Outback Odyssey

Gallery: Extreme Track - Photos by R. Yabsley

wies_bialecki — Sun, 5 Aug 2007 14:04:00 GMT

This journey was about finding the true Australian character that encompasses adventures spirit of discovery, exploration, surviving skills and mateship.

Filming Australian Outback

wies_bialecki — Sun, 5 Aug 2007 13:31:00 GMT

We began researching and preparing for the filming of an historical documentary on Central Australia and we were both surprised and delighted to find that the spirit of adventure and discovery is still very much alive in the outback characters of to-day.

Our filming adventure began in June 2004 when we interviewed Di Zischke at her farm just west of Brisbane. This was our first real experience with camels, their characteristics and the incredible bond between these unique animals and their masters.

In July 2004 we flew to Alice Springs to film the Camel Cup and stayed for 2 weeks filming the Ghan Train arrival, interviewing descendants of the Afghan Cameleers as well as the modern day cameleers. We also filmed what remains of old the original Telegraph Line and Railway sites from the late 1800s. By now we were hooked.

The sheer beauty along with the vast remoteness of Alice Springs and the surrounding county side kindled an unexpected love for Central Australia, its awesome deserts and her remarkable inhabitants.

In the outback one has an intrepid sense of total freedom to be one’s self and at same time an overwhelming realization that you alone are also totally responsible for your very survival.

We felt more like we were filming some distant red planet rather than just another part of Australia. We were worlds away from our familiar coastal lifestyle and all the comforts of home.

The colourful characters that we encountered along the way inspired a new appreciation for the outback people who, even with all their modern means of communication and transport, still have to work hard and unceasingly to survive the harsh elements. The very same elements that their predecessors had endure in this breath taking beautiful… yet unforgiving and unsympathetic environment.

We were home for a few weeks and then off again in mid August. This time we drove, in 2 vehicles, from Queensland to Adelaide, then Port Augusta, along the Oodnadatta Track and up to Alice, filming along the way. Then I drove back alone (3,000 kilometres in 4 days) to the South East Coast of Queensland. Not that I would recommend such a gruelling trip but I had a commitment on the east coast that I had to keep and still had not realized how huge our continent really is.

I had been travelling for 6 weeks and Wies, our director, for 8 weeks.

After very successful filming with Luke and Dennis in Rainbow Valley the documentary - The Cameleers he drove back via Oodnadatta to William Creek to film the finish of a cattle drive and Bronco Branding and then returned home via the Birdsville Track.

The last days of Wies’ expedition where made even more difficult due to a near tragic accident. “That day Luke, Dennis, Marijke and I were working very hard chasing wild camels in the desert. It was a very hot, dusty, dry day, but we ended up with great footage and it made me happy” – Wies recalls.

The same night he was filming poetry by the camp fire while Luke was reciting his poems. In the middle of the shoot Wies fell into a deep hole that had been overlooked earlier when the tripod was set-up. It was pitch dark, the only light there was from the fire and a hundred watt travelling video light. The hole was deep, up to his chine, and he fell down on his right leg while the left leg was left outside the hole. Despite the pain and great immobility of the left leg, Wies finished that night’s shoot.

The next day he went chasing the Ghan Train to film it for one of our documentaries. This time the train did not turned up and Wies, disappointed, left the Northern Territory and drove south. He filmed for a day in Oodnadatta and then he travelled to William Creek for the Bronco Branding. For three day he stood on one leg in up to 40 degree temperatures filming, on his own, the whole event, including interviews and news coverage for Channel 7 in Adelaide. After the Bronco Branding he travelled alone to the edge of Lake Eyre. “It was an eerie experience being there on my own. It gave me the feeling that life has ended” he re-called.

