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I'm on a journey around Australia. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:05 | |
A country the size of a continent. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
This is a vast land, with extraordinary wildlife. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
A rich, booming country on the edge of Asia. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
It's not just cricket and kangaroos. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
-Thanks, ladies. -You're welcome. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
If you think you know Australia, think again. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
On this leg of my journey, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:51 | |
I travel from Darwin, in Australia's far north, across to the remote | 0:00:51 | 0:00:56 | |
Cape York Peninsula and on to the Great Barrier Reef. | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
In the far north, I go out on patrol with a unique military force, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
experts at surviving deep in the Australian bush. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
-Green ant tea. -Green ant tea, yeah. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
Two green ants' nests we put in that. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
I have close encounters with some of | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
the deadliest creatures on the planet. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
-Is that enough to kill a human? -15 to 20 humans. No problems at all. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
And I discover how Australia's booming industry | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
is threatening the world's greatest coral reef. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
It's really like something from a sci-fi film. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
Wow! Oh, my goodness. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
I'm starting this leg of my journey | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
in what locals call the top end of Australia. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
This is the classic Aussie outback - remote, wild and beautiful. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:23 | |
Down there is Kakadu National Park. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
It's one of the largest national parks in the world. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
Kakadu is just one of thousands of national parks | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
and reserves in this vast country. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
It's the size of Wales - a home to spectacular rocky plateaus, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
four major river systems and huge flood plains. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
Conservationist Ian Morris | 0:02:54 | 0:02:55 | |
has trained many of the rangers who protect the park. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
He knows its 8,000 square miles as well as anyone. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
Apart from being completely massive, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
what is it about Kakadu that makes it special? | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
Here we've got a biodiversity hot spot. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
We've got a place where there are lots and lots of unique animals all | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
living together, not found anywhere else in the world, just in Kakadu. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
-Just here. -Endemics, yeah. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:20 | |
What's this over here, Ian? Is that a croc in the water? | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
Yes, that'll be a large male just cruising along. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
It's coming into their breeding season now, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
so the boy ones are getting a bit overloaded with testosterone. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
Ooh, he's looking... He's heading for the boat. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
-We're in his territory, so he's coming to have a look at us. -Uh! | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
-It's probably a ten-foot male. -Ten foot? There's another one over here. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
They are everywhere around us. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:49 | |
-Flipping heck! -You put yourself in crocodile soup today. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
'There are more than 100 types of reptile here | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
'and countless other species.' | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
That is an incredible bird. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
'The park is a twitcher's paradise, A haven for an endless | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
'variety of birds, including visitors from overseas.' | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
We're quite close, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:12 | |
we're very close to Southeast Asia and lots of these water birds | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
out here have got aunties and uncles up that way. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
You do realise there are very strong connections between you, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
-the land here, and your Asian neighbours. -Exactly. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
Kakadu has long been a spectacular sanctuary, | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
but in recent years wildlife numbers here have been falling. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
Ten years ago, there used to be a lot more life here. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
There were goannas, which are whopping great monitor lizards, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:50 | |
there were quolls in the trees around here. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
Quoll is a sort of marsupial, the size of a cat with a bushy tail | 0:04:53 | 0:04:58 | |
and a lovely pink nose, | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
and they have been wiped out by a strange, feral invader | 0:05:00 | 0:05:05 | |
and Ian's going to take me to try and find it. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
Ian and I headed out of the park to hunt down the destructive creature. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
Is this Graeme here? | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
This is Graeme, yes. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:17 | |
So, this is Ian's mate, Graeme, up ahead, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
who's come to join us on this little mission. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
-You stop here? -Yes, this will be fine. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
Lights out? And then we wait until dark. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
That's right. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
'The animal causing so many problems in Kakadu | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
'and across much of Australia...' | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
Just there. There you are. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
That's it. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:54 | |
'..is called the cane toad.' | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
Well, mid-sized female in not great condition... | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
-Watch it. -..can lay 20,000 eggs. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
I've got a thing about toads. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
I'm not mad on them, I must admit. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
Just looks like a harmless frog. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
-It does. -Why is it so dangerous? | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
It is these glands here, which contain this toxin | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
which none of our native animals seem to be able to handle. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
So, it's a poisonous toad? | 0:06:15 | 0:06:16 | |
