uh desolate landscape out here there's um you know not much vegetation around it's um quite barren and and for that reason there's not many landmarks to go on really as well as far as navigation is concerned it's beautiful in its own right as well [Music] one of the great perks of being a desert pilot is the view from the cockpit today on the mail run to anna creek station tay is flying over one of the most spectacular vistas in the desert this is lake air in the heart of the outback in an area where it hardly ever rains it's the largest lake in australia lying 15 meters below sea level lake air is the lowest point on the continent this salt water expanse is formed by rains flowing from all over the desert into the largest drainage basin in the world it's an incredibly rare spectacle in the desert climate most of the rain that falls evaporates before it reaches the lake in the last 150 years lake air has only been full three times [Music] finally tay has anna creek farm within her sights it's a bit different landing on you know dirt runways compared to the bitumen that we've got back at our main base sometimes you know particularly uh when it's really windy you can be slipping and sliding around the place you've also got to be aware of you know the uh the rocks and things like that that your propeller will be picking up and um and the dust that you're blowing over you know over them on takeoff and landing as well so yeah it's a little bit different but it's a challenge that you know we all get used to and we enjoy out here and at creek traffic whiskey out there is backtracking right away as well as delivering the mail tay also collects parcels to go in the past she's even flown out dead bodies for burial for bush pilots it's all part of the service it's definitely a privilege to be able to go to and from um each property and being able to to go from one town to the next and say g'day to everyone everyone else is so remote and um you know their only means of keeping in contact with people are you know over the phone or by email or something like that so for us to be able to fly in and drop in for a for a cup of coffee you know sometimes broadens their day as well what else have you guys been up to remote remote [Music] tay knows almost everyone within the 500 kilometer radius that she flies you meet people once out here and you'll remember them forever everyone ends up becoming great great friends great mates out here because they become your extended family as well i have fallen in love with uh with the desert out here and um i didn't think i would i thought it might just be a you know a good experience for for a short time but um it consumed my life a little bit but the view from above is not all unspoilt wilderness [Music] they are digging for atomic energy these men and machines at a uranium mine known as rum jungle in north australia the shovels can take seven tons at a mouthful mining has always attracted people to the australian desert the prospect of making a fortune by digging the dirt triggered the australian gold rush of the 1850s but soon people discovered that the red sand held other precious deposits too mining the outback is now a massive money maker coal iron ore lead and uranium can all be found here in relative abundance today australia is one of the largest mineral exporters in the world but extracting on this scale is a complex resource-heavy process that requires vast quantities of the desert's most precious commodity water [Music] behind this barbed wire is one of the biggest pumping stations on earth extracting subterranean water from the great artesian basin [Music] the water is used for industrial purposes but every week billions of liters are drawn from the basin prompting fears this finite resource is being depleted to the detriment of all [Music] but not all mining in the desert happens on an industrial scale [Music] and sometimes it's accidents of faith that yield the most handsome prophets in 1915 a thirsty teenager named willie hutcherson was wandering the bush in search of water what will he found changed his life forever [Music] a new chapter in the story of the outback began today on that spot where willy found treasure stands cuba pd a thriving town and a melting pot of cultures where everyone shares a common passion the love of the opal kuberpedi has a quirky charm that's made in a popular location for a number of hollywood films remnants of which still dot the landscape it's a searingly hot place to live in the height of summer temperatures can top 50 degrees celsius but the residents have found a unique way to escape the heat many shops churches restaurants and houses are built underground the streetscape is lined with doorways carved in the rock kuberpedi is a town of cave dwellers who are resilient and proud of their unique way of life when you build your own home from scratch it's uh it gives you a satisfying feeling uh you've got to know a bit about everything you've got to be a builder carpenter welder all sorts of stuff but when you actually live inside the place that you built it's um it gives you a real good feeling inside his man-made vault philip lewis has an opel workshop trading these precious gems is how he makes a living once cut and polished phillips opals will be made into jewelry it's a craft that takes as much skill as it took to carve the walls of his home no matter how scorching it is outside inside the temperature is always cool it's a feel-good home it definitely