Finally it took him 3 days to travel back home, a lonely drive with one leg in great pain. “The trickiest thing was to put on my shoes” said Wies. 900 km of treacherous dirt roads of the deserts was part of a 2600 km journey back home and over of 700 km of that was travelled without any brakes. The brake fluid pipe in the Jeep broke for the second time, it had happened earlier in Maree. He noticed it after refilling fuel at Mungerannie Roadhouse. “I had to maintain the speed of 100 km/h to make it to the repair garage in Birdsville before they closed, but it was o.k. there is no traffic in the desert and the handbrake was working” he said. Unfortunately the Birdsville mechanic could not fix his Jeep and Wies had to travel further 500 km to Quilpie with no brakes and mainly on the dirt roads. “I remember arriving at the motel in Quilpie, after the Jeep was fixed by the local mechanic, I glance in the mirror and I looked whacked. I took the camera out of the case and immortalize my miserable face on film. At that moment I realized that my outback adventure was over. It was a strong feeling and it made me sad, even though I was looking forward to home and rest’. We each clocked up over 12,000 kilometres, endured temperatures from below zero to above 40 degrees; the Jeep hit a kangaroo, broke a brake line twice and had 2 flat tires. I cracked my sump on the Oodnadatta Track and they had to transport a new one from Melbourne however we returned home safely with over 100 hours of great footage in the can and a lot fitter and wiser than when we left.

In November we drove the Jeep to Adelaide again, loaded it and ourselves onto the Ghan Train, and travelled to Darwin this time filming from inside the train. We then drove back to the Sunshine Coast via Tennant Creek, Mount Isa, Longreach and Roma. By now we were really beginning to feeling like fair dinkum Aussies, at home in the desert and prepared for almost anything. We had added another 12,000 kilometres to our travels and now have a total of 160 hours to edit and the exciting prospect of producing far more documentaries on our outback adventures than we had originally anticipated. To see the prograss of the documentary in postproduction stage here

Written and photography by Robin Yabsley.

Extreme Track

wies_bialecki — Sun, 5 Aug 2007 13:30:00 GMT

This journey was about finding the true Australian character that encompasses adventures spirit of discovery, exploration, surviving skills and mateship.

And it was reveled on this journey through the collective character of ordinary people, that we encountered surviving every day in the deserts of Australia. They came from all over the continent and from different walks of life to do “hard yakka” on their adventure holiday. We also meet the Australian “lords of the desert”, the locals who spent their life living and working in the hush centre of Australia.

Local Ringer (cowboy)

We observed and learned how to survive on the treacherous tracks of the deserts and what it does in building an individual’s character.

We’ll discover how sharing of the harsh and ruthless weather and elements of the outback environment lays down foundation for the famous Australian mateship.

Monday.

We are on the journey from Sunshine Coast in QLD located on the east coast of Australia to a remote town of Marree in central east of S.A.

2200 km trip and 900 of it are the dirt tracks of Sturt Stony Desert and the most famed of them… the 500 km stretch of the infamous Birdsville Track.

At our destination in Marree we are going to film the reunion of the decedents of the first Muslim cameleers settled in Australia from 1840’s and collectively known as the Afghans. This is our 4^th filming expedition into outback for the production of an historical documentary. We’ve meet some of modern day Australian Afgans, but this time we have an opportunity to meet them in large group. Study their culture and see how much of an Australian character that group of people has become. We also expect to record the pageantry of their traditional costumes, ceremonies and the most bounding element of every culture… food and music. Also the reunion coincides with Annual Marree Camel Cup Races. Stories are worth to tell.

But the desert is going to change our account and put in the picture a different tale.

Australian vast continent is sparsely populated.

Because of modest inland water reserves people mainly live in the costal areas and only a small number of the 20 million Australians populate the enormous dry and deserted Red Centre. Farming along with mining of minerals are the main industries here, but that keeps only small population occupied. Outback tourism is relatively a new industry that emerged in the last few decades but it helps to stop the decimation of already a small populace.

Australian deserts are ever changing in the way they look and behave.

They’re not as bare as Sahara and with some rainfalls every few years that promote growth of several tuff plants thus providing food, but only for a small number of animal species.

But without the rain it can look as bare as this.

Sand storms and mini cyclones are common and traveler must find some cover immediately even if have to be under a vehicle.

