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.