feels uh very comfortable and easy and as a home should be it it feels solid and uh and secure like an oasis in the desert might be a good description for it i think sue and phil know but to live here you have to adapt [Music] it seems that with a little aussie determination there's nothing that can't be done [Music] at cooper pd's golf club there's no fairways or lakes [Music] 18 holes in the heat of the day would challenge the toughest of caddies but when the sun sets and the temperature drops this sporting venue comes to life it's a serious club that's affiliated with saint andrews in scotland though playing golf in the desert means bending some rules [Applause] [Music] we've got fluorescent balls that we hit down the fairway hopefully we've got a piece of grass here which we use only on the fairway we're playing on a path full but we've got a good chance for a bird if we get this one on the scrape while the miners headlamps come in handy [Applause] glow sticks provide improvised lighting for flagpoles with a bit of know-how and desert spirit the club members have turned this into one of the most popular sports in town number one there's no sun so it's quite a nice evening there's no flies to bother you and it's comfortable you know you're still playing golf you're still hitting the same shots know you've got good company and it's a nice evening now [Music] usually golfers dread the bunker but here even on the green there's nothing but sand [Music] while the cool nights are reserved for fun in the hot light of day phil must return to the serious business of mining the desert [Music] here the landscape surrounding the edges of town is dotted with mounds scars left by previous miners [Music] always hoping to strike it lucky with a new seam of opel philip has been mining and sifting the desert rock for over 20 years we're out prospecting on digger's gully and we're drilling the shaft here to about 30 feet so the next two or three sip fulls if there is opal should start to come out the son of a welsh collier philip knows that though his prospects of striking it rich are slim it's a better life than his father ever knew my father came up here once and uh he looked around at what i was doing and he said he'd like to have his life over again and you wouldn't go down the coal mine again you'd be out you're looking for opal today cuba pd is the opel capital of the world [Music] for almost 100 years miners like philip have arrived here addicted to the lure of hidden riches but lately he's hit a baron patch yeah well it's just like an everyday lottery you're hopeful that there's a bit of color that comes out that gets you all excited and fires you up for the next couple of shots across the world precious opal is exceptionally rare it's been 70 million years in the making long ago inland australia was covered by ocean over time as the seas were seeded silica rich liquid gathered in cracks and hardened to become opal today philip is hoping luck will be on his side in temperatures topping 40 degrees he's digging test holes looking for valuable seams in the rock [Music] opel fever has a hold on him you get up in the morning you go out prospecting you never know what you're gonna find i could drill up a big piece of opal that could be worth thousands any shaft any time i love being out here looking for it it's like looking for a needle in a haystack and you get such a buzz when you do actually drill up a bit of color you get very excited and there's nothing like it every treasure strike leaves a hole in the ground but for miners preoccupied with prospecting safety is not always a priority i had a fairly major accident in 1982 i was working with a tunnel machine and a grand and i was just picking out a little bit of opal um it looked pretty good so i asked my partner to pass me the jack pick the electric back jack pick and he passed it over but on the way over he actually accidentally touched the the starter button for the cutter head one of the teeth caught into the back of my shoe and and both my legs got dragged underneath the the cutter head and it pushed me down into the ground but it also tore away my legs so i was pretty well chewed up i i felt my legs both ankles were badly broken um i knew i'd probably lost one leg so i asked him for a piece of rope i tied a tourniquet around my left thigh and [Music] i i sat there for about now i'm sorry i got flown to adelaide with flying doctor i was in hospital for six months and i oh just have to leave it there so it was it was hot philip lost his leg and spent more than a year learning to walk again [Music] but as it is with addiction the hunt for the next hit is hard to give up and the opel craving only worsens the longer it takes to strike it rich [Music] philip has set his sights on a dusty trench that he's been prospecting for months but which has not yet yielded any treasure he's hoping that today his luck will change [Music] usually happy to be working alone philip has teamed up with fellow miner ashley knowing that many hands make light work despite his previous dice with death philip ventures dangerously close to the digger searching for something that sparkles suddenly he spots a flash of brilliant blue in the rock face [Music] yeah got me a bit of luck eh yeah that's right huddy beauty bit tight oh sounds good look at that actually yeah it's nice eh look at that beauty it's easy to see why miners like philip and ashley hold out for a moment like this at today's race this piece of