This film journeys through the puzzles that nature used as it designed and shaped the Australian continent. The story criss-crosses the continent discovering the world’s oldest living organisms and how sea fossils three hundred million years old came to be on mountain tops, hundred kilometres from the ocean. We will see how a comet from beyond the stars struck the earth a hundred million years ago with the force of two hundred thousand atom bombs. And we’ll learn how Australia’s animals developed into unique species found nowhere else on the planet. The passage of time and power of the elements have levelled mountains once as high as the Himalayas and made others to look like ancient cities preserved in stone. These puzzles of nature have created "mysterious Australia".
Ted Egan takes up the Snowy Mountains story a hundred years after Australia’s favourite poet Banjo Paterson immortalised a young mountain horseman in his epic poem “The Man From Snowy River”. Ted Egan’s film is the most comprehensive story ever made in The Snowy Mountains. It features the pioneering development and lifestyle of the mountain’s people, including the historic construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme. Filmed over the four seasons, the story also includes an aerial kaleidoscope of the high country from spring to winter with spectacular displays of wild flowers and fragile alpine wilderness.
Norfolk Island is an eight by six kilometre paradise set in the blue waters of the South West Pacific Ocean about 1500 kilometres east of the Australian mainland. The island was secured by the British in 1788, just a few weeks after the settlement at Sydney Cove. It was abandoned after a few years, until 1824 when it became one of the most terrible and feared of England’s penal settlements. Norfolk’s historic buildings and scenic hills belie the bloody past. But the graveyards and the chronicles testify to the brutality and terror of those awful years. The Island was abandoned for a second time. But it was re-settled by the descendants of The Bounty Mutineers who moved there from the more isolated Pitcairn Island in 1856.
The first part of the Australian continent to be touched by the morning sun is the sentinel peak of Mt. Warning, the core of an ancient volcano. In the rugged mountain ranges and eroded valleys that surround the peak of Mt. Warning are some of the world’s most beautiful rainforests, just a short journey from Surfers Paradise, Australia’s tourist playground. Sandwiched between the ocean and the outer rim of the volcano there exists an incredible potpourri of people and lifestyles. On Ted Egan’s journey from the mountain to the sea he meets up with people whose passion is to live a lifestyle far removed from what is offered in the great cities. He visits O’Reilley’s Guest House on the Lamington Plateau, coffee, tea and macadamia nut plantations near the coast and looks at the wonderful birdlife that the rainforest protects.
Torres Strait is a treacherous waterway between Cape York, the northern most tip of the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea. The shallow strait is dotted with islands and coral outcrops. From Possession Island at the southern extremity, Captain James Cook formally laid claim to the Australian colonies in the name of England. Later the Queensland Government moved to take control of the islands of the strait and their people. Once the islanders’ currency of trade was human heads and headhunting raids between the islands and the mainland of Papua New Guinea was a part of life. But Christianity is now well entrenched throughout the island communities and headhunting days are over. On this journey through the islands, Ted Egan meets up with some old friends, sees dugout canoes being built and meets the keeper of the legendary Drums of Mer.
Like many of the early explorers and settlers who pushed their way into Australia’s centre marvelling alternately at the grandeur and then the utter desolation, Ted Egan is captivated by the Centre. This journey through Central Australia begins by looking at the country from the early European adventurer's viewpoint and compares their attitude and capacity to exist with the desert aborigines. We will see Lake Eyre full with water and an abundance of birdlife something that has happened only a couple of times last century. Ted’s journey takes us over the brilliant red McDonnell Ranges in a hot air balloon and then through the picturesque gorges that cut through the mountains. At Uluru, he encounters a thunder storm. He then flys over Katajuta (The Olgas) and circles nearby Mt. Connor, which he calls the forgotten mountain and ends up viewing what every tourist comes to see, a brilliantly colourful sunset at Uluru.
Ted Egan’s journey from the plains of Adelaide into the hills to Hahndorf and then north to the Barossa valley traces the route taken by early German migrants on their quest for new lands and freedom from religious persecution. Some years ago Ted performed with the Barossa’s Nuriootpa brass band. He became close friends with many valley people and as a consequence he wrote his song “A Schlucke and A Snitter” to celebrate the achievements of those hardy pioneers. This story looks at the achievements of men such as artist Sir Hans Heysen. We meet grape growers and famous wine makers with names such as Lehmann, Burge, Scharple, Seppelt, and Schulz. We see them at work and at play and on one Sunday in the midst of the grape harvest we join them for a traditional harvest ‘thanksgiving and blessing’ of the crop. At Seppeltfield, Bill Seppelt, representing the fourth generation of his family in Australia, takes Ted into the inner sanctum that for years held the secrets of Seppelt‘s success. At Peter Lehmann Wines we learn that a handshake is still a man’s word and that trust between a winemaker and his growers is a powerful force.