Yeah, to our animals, it's deadly. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
'Native animals that feast on a cane toad rarely survive the meal.' | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
-See that? -And that's it, that's the poison. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
When the animals get it on their gums, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
that's enough to cause them death in a fairly short while. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
I mean, we've seen lots of big snakes, like king brown snakes, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
which are one of the biggest snakes up here, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
die so quickly, the toad's still stuck in their mouth. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
Good Lord. So they hadn't even swallowed it, just... | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
No. Hadn't even got it down. The toxin just is that quick. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
'Cane toads were introduced into eastern Australia | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
'from the Americas in the 1930s, in the hope they'd eat beetles | 0:06:45 | 0:06:49 | |
'that were destroying fields of sugar cane. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
'It was a catastrophic mistake. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
'The cane toads completely failed to eat the beetles and, instead, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
'they became a massive pest.' | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
'Just over 100 were introduced. There are now hundreds of millions.' | 0:07:01 | 0:07:06 | |
See the little tadpoles here? | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
They are newly-metamorphosed toad tadpoles. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:10 | |
Oh, my goodness. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
-Yup. -There's hundreds of them. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
'Even cane toad eggs and tadpoles contain enough poison to kill | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
'fish and frogs that eat them.' | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
A female toad can lay, on average, about 35,000 eggs. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
It has been recorded up to about 50,000. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
35,000? | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
So, what we're looking at here, | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
all these tadpoles are probably the product of one lady. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
Oh, I'm really losing my voice, | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
or at least getting appropriately croaky, anyway. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
'Ian and Graeme are among thousands of volunteer conservationists | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
'who have spent years hunting cane toads at night, | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
'trying to stop the creatures from spreading across the country.' | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
There's a big one. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
Yes. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:00 | |
'When they've gathered up as many as they can find, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
'they cull them as painlessly as possible, using carbon dioxide.' | 0:08:02 | 0:08:06 | |
One of the really sad things about this is that there's | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
no real alternative to that. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
For us, they're the frog from hell. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
That's quite graphic. That's really how you see them. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
That's the sort of threat they are. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
They're more powerful than we are at the moment. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
They're winning and we're losing | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
and we've got to turn that around, somehow. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
'Killing one species to protect another | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
'is a last resort for any conservationist. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
'Here, experts believe it's the only option.' | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
'In recent decades, Australia's wildlife has been hammered. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
'Hundreds of native species have been pushed towards extinction, | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
'thanks, in part, to poisonous cane toads | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
'and other introduced creatures. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
'Despite the best efforts of volunteers like Ian and Graeme, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
'tackling toads by hand can only have a limited impact | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
'on the millions who are still hopping their way | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
'across the country.' | 0:09:03 | 0:09:04 | |
'The next morning, I left the outback. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
'I was on my way to the city of Darwin | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
'and stopped first on Australia's northern coast.' | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
'This part of the country is closer to Indonesia's capital | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
'than it is to Australia's.' | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
'In the past, that proximity to Asia has put northern Australia | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
'on the front line, as I could see at this | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
'World War II coastal bunker.' | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
Ooh. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
This area feels cut off from the rest of Australia, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
but Asia's not far away. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
During the Second World War, Japanese war planes | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
attacked Darwin, dropping more bombs and sinking more ships than they | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
did at Pearl Harbor, which they'd attacked just a few weeks before. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
'And the remote top end of Australia is becoming | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
'strategically vital again.' | 0:10:14 | 0:10:15 | |
'Robertson Barracks is home to Australia's first armoured regiment. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:28 | |
'I met up with commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Scott Winter.' | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
-Colonel. -Simon. Welcome to the home of Australia's armoured might. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
-Thank you very much, indeed. -Welcome to Darwin. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
The home of Australia's armoured might. That's quite a line. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
Well, look, I think it's one we can live up to, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
given that we are the best tank regiment in the Australian army. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
We're the only tank regiment in the Australian army, as well. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
No, look, we're fiercely proud of the service that we've conducted | 0:10:48 | 0:10:52 | |
up here and are very much at home here in the north. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
Do you want to come and have a look around? | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
Let's go and have a look. Thank you. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
What is this? | 0:10:59 | 0:11:00 | |
That's the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
so that's been in service with the Australian army for about six years. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
One of the unique things about the Abrams tank is it | 0:11:08 | 0:11:10 | |
doesn't have a normal engine in it. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
