Series 9, Episode 7
Monday 13 February 8.00pm
Champion Paralympian Kurt Fearnley joins Back Roads to find a heart of gold shining brightly amongst the townsfolk of Tennant Creek.
Champion Paralympian Kurt Fearnley joins Back Roads to find a heart of gold shining brightly amongst the townsfolk of Tennant Creek.
The Northern Territory town was the site of Australia’s last gold rush back in the 1930s but has had a hard time in the aftermath, often copping the tag of the ‘dark heart’ of the Barkly region with youth crime and alcohol abuse making headlines.
But what Kurt discovers is how the community is doing its utmost to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma, through education, art and religion.
Kurt is impressed with the non-judgemental care and support, given to vulnerable kids to keep them safe. He’s amazed to discover an informal group of artists, known as the Tennant Creek Brio, who are taking the international art world by storm. He discovers the town has long been a broad church that embraces all faiths and offers hope and respite to troubled souls.
It’s a journey that leaves Kurt in awe and in no doubt, Tennant Creek has a very bright future indeed.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Louise Turley.
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Series 9, Episode 8
Monday 20 February 8.00pm
Heather Ewart takes us on a musical road trip with singer-songwriter Josh Arnold, hitching a ride on one of his small-town tours through western Queensland.
Josh is a Golden Guitar winner who has worked with some of the biggest names in the Australian country music industry but it’s the children of the outback who are the stars of this show.
The episode starts in the iconic tourist town of Birdsville. Next stop, Heather and Josh head north to Dajarra and on to Camooweal on the edge of the Northern Territory border.
In 2011, Josh gave up the big stage for the bush classroom, to help kids in small towns find their voice through music. Collaborating with the students - and some of the more seasoned locals – to write the lyrics for a town anthem. The locals get the chance to share their unique story with the world and star in their own music video.
Josh is a small-town boy himself, growing up in Tara on Queensland’s Darling Downs, and tells Heather how important it is for local kids to feel proud of their hometowns.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Louise Turley.
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There is an interview article with Kurt in The Age Green Guide today.
Back Roads Returns
Series 9, Episode 9
Monday 3 July 8.00pm
Strezlecki Track Part One
In the series return, Heather Ewart takes an epic journey on the remote and historic Strzelecki Track in South Australia. Starting near Lyndhurst, Heather witnesses a way of life that’s remained unchanged for decades.
The 450-kilometre track runs up to Innamincka, near the Queensland border. After years of driving on the dirt, the track is now being gradually sealed, and for those who live along its stretches, life is slowly changing.
At the ghost town of Farina, once a bustling centre where drovers brought cattle along the track to take them to Adelaide on the train, Heather sees how it springs to life for two months every year, powered by an army of grey nomad volunteers, who restore the sandstone buildings. They have even brought the town’s original underground oven back to life to run a delicious bakery to pay for it all. Bread, cakes and four-wheel drives have now replaced Afghan camel drivers and cattle trains.
Historically Afghan camel drivers were common in these parts, and today their descendants, such as Frank Wilson, still live near the track. Heather shares a yarn with Frank, whose grandfather was an Afghan camel driver and grandmother was Aboriginal. They were forced to go on the run from Western Australia where their marriage was forbidden. Eventually they were allowed to marry in South Australia and went on to have five children.
Heather also meets a young family at Lyndhurst Station, Adam and Kate Litchfield and their two children. Adam grew up on the track but it’s a major life change for Sydney born Kate, a veterinarian, who now helps run the 3,5000 square kilometre property.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan.
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Series 9, Episode 13
Monday 31 July 8.00pm
Back Roads heads to Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland with guest presenter, 24-year-old TikTok star, Tom Forrest aka ‘Outback Tom’. He discovers a town transforming itself from a dark past to a brighter future.
Join Back Roads on an adventure to the far south-west Queensland town of Cunnamulla. Guest Presenter is young Yorta Yorta man Tom Forrest. Known as ‘Outback Tom’ he has developed a huge TikTok following when he explores bush cooking and other antics with his grandad.
Tom hits the road and discovers a town that’s determined not to let a dark past define it. Once a segregated town, which has had its fair share of controversy, Cunnamulla is undergoing an incredible transformation.
Tom meets local artist and Kooma man, Uncle Andrew Nelson, who reveals the uncomfortable truths of the past but also shows how art and self-determination can help heal old wounds.