rock could be worth as much as 400 us dollars i've seen pieces of opal the size of loaves of bread and i'm not joking they were big pieces knowing a big gem might be just a pig strike away keeps them mining for more they call me lucky it's the excitement of seeing that sort of color and it never looks better than when it's in the wall you know when you see it and you and you realize that you know 70 million years ago that this stuff was put in the sandstone and yet it's just so fantastically beautiful it just it's a stunning stone and you just can't once you get addicted to it you can't stop not everyone who comes to the desert is searching for minerals for some the emptiness of the outback is its greatest virtue [Music] this is a rocket range a missile test site built in the dry desert void [Music] land-to-air missiles can be fired here with little risk of injuring anyone below [Music] opened in 1947 is the biggest rocket range in the western world extending over 127 000 square kilometers it covers an area almost the size of england and is still operational today for over 50 years rockets missiles and other ballistic weapons have been blasted skywards [Music] on the ground disused bunkers space debris and relics from rockets point to a secret history of military testing but the perception that the outback was an empty lifeless landscape was far from the truth for over fifty thousand years australian aborigines have lived deep in the desert no one thought to ask their permission before testing and warmer began the native population had to simply live under the rocket paths and much worse was to follow following the now familiar blinding flash the sinister mushroom rises [Music] deep in the back blocks of australia far beyond itself the base of operations was established an inviting trackless country this where every vehicle must carry water and stores enough for twice the time during the 1950s and 60s in an area known as maralinga the british and australian governments joined forces to conduct secret nuclear tests the desert sky was set alight by nine atomic explosions some as powerful as the hiroshima bomb the effect was to turn the desert into a radioactive wasteland [Music] australian aborigines who'd lived on the land for millennia were forced from their homes these days different kinds of prohibited zones have appeared in the outback lands that are permanently owned by the aborigines almost a thousand kilometers north of the bomb sites at maralinga is pukacha a designated aboriginal homeland where indigenous australians have the freedom to practice their ancient traditions today sylvana is out hunting in the outback there's all kinds of bush tucker to be had [Music] if you can catch it [Music] in the past hunting was part of survival but these days sylvana is after the thrill of the chase foreign unfortunately for the women today the goanna is fast food the women live in a nearby town with modern amenities but here in the desert is where they feel most at home you know has a house there's a school a police station a medical clinic and a grocery shop it's a town typical of the kind successive governments have funded for aboriginal people in an attempt to atone for atrocities committed against them in the past many people believe this urban style living is poor compensation for what's been lost in the land of the so-called fair go australia still has a long way ahead to fix a great social failing while the gowan has gone to ground the women turn their minds to hunting another kind of bush tucker [Music] exclusive to the outback the wichita grub is the lava of the ghost moth and a staple of the aboriginal diet a rich source of protein while usually lightly roasted today it's devoured uncooked suddenly the main course is back on the menu but there's nothing subtle about catching a goanna it's an ancient tradition that sometimes calls for a bit of grunt indeed foreign maintaining their ancestral links australian aborigines can still live off the land [Music] in the last 200 years their culture has been tested more fiercely than ever before [Music] yet still the old ways endure [Music] the ancient traditions hold fast they are true survivors in an ever-changing desert [Music] the australian outback is a place where staggering beauty can appear overnight where life is brutal and the rewards can be great for millennia mankind left only footprints in the sand but now in the race to unearth its wealth the desert landscape is being transformed signaling the beginning of a new age in the story of the outback in the past humans here lived in harmony with nature today the people of the outback are pulling together to survive as the future brings ever more change the people who live here will again have to adapt to survive life at the edge of the earth [Music]

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

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Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, Documentary movies - topic, full documentary, travel documentary, culture documentary, mongolia desert, mongolia, gobi, worlds largest deserts, desert and life, mongolia travel, landscapes, scenery, desert and global warming, deserts and life, facts about the gobi desert, desert life hacks, people in deserts, Australia's outback, Outback Desert, Oceania Deserts, Oceania, the australian outback, australian outback

Id: -dOIYhTIYbI

Length: 52min 9sec (3129 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 23 2021