It's got a helicopter engine in it. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
Why does it have a helicopter engine? | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
Is that some sort of top secret part of it? | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
No. When they first made the tank, it was so big and so heavy that they | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
couldn't physically make a diesel engine big enough | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
-to actually move it. -My goodness. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
Well, you certainly couldn't | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
mistake these tanks for belonging to anybody else other than the | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
Australian army, could you, really, with the kangaroo on the front? | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
Absolutely. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
So a big part of the reason to be up here in Darwin is that this | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
is almost Australia's front line. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
It's a fascinating area of the world, Asia. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
It has its unstable, sort of, corners | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
and Australia plays a leading role, I guess, in providing stability. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
But Australia is an Asian nation and it makes sense that, you know, | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
our capacity in the future is to be within the region. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
I find it really interesting that you say | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
Australia is an Asian nation. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:06 | |
Growing up, I thought of Australia as being a, sort of, well, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
it may sound terrible, but a European outpost. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
Our forebears certainly saw themselves as part of the greater | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
Empire and, while many of us are still very proud | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
of our European roots, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:21 | |
there is a geographical reality to where Australia is. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
'We headed down to the training area | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
'so that I could see what the tanks can do.' | 0:12:28 | 0:12:30 | |
I think they're impressive when they're static, but it's not | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
until you really see that helicopter engine push | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
the 60 tonnes of steel around that you really get to appreciate it. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
I feel a little bit like it could move anywhere, it could do | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
anything and there's nothing that's going to stop that, is there? | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
-That just means it's working. -Yeah. The ground shakes. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
When you've got 60-odd tonnes moving at 70km an hour, | 0:12:57 | 0:13:03 | |
it has quite the unique presence. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
70km an hour, that can be propelled at? | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
About 50mph. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:09 | |
It's designed to make the enemy stand up, back against the tree | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
and raise the white flag before you even fire a shot. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
Well, it's working on me. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
I mean, it's great fun. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
As much as we're military professionals and we take an | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
enormous amount of pride in what we do, it's also extremely enjoyable. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
It's classic big boys' toys. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
I was about to accuse you of that, but you said it yourself. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
'As the world's focus shifts towards the Asia region, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
'the United States has recently announced it will be | 0:13:40 | 0:13:42 | |
'shifting its military focus from the Middle East to Asia. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:47 | |
'The US is also rekindling a long standing strategic friendship | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
'with Australia, and over the next few years | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
'Robertson Barracks will become a home for up to | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
'2,500 elite US Marines.' | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
So this is where the US Marines will be living. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:04 | |
It's not bad, actually - | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
simple, plain, but they each get their own room. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
This decision by the US government to shift its emphasis, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:15 | |
its military emphasis, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
and Pacific, is really huge. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
It's momentous, in fact. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
It reflects, I suppose, a decision or an acceptance | 0:14:24 | 0:14:29 | |
by the Americans that this century is very likely to be Asia's century. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:34 | |
That's what people are calling it. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
And also that America's military competition in the future | 0:14:37 | 0:14:43 | |
is very likely to come from the emerging Asian superpowers, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:48 | |
particularly China. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:49 | |
So, we're loading up and we're going to head off on patrol. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
'This is NORFORCE, a long-range surveillance regiment | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
'that works in some of the toughest terrain on the planet.' | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
'NORFORCE is said to have the largest area of operations of any | 0:15:11 | 0:15:15 | |
'military unit in the world.' | 0:15:15 | 0:15:16 | |
'The Northern Territory is six times the size of the UK. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
'But with a population of just 230,000 people, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
'vast areas are uninhabited.' | 0:15:29 | 0:15:31 | |
'A unit of survival specialists, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
'these men are deployed to patrol Australia's front line with Asia.' | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
'They were on the lookout for anything suspicious, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
'from drug smugglers to boatloads of illegal immigrants.' | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
This a good spot? | 0:15:51 | 0:15:52 | |
Not bad. What do you reckon, Woodsy? | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
Not too bad. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:55 | |
Lieutenant Noble-Harris was setting up an observation post. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
So, there's pretty clear views out to sea, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
so basically all your northern and western approaches can be | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
seen here, any sea traffic or air traffic going past can be observed. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
We've still got a good line of sight through the foliage. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
And you've got a huge area of operations, but I suppose you can | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
see anything that's passing through it and passing across there. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:22 | |
