Back Roads - Season 5 SUMMER
Monday 23 December at 8:00pm SNOW JOURNEY, VIC
ABC TV’s much-loved series with a big heart, Back Roads takes viewers to more of Australia’s interesting and resilient regional communities. These towns are full of colourful characters whose grit and good humour continue to uplift and inspire.
This time on Back Roads, Heather Ewart discovers a very different type of community on the roof of Australia as she visits the peaks of Victoria and New South Wales’ snow country.
“I feel like I’m in a Christmas card.” - Heather Ewart.
It’s a community that’s bound by shared passions and the basic need to cooperate to survive the sometimes treacherously beautiful climate.
Back Roads arrives in Dinner Plain during a blizzard for the 26th running of the annual Sled Dog Challenge.
Heather Ewart is introduced to the joyous world of the sled dogs and their owners, known as “mushers”, like Canadian Courtney Persson, who brought her dogs with her when she migrated to Australia.“I got my first Siberian Husky and she was an absolute psycho,” she says. “The only way I could really enjoy her was to take her out sledding, because if I tried to walk her like a regular dog, your arm just got dragged off. One thing led to another, and now I have a whole team.”
Then there’s the extraordinary friendship of skier Sarah Jane “SJ” Staszak and Disabled Wintersport Australia ski guide Paul Gardner. “Paul and I have developed this kind of relationship in the experience of skiing together. We talk to each other a lot when we’re fanging around,” SJ says.SJ was a keen outdoors adventure woman before a back operation accidentally made her a quadriplegic. But it hasn’t stopped her getting back on the slopes, with Paul’s help.“And my ultimate dream will be one day Paulie will be able to train (my son) Hamish to be my guide from behind,” she says.
10-year-old Hamish is never far from his Mum’s side and is just as enthusiastic. “Then we won’t need a sit-ski guide; we can just go out together and I find that really cool,” says Hamish. “The snow could be bad, the snow could be good, but whenever I’m skiing with my mumit’s always the best!”
Heather also gets to go on a unique picnic with a group of people who teach visitors how to survive the harsh conditions, as well as how to appreciate the beauty of the uniquely Australian snow country.
Mike Edmondson is an alpine photographer and guide, whilst Pieter and Dave Herring take back country ski tours and teach avalanche safety.
“Mountain weather is so unpredictable,” says Pieter. “And you go out there on the main range, it is remote.”
Someone else committed to snow safety is Howard ‘Howie’ Cooper, who runs the Charlotte Pass ski patrol and is responsible for the visitors’ safety. He’s lived and worked on the slopes for more than 35 years. It’s his job to look for potential hazards as well as help out anyone in trouble. These alps are truly “peak Australia”.
BULLOO SHIRE, QLD
Monday December 30 8:00pm
Heather Ewart catches a ride to the Bulloo Shire in south-west Queensland, a community that thrives despite its isolation.
It’s a free-range paradise where, in the words of one of the local kids, “out here you can finish school and just bugger off”.
While the kids enjoy trail-biking or mucking about by the river, one of the most popular family activities is polocrosse, an Aussie invention best described as ‘rugby on horseback’. It gets the red dust swirling, the adrenaline pumping and the whole community partying together.
The Shire’s hub, Thargomindah - ‘Thargo’ to the locals-is atown of nicknames; ‘Dogga’, ‘Fridgie’, ‘Bomber’ and ‘Mistake’ make up just one family- andfamily is everything here. Many of the small business in the Shire are family concerns but you’ll also find locals working in pubs, on the land, and, in the case of one police officer, patrolling an area the size of Lithuania.
That area surrounds the Shire’s most southern town, Hungerford, divided into two States by the Dingo Fence and celebrated by bush writer and poet, Henry Lawson.
While the Bulloo river gives the Shire its name, residents draw their drinking water from the Great Artesian Basin, one of Australia’s natural wonders. Tapped in the late 1800s, it put Thargo on the map, when the tiny outback town became third in the world, after London and Paris, to use hydroelectricity to power its streetlights.
Join Heather as she hits the back roads to find out what powers the Shire today and, with her, meet ‘Dogga’, ‘Bomber’, ‘Duck’, ‘Turnout’, ‘Wempa’, ‘Boof’ and the rest of the delightful Shire gang.
WYNYARD, TAS
Monday January 06 8:00pm
This time on Back Roads, guest presenter Joe O’Brien leaves the ABC newsroom for the wilds of Wynyard in north west Tasmania.
Instead of driving, Joe literally runs into Wynyard and experiences first-hand the great natural beauty of Tasmania’s north west coast by participating in the annual ‘Gone Nuts Race’. It is a 101km adventure run, set up by some locals, to showcase the area’s iconic rainforests, rolling hills, windswept beaches and rugged cliffs.
But despite the magnificent setting, Joe discovers that Wynyard is a town facing some real challenges. Thirty percent of the population are on welfare.
“It’s the poorest electorate in the poorest state in the country,” says playwright Scott Rankin.
Scott is one of the locals trying to turn things around. He moved to Wynyard almost 30 years ago, and soon after started a charity called Big hArt that works in disadvantaged communities all over the country.
While in Wynyard, Joe meets legendary steel guitarist and broadcaster Lucky Oceans who was in town to perform in the local tulip farm’s shed. The tulip farm owners, the Roberts-Thomson family, offered up their old shed as the venue for a Big hArt project, The Acoustic Life of Sheds.