Mini cyclon building up

Also when caught by rains, best is quickly make to the closest settlement, because the dry and dusty plains can be turned into lakes. The precious desert tracks, the life line for the travelers can become rivers of gushing water that makes impossible to drive any vehicle and all that in just few minutes of a rain fall. The rains in the Red Centre are rare, but usually heavy. They are extremely threatening and hazardous for any traveler.

The weather changes are rapid and hard to predict and so are radio weather reports hard to get if you are in the middle of nowhere. The two way radio here is necessity, but not everyone is carrying one and satellite phones for their high cost are only few used. Day driving on the desert tracks is dangerous enough to rule out any night trips. The tracks are often crossed by kangaroos, wallabies. emus, cattle and camels. However the driving is not slow. During the day and when dry most of the stretches of the desert roads can be driven between 80 to 100 km/h. Keeping eyes wide open the driver must look in the distance for possible dangers on the road, but also keep close watch on the surface of the track for larger, sharp rocks, pieces of broken glass, metal and ripped apart car tyres, reinforced with steel wire. Catching flat tyre is not ‘the end of the world’, but can also end-up in freak accident. Therefore, time here is important factor when planning an excursion. It is good to have some, up in the sleeve because anything can happen.

Wednesday.

When we arrived in Birdsville yesterday night, the first thing we’ve learnt was that the Birdsville Track just opened for travel. It rained earlier and the track got flooded for couple days. The local Police close it to the public. What a luck for us, we need to be in Marree by tomorrow night and can not afford delays. Also this morning weather report predicted for late afternoon change and rains coming from Cobber Peddy, 500 km from Marree, so we have enough time for our 500 km drive.

As soon we left Birdsville it become apparent that the trip won’t be without difficulties and delays. The track still is, in many places, wet and slippery which is slowing our pace dramatically.

The weather doesn’t behave always as predicted. Since we left Birdsville the wind change its direction and started to push rain towards the Birdsville Track at increased speed.

We’re not aware of that. Our car radio reception was outside any transmitter.

We’re already running late. The slippery track reduce our speed to between 40 and 60 km/h and we still have to drive nearly 350 km when disaster occurs.

We came to a larger pool of water on the road with surrounded ground still very wet and soft. We got out of jeep and checked the water hole. It looked deep and treacherous. We decided to drive around it and reversed good 150 m and turn off the road. It was short of another 20 m to solid ground and Jeep got bogged.

We sunk half its wheel’s height in soft and sticky mad. The time was running out and we quickly start throwing stones, what we could find, under Jeep’s wheels. Then lucky turn, another fellow traveler and his wife pulled over to help. Quickly our Jeep was back on the solid ground, what a relief, but we lost an hour.

Rapidly moving storm

It started to rain.

The first fall of rain is most dangerous situation when driving on the dirt road.

The fine, like talcum powder dust on the surface of the track mixes quickly with rain water and turns into greasy paste. Vehicle’s wheels almost immediately loose their friction and the vehicle keeps spinning like on ice.

With this new obstacle Jeep’s speed is 10 km/h. Now is 2 pm and we know that we’ll not make to Marree tonight. We are 100 km away from Mungerannie, a Roadhouse between Birdsville and Marree. Now the challenge is to get in one piece to that roadhouse before dark.

Two hours later and we made only 50 km and facing possibility of spending the night in the Jeep, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. However the road surface by now starting to give more grip to the tyres as the dusty cover was washed away by the rain and we are again picking up on speed. Roby kept filming all this time, but now she had to stop. We both need to watch the road to maintain the speed of 50 km/h and give us chance to get to Mungerannie before complete dark.

Finally we arrived there at 5 pm and despite our pessimism we manage to book into last room – backpacker’s style.

The rainfall crossed plans of a lot of travelers here, but the locals were very pleased. Last time they sow that much water fell on the desert was 3 years ago. Rainfalls like this are crucial for the local economy and water reserves. It brings life back to that barren land in hours and for months to last.

It is also good for the roadhouse business with 70 people stranded here and who knows for how long.

Thursday.

We are at Mungerannie Roadhouse with 70 people stranded in the middle of Stony Sturt Desert, 300 km from Birdsville and 200 km from Marree. It is not raining but the sky is still heavy with clouds. Is the a hope for a sunshine?