Locals show Tom how Cunnamulla’s next generation is being empowered through sport, literally, when he takes on the kids of the Cunnamulla Junior League.
Even the Queensland Police are building bridges. In how many towns do you find police driving a car that kids have covered in graffiti? Tom meets police liaison officer Nik van Niekek, and goes for a spin with him in this much-loved car, which helps local teenagers clock up their learner driver hours.
Tom explores the local delicacy of a camel burger and meets James Clark, the owner and editor of one of Australia’s last independently owned newspapers, the Warrego Watchman. James is also a sheep grazier and puts Tom to work mustering on a motorbike and turning his hand to sheep shearing. Can ‘Outback Tom’ live up to his TikTok name?
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan.
Series 9, Episode 14
Monday 7 August 8.00pm
Back Roads is heading to Western Australia’s vast wheatbelt region, to the little town of Darkan. Deep in the golden plains of sheep country, Heather Ewart discovers how a very small community saved itself from extinction.
Back Roads travels to Darkan, a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ town deep in Western Australia’s wheatbelt region. Presenter Heather Ewart discovers that, not long ago, it was a very small community with a very big problem. The locals had lost their high school, their pub, and even their football team. And they were in danger of losing their identity, until a group of dynamic women got together and hatched a risky plan to shine a light on Darkan. They took a chance, not on an arts or sports festival but, a sheep festival.
However, Sheepfest is not your average agricultural show. As one of the organisers, Jodie King explains, it’s a back-to-basics affair where practically everything is free. There are no fancy rides or showbags, instead you’ll get a glimpse of what Darkan does best – sheep and wool.
So, when Heather arrives there’s loads of sweat flying around in the shearing competitions, farm kids battling it out in the wool handling and of course there’s plenty of sheep.
Heather is roped into judging a pet sheep competition with a difference. Some contestants have glitter horns and others are dressed like rappers. And just when it seems to be all over, all eyes are on the skies as a group of colourfully clad local sky divers sail silently down to earth only to be mobbed by squealing kids.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan.
Series 9, Episode 15
Monday 14 August 8.00pm
Heather Ewart heads to Tasmania with two intrepid line dancers who are on a boot scootin’ line dancing tour around the country holding ‘Hoedowns for country towns’, lifting spirits and raising money to help others along the way.
Claire Harris and Kate Strong quit their jobs in early 2022 and set off on a Boot Scootin’ line dancing tour of Australia. Raising money for local charities, they travelled through WA, SA, QLD and the NT. Now, Heather Ewart is joining them as they Boot Scoot their way through Tasmania.
Living in their car as they go, their nights are filled with hoedown crowds of 100 or more, teaching newbies what the veterans learned years ago; that line dancing can make you feel pretty good.
Author Rachael Treasure is one convert. She found the Boot Scootin’ girls on Facebook and it changed her whole perspective on life. She invited them to hold a hoedown at her farm near historic Richmond in Tassie’s south, which like all the others is about raising money.
In Tasmania, they’re helping a not for profit, mental health charity called Rural Alive and Well – or RAW. RAW is a charity that works with different country industries to keep an eye on people’s mental wellbeing. Heather meets Paul Jordan, respected skipper of the ‘Diana’ fishing boat moored in Hobart, whose life was turned around with the help of RAW.
With the final Hoedown near Smithton in the states north, Heather visits The Grumpy Goat Co. run by Alyssia and John Coates. They take a slightly different approach to mental health, running a care farm where local youths reap the benefits of helping to look after 80 goats!
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan.
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Series 9, Episode 16 of 16
Monday 21 August 8.00pm
For the first time, Back Roads leaves Australian shores and travels to our closest northern neighbour, Papua New Guinea. Guest presenter Tania Bale introduces us to Rabaul, a community with close ties to Australia.
Guest presenter and Papua New Guinea national, Tania Bale, takes us on the first Back Roads to leave Australian shores. Just a three-hour flight from Cairns, Rabaul was once the capital of the Australian Territory of New Guinea. It was known as the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’ for its spectacular deep-water harbour and natural beauty. Incredibly, this community has survived not only a hostile invasion and daily bombings but also being buried by volcanic eruptions…twice.
Tania explores why some locals or ‘leftovers’ as they call themselves, keep returning and rebuilding despite everything that’s been thrown at them.