The tulip farm looms high above Wynyard, on the stunning Table Cape. Here on the summit, the Roberts-Thomson family made the leap from sheep to tulips. Now that they’re reaping the benefits they are able to give back to their community.
There’s also a program for young women called Project 0. It aims to upskill local high school students and give them a real voice in the community.
Joe meets Project O mentor Madeline Wells-Wynyard’s Young Citizen of the Year-who is passionate about keeping young people safe. The area is a federal government, designated family violence hotspot.
CLUNES, VIC
Monday January 13 8:00pm
Heather Ewart visits the beautifully preserved gold rush town of Clunes, in the Victorian Central Goldfields. Its golden days might be long gone, but newcomers are putting its untouched 19th century main street back on the map.
For years, the heritage value of Clunes’ main street has been used as a living movie set for films like Ned Kelly and Mad Max. But it’s theannual Clunes Booktown Festival that many credit with changing the town’s fortunes.
This internationally recognised event, celebrating all things books, now attracts big crowds. In previous years it has even hosted the likes of former prime ministers Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser and Julia Gillard and well as many best-selling authors.
The festival has helped put the spotlight on Clunes and its resident creative artisans, many whom still work with gold rush-era techniques. Heather Ewart meets bespoke shoemaker Duncan McHarg, who uses pig bristles as needles and can take 200 hours to finish a single pair! To make the socks to go with them, Heather joins textile artists Leanne Wills andJanine Wilson, to have a go at hand cranking a pair of pure wool socks on a century old machine.
These fresh ideas have breathed new life into a town that was struggling to survive when the main employer in town, the sock factory, closed in 1986. Clunes’ population has doubled in the last five years.
It seems that in Clunes if you’ve got an idea the town will help you make it happen. Locals say it’s down to it being such a close-knit community. They’re certainly an incredibly supportive bunch and there’s a strong culture of volunteering.
Clunes Neighbourhood House is the hub from where volunteers organise everything from weekly budget friendly dinners to workshops for unemployed residents. Heather meets one volunteer, renowned wireframe artist Tom Ripon, who runs a course creating life-size wire frame animals.
But there’s one story that encapsulates the supportive spirit in Clunes more than most. It involves legendary sheep shearer and prominent local volunteer Tony ‘Bushy’ Hill.
When Bushy was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness the community’s response was simply breathtaking. Not only did all the locals turn up, so did people from all over the country to raise some much-needed money. ‘Bushy’s Cutout’ as it was known, turned into the biggest and most heart-warming event of the year!
So, if you want to visit a town populated by people full of artistic passion and human compassion,join us for a closer look at Clunes.
KOROIT, VICTORIA - The luck of the Irish
Monday 20 January at 8:00pm
Gunditjmara Country
Heather Ewart discovers a patch of Ireland tucked away in coastal Victoria. Koroit is reportedly home to the largest Irish community in regional Australia, and it’s a place that thrives on music, poetry and potatoes.
Many Irish fled to the Koroit area after Ireland’s Great Famine of the 1840s, that killed one million people. That hardship has fostered a local culture that revolves around generosity and helping each other.The Koroit locals were inspired to help others after a visit by humanitarian worker Moira Kelly, who has dedicated her life to bringing seriously ill children to Australia for treatment.
Heather meets Moria and twins Trishna and Krisha, who were born conjoined, at the annual Koroit Irish Festival.
Moira inspired the local tradies to help people in need in their local community and has nothing but praise for the people of Koroit.
“The lads down here have great craic, which is an Irish expression. You want some craic, come to Koroit”, Moira says.Well-known Australian singer-songwriter Shane Howard, of Goanna’s ‘Solid Rock’ fame, lives nearby and is part of a regular jam session in the local hall. Two of his daughters learned Irish dance here, taught by one of the world’s oldest Irish dance teachers, Geraldine Ryan.
Geraldine has taught kids in regional Victoria for more than 25 years and at the age of 89, still travels hundreds of kilometres every week, staying in people’s homes along the way"They’re huge shoes to fill", says Shane. “We know we won’t have her forever.”
Perhaps it’s theluck- orfortitude - of the Irish diaspora that helps Koroit thrive. Or maybe it’s the kindness inherent in the culture.
SHOW TOWN, QLD
Monday 2 February at 8.00pm
THE TOWN ON WHEELS: FORGET EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT SHOW PEOPLE
Djiru, Gudjal and Yuwibara Country
Heather Ewart joins a cavalcade of showmen and their little town on wheels on an 800 km run through far north Queensland. It’s a journey that will bust every preconceived idea of what the travelling carnival life is like.
Erin Cheyne does the show circuit with her young family, from north Queensland right down to Tasmania. It gives her a unique insight into the fortunes of regional Australia. If country towns are faring well, so will the showies.
For generations, show families have lived on the move and not much stops them. In fact, back in the 1940s and 1950s the roads to north Queensland were so bad the caravans had to be winched onto the back of a train to get to places like Tully.
Even with the much-improved roads, the convoys are well aware of the dangers of a life travelling long distances with big rigs. But many long-term showies are philosophical about the dangers.
Showman Doyle Gill says “our destiny is to die on the showgrounds like my grandfather and me mother and father before that and me great-grandmother.”