Breakfast at flooded roadhouse

The Roadhouse has limited Accommodation so those who have their tents or Caravans set them up in caravan park area.

Not everyone trapped in Mungerannie had to pay for the stay. A jockey girl, local, teacher in Leigh Creek was on the way to Bouduri when she got here after terrifying trip on her own. The Roadhouse manager needed more hands to care for the visitors and she got the job, free meals and accommodation. Maybe a small compensation for missed opportunity of racing her camels in Queensland, but that’s life.

Friday.

This morning sky is blue and there is a new hope.

People in the camp almost routinely repeated previous morning, but they seem to be happier.

The ground is still wet and soft, but this morning sun proofed its heating powers and the water-puddles greatly reduced their capacity.

But we can’t say this about the water-crossing on the road.

It is still full and swiftly running across the track. Our gateway to freedom is still out of reach. We drove there later this morning and met owner of the Mungerannie Station

Saturday.

This morning the atmosphere in the camp is tense. Everyone is waiting in anticipation for the Birdsville Track to be declared OPEN. The freedom is a phone call away from Marree Police Station and Genevieve Hannon, the pub manager will change the sign on the road board. Finally at 12 noon the road is open. Mungerannie roadhouse clears out of stranded folks in minutes. We drove to the crossroads to film them leaving.

Back at the roadhouse and outside we’ve met a couple who just arrived from Birdsville on their way to Clayton 50 km before Marree, they stop to refill at Mungerannie. We talk to them about their trip from Birdsville.

After they filled up we joined them to drive behind and film. We left around 1 pm. 200 km to drive. We expected average only 50 km per hour, so we should be in Marree by 5 pm., before the sunset.

The road crossings with rivers and creeks are slowing us greatly. We have to cross them in second gear. At the first crossing dirty water splash on the windscreen, it was blinding. Our 4WD is engaged at all time. However some drier stretches of the road let us to increase the speed up to 80 km/h, but and that eventually proofed to be a little bit swaggering and after two hours driving, 100 km from Marree disaster strikes again, but this time white 4WD in front of us gets hit.

It got trapped into dried track of mud, that some else left behind, probably even skipping of the road himself.

These dried mud trucks are very treacherous and drivers must always keep eye on the road to avoid them.

The situation was rather critical. The jeep was to light to pull out bogged Toyota Landcruiser and the road was still wet and slippery. Fortunately, within minutes, a convoy of few 4WD vehicles, driving from Marree, seeing us in trouble, pulled over to give us hand.

First, one of the vehicles with a winch pulled the stranded 4WD out of the lower and softer mud only couple meters from the bog, but it was enough to get it on the harder ground. Next with the help of another 4WD rescuers pulled the Toyota out of the bog into the harder and drier surface of the track.

Passengers from the convoy formed a little crowd of 30-40 people and watched the rescue affords.

We lost 1 hour of valuable time, but it was worth every second of it as I rolled the camera and recorded the whole scene.

Once they of the bog we are again on our way. We follow them to Clayton and then continue to Marree.

At our last stop we were warn about the biggest water flood on the track before Marree. We crossed it safely, but it was spooky.

20 minutes later we arrived in Marree and following the noise of music and crowd, we quickly found the venue of the last gathering of the Afghani reunion.

To our surprise we fund well congenial group of people drinking bear, eating from BBQ, sinning country songs and speaking with perfect oker accent, they are Aussies. Or maybe it is a wrong picture we caught here to describe their character, but when people party and socialise they relax and are themselves, without the pantry and by the look of them they are Australians.

We traveled a long way to find our peoples’ character and we can rest assured that it is here, in its true spirit. Only the people change, but still carry through their generations that fusion of cultures which makes the Australian Character.

Written by Wies Bialecki

Photography by Robin Yabsley

To see the progress of the postproduction of "Outback Odyssey" click here.

To watch quick screener of “Extreme Track” - click on links below:

Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3

Gallery: Australian Outback - Phtos by R. Yabsley

wies_bialecki — Sat, 4 Aug 2007 14:53:00 GMT

Breathe taking images of Australian Red Centre