She’s welcomed by the quintessential ‘sound of PNG’ – performed by world renowned singer-songwriter, Sir George Mamua Telek, and his Moab Stringband. ‘Telek’ is a Tolai, one of two groups, indigenous to Rabaul. Later, Tania enjoys a mouthwatering feast of Aigir, a traditional Tolai method of cooking using hot stones wrapped up in the food itself.
In the nearby mountains, Tania has an unforgettable encounter with Rabaul’s other original inhabitants, the Baining, celebrated for their breathtaking fire dances.
While Back Roads was filming in Rabaul in April this year, an 81-year-old World War Two mystery made international news, with the discovery of the Montevideo Maru in the South China Sea. The ship was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine in June 1942.
This made for an incredibly moving ANZAC Day service in Rabaul as many locals had personal connections with those lost at sea. The sinking of the Montevideo Maru is still regarded as the worst maritime disaster in Australia’s history.
Production credit: Story Producer: Gerri Williams.
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Renewed for another season in 2024.
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New season of Back Roads Premieres Tuesday 9 January 2024 at 8pm
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A new night for the show. It has mostly aired on Monday and Thursday nights.
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Season 10 - Episode 1 of 13, Brunswick Heads, NSW
Tuesday 9 January 8.00pm
Presenter Heather Ewart starts the summer season in the idyllic beachside village of Brunswick Heads in northern New South Wales and discovers the surprising joys of life in a holiday town.
This week, Back Roads returns in its new timeslot of 8.00 pm on Tuesday nights.
Like Australians around the country at this time of year Heather Ewart heads off on the great Australian summer holiday, travelling to the beachside village of Brunswick Heads in northern New South Wales.
She discovers a charming laid-back coastal community nestled between Byron Bay and Mullumbimby, that’s managed to preserve the ‘simple pleasures’ of life in the little town despite the surrounding development pressures.
Heather soon finds some delightful surprises including a restored picture house that’s attracting world class acts. Heather meets Brett Haylock and Chris Chen, who gave up life on the international stage to recover ‘a little piece of 1950’s Australiana right here in the middle of paradise.’
Brunswick Heads has become a safe harbour for Andy Graeme-Cook. The former marine biologist’s deep connection to the water led him to surf tourism and life in Brunswick Heads, but he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was in a wheelchair within three years. But he says ‘Bruns’ is the place to be for accessibility and he’s worked to make the town even more inclusive including helping create disability access to the town’s stunning beaches.
Heather follows a magical trail of hidden fairy houses and finds ‘Fairy Grandmother’ Ollie Heathwood who created 27 tiny fairy homes.
She also meets ‘Bruns’ locals who have been camping at the beach with family for been five generations, a tradition shared by thousands of families across Australia.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan.
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Episode 2
Tuesday 16 January 8.00pm
Naracoorte, SA
Join ‘Back Roads’ on a journey to Naracoorte on SA’s Limestone Coast. Guest presenter, Amanda Shalala discovers a heartwarming community that’s welcoming newcomers, changing lives and inspiring its young people to dream big.
In the South Australian town of Naracoorte, Back Roads guest presenter Amanda Shalala finds a charming streetscape that brings its history as a pastoral hub to life. But nowadays, surrounded by three wine regions including the iconic Coonawarra, it’s better known as the heart of wine-making country.
The promise of work outdoors among the picturesque vineyards, has attracted migrants and refugees such as Mohammad and his wife Adela. They are two of many Hazaras fleeing persecution from their home country, Afghanistan, who have settled in Naracoorte over the past 15 years and raised families there.
Aware that many of their new neighbours are not only carrying past trauma but were also at sea in a completely foreign land and culture, Naracoorte’s ‘old guard’ came up with a unique initiative to embrace and heal them - The Circle of Volunteers and its offshoot, the wonderfully named Human Library.
Not only that, the locals have also used sport, particularly soccer, to foster a sense of belonging, camaraderie and ambition in its young people.
The community encourages them to aim high no matter how impossible the goal may seem or whether they have to leave one day to follow their dreams.
Sisters, Masoma and Ferishta desperately want to play for the Matildas while Mohammad and Adela’s son, Jamshid, has wide and distant horizons in his sight…he wants to be a pilot for an international airline one day.
In Naracoorte, each one of them has a home that gives them the chance to chase their dream whether it be on the ground or in the sky.
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