We're here looking out to make sure that nothing untoward happens | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
to Australia's coastline. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:27 | |
Anything we see, we'll report up. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
To all intents and purposes, we're out in the middle of nowhere, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
but that is where... | 0:16:32 | 0:16:33 | |
That is a gap which is often filled anywhere in the world by illegality. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:38 | |
There's people out there, you just never know. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
You could be in the middle of nowhere, but you never know. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
'NORFORCE soldiers can survive in the outback for weeks at a time. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:49 | |
'60% of the regiment are Aboriginal Australians, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
'many with an understanding of life in the bush that has been | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
'passed down through generations.' | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
Does it really feel like you're able to use | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
those 40,000 years of accumulated knowledge? | 0:17:02 | 0:17:07 | |
Yeah, yeah. I am using it to teach others, too. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:12 | |
Do you reckon you blokes could survive out here indefinitely? | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
Uh-huh. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:17 | |
-I mean, that's... -As long as I was hanging around him. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
'With their intimate knowledge of the land, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
'these soldiers can find nourishment in the unlikeliest of places.' | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
As you can see, the green ant, it's... | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
I've got one on me here, look. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
You can see the very green bum. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
That green part there is edible, OK? | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
Are you just biting the bum of the snake? | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
It's an ant. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:17:45 | 0:17:46 | |
What are you doing? | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
So, inside the nest there, we've got the eggs | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
and we've got all the other green ants there. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
-Right. -Basically, there's a lot of citrus in the ant, so what we do, | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
we make a cup of tea, we'll boil that up. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
You boil the ants' nest up for a cup of tea? | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
Yes, the ants, the whole show in there. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
Is this a wind up? | 0:18:07 | 0:18:08 | |
No, no, serious. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:09 | |
Green ant tea. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
Green ant tea, yeah. Two green ants' nests we put in there. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
It's smoky and citrusy. It's pretty tasty. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
Yeah. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:23 | |
'The ants' nests were just a starter. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
'Wild magpie geese were on the menu for dinner.' | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
'After they were roasted over a camp fire, we tucked in.' | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
Look at that. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
Best bit, saved for you. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:45 | |
Best bit? | 0:18:45 | 0:18:46 | |
'On my travels in this country, I've seen that white Australians | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
'and Aboriginals often live completely separate lives, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
'but among the soldiers of NORFORCE, things seem different.' | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
The moment you join the Australian Defence Force, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
you wear these colours here and we're the one colour. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
We just feel like real brothers. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
Real brothers. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:05 | |
It doesn't matter whether you're Aboriginal, European, Asian, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:10 | |
we all stick together, fight together. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
(A couple of the guys are laid up doing their surveillance job. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:21 | |
(The rest of the troop are just sleeping over there. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
(They've got a thicker skin than me, maybe. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
(Goodnight.) | 0:19:27 | 0:19:28 | |
Morning. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
That was a long, sweaty night. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
And raining, as well, actually. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:12 | |
I didn't sleep too badly. I did all right, actually. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
Anyway, I see everybody else is up, so I'd better get up. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:25 | |
'Australia's coastline is now being monitored around the clock.' | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
'Several thousand people are caught trying to get into Australia | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
'illegally every year. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
'I wanted to see where some of them are taken.' | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
Now, so, there we go. Look. There is Darwin. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
It's much bigger than I was expecting. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
I thought it would be a sleepy, out-of-the-way town. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
'Half of the Northern Territory's population live in Darwin, | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
'its capital city.' | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
'The rest of the state, like most of Australia, is sparsely populated.' | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
'Although so few people live in this country, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
'there's surprising hostility to migrants arriving illegally.' | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
One of the biggest political issues in Australia at the moment | 0:21:12 | 0:21:17 | |
is asylum seekers and refugees. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
And here, in Darwin, there are actually five detention centres | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
for people who've come here illegally. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:27 | |
'In Australia, illegal migrants and refugees face mandatory, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
'indefinite detention while their cases are being considered. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
'It's one of the toughest immigration policies of any | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
'democratic country in the world.' | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
-Hello. -Hello. What's your name? -Athari. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
-Athari. -Yes. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
-Where did you come from, Athari? -From Iraq. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
-From Iraq? -Yes. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
-Hello. -Hello. How are you? -Yes. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
-Where are you from? -Afghanistan. | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
-Afghanistan? -Yes. -Iraq. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
-From Iraq? -Iraq. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
Iraq, Iran, Burma, Afghanistan. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:10 | |