Ted Egan journeys north from tropical Cairns in far north Queensland into the frontier country of Cape York Peninsula. He visits the fabulous Mirage Resort near Port Douglas and crosses the crocodile infested Daintree River and climbs the mysterious Black Mountain on his way to Cooktown where he meets a fascinating painter of native flowers. At Mary Valley Station Ted meets the Shepherds, one of the Cape’s pioneer families, visits Lakefield National Park with its profusion of animal and bird life. He takes part in the Cape’s most famous one day cricket match at Musgrave Cattle Station and sings his famous “Drover’s Boy” song to a group of travellers. Finally Ted visits the Quinkan Galleries where Aboriginal arts created thousands of years ago remains perfectly preserved.
The mighty Murray River was the highway to the opening up of much of the pastoral country of western NSW and Victoria. The development of the paddle steamer and the navigation of the Murray and Darling rivers brought the inland to life. In 1853 the South Australian government saw that the Murray could be an inland highway and offered a reward of two thousand pounds for the first person to take a steamboat to the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers. For years the river trade flourished and railways were constructed to the river from Melbourne and Adelaide to collect the valuable wool cargo and to transport it to the world. These days the cargo that uses the river is tourism. And the leisure industry has seen a whole new flotilla of luxury shipping take to the Murray’s waters.
From the "land of craters and caves" to the tropical waters of The Gulf of Carpentaria, Ted Egan is on the road again. This time the story begins at the Undara Lava Tubes which are tunnels created from the lava flows of ancient volcanos. Many of these flows went for hundreds of kilometres. This is the first time that the tubes have been extensively filmed. Travelling west from the coast Ted meets up with a fascinating range of outback characters. At Croydon, Pat Wilson runs a country store that is part shop and part museum. Col Shepherd drives the Gulflander, a unique railway service from Croydon to Normanton and Col Casey and his work gang keep the track open. Ted ends up at Normanton’s annual bush race meeting and when his favourite horse runs second he decides to go fishing at Karumba, where the prawning fleet is busy at work. Later he meets up with another group of ‘Outback characters’, netting the delicious Barramundi, the most prized of fish. He joins the fisherman at a riverbank bar-b-que where they swap a few fishy stories.
This film as any railway buff will tell you will take you on the journey of a lifetime, along tracks and on trains that just about any enthusiast dreams about. One of Ted Egan’s fantasies has been to ride on as many of the old timers as he can. So off we go. The trains and journeys include the famous Zig Zag as it climbs the Blue Mountains from Lithgow. At the Richmond Vale colliery near Newcastle we see how old time locomotives created for industrial use are being restored and put to work. At the NSW Railway Historical Society’s Museum at Thirlmere near Sydney we ride on some of the steam giants of yesteryear that have been lovingly and painstakingly restored. In Victoria men and women race against the famous Puffing Billy as it steams its way through the Dandenong Ranges. At Victor Harbour in South Australia we travel on the horse tramway that once carted people and cargo from the inland river port of Goolwa to the sea port at Victor Harbour. It was Australia’s first public railway line. The journey moves to South Australia’s famous Pichi Richi railway in the spectacular Flinders Ranges. Then to the ultimate luxury, by the New Ghan to Alice Springs where Ted meets up with the Old Ghan and takes a ride that brings back some memories of his very first journey to Central Australia.
Situated on the north west coast of Western Australia the town of Broome is the pearling capital of Australia and early last century it was definitely the pearling capital of the world. It’s a town like no other in Australia. A mix of gracious old colonial bungalows, as well as modern architecture. Broome’s asian connection goes back to its beginning. Descendants of Japanese pearl divers rub shoulders on the streets with Aboriginal desert people and Chinese restaurateurs in this most multicultural society. While the pearl was the ultimate prize, the mother-of-pearl shell was the real reason that the industry got going in the first place. It was used to manufacture buttons and to inlay into jewellery and fine furniture. Ted’s story traces Broome from the days of hard hat pearl diving, from wooden luggers to modern giant pearling boats and cultured pearl farming. These days pearl farming, tourism and coastal surveillance are important activities carried on at Broome.