'I'd hoped we could film inside a detention centre. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
'We were told we could, but on terms that | 0:22:14 | 0:22:15 | |
'would have allowed the immigration authorities | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
'to delete and censor any of our footage. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
'So, instead, I stood outside this facility | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
'where families and children are held, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
'and talked to detainees through the fence.' | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
How long have you been in here? | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
Two months. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:35 | |
-Kidnapped by them? -Yeah. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:49 | |
Because you're Shia? | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
-Yeah. -The Taliban are Sunni. -Yeah. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
'Most of these people have made perilous journeys | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
'of thousands of miles across land and sea. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
'No doubt many of them wanted | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
'to get into Australia for economic reasons. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
'They still have horrific stories.' | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
'Carl O'Connor is a lawyer who represents | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
'many of the detainees | 0:23:12 | 0:23:13 | |
'and campaigns against the government's policy on refugees.' | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
CHILDREN SHOUT | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
What's different about how Australia treats asylum seekers | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
and refugees compared to other countries? | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
Other countries will process refugees in centres | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
such as this, but not for as long as it takes in Australia. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
So, they might be in there for a couple of days in Europe before | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
they're moved into the community and they can get on with their life. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
'The government says its policy of mandatory detention, which can | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
'last for months or years, helps to discourage potential refugees | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
'from making the dangerous and often deadly journey from Asia by boat. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
'They say that if they let people live outside detention centres | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
'while their claims are processed, as in many other countries, | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
'refugees could simply disappear and live illegally. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
'Few countries have open borders, of course, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
'but human rights groups and local protesters claim Australia's | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
'immigration policies breach their international obligations.' | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
One of the biggest tragedies of the whole debate, furore, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:15 | |
in developed countries about asylum seekers and refugees, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
when we think of people as a mass, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
as some sort of invading force, people find it frightening. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:26 | |
They worry about their jobs being taken, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
their homes being taken, etc, etc. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
But when you start meeting people and hearing their individual stories | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
and you realise you've got to be pretty desperate | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
to make the journey here. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
Pretty determined, as well, but, ultimately, desperate. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:43 | |
'Most Australians support tough controls on illegal immigration, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
'but like other wealthy countries Australia has, of course, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
'been happy to cherry-pick and allow in millions of legal economic | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
'migrants to live in the country and boost the economy.' | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
'It was time for me to leave the Northern Territory.' | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
'I'd soon be visiting The Great Barrier Reef, to get up close | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
'with some of Australia's most beautiful wildlife, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
'but first, I headed for Weipa, | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
'on the isolated Cape York Peninsula.' | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
So we've arrived, hired a car, | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
and we're in a very remote part of the country. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
The Cape York Peninsula is about the size of England, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
but has a population of less than 20,000. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:37 | |
This is the main town, the throbbing metropolis of Weipa. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:42 | |
'I'd come to meet Dr Jamie Seymour.' | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
-Morning. -Morning. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
'He's a scientist who studies some of the most lethal | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
'creatures on the planet.' | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
Jamie, it's looking stunning out here. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:58 | |
It's an amazing place, Weipa, but don't let the looks deceive you. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:03 | |
It's not the easiest place to get in and out of the water | 0:26:03 | 0:26:05 | |
and stay alive in, that's for sure. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
Stay alive in? | 0:26:07 | 0:26:08 | |
-Well... -What have we got out here? | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
Take us through what is in the water here. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
Well, if you work from the top end, there's saltwater crocodiles, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
there's some of them four, four and a half metre crocodiles... | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
-Right. -..so they're liable to kill you. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
You've got sea snakes, you've got sharks, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
and then you've got box jellyfish, the world's most | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
venomous animal and, literally, we can find all of those things within | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
probably 200, 300 hundred metres of where we're standing. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
So, not a place to take a dip? | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
No. You wouldn't get in the water here and swim out. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
Something would probably get you before you got back to shore. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
We haven't really said what we're here to do yet, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
but the back of Jamie's T-shirt, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
if you don't mind spinning round, gives you a hell of a clue. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
Stinger Research Unit. Let's get out there. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
-All right. -I feel a bit apprehensive after that warning. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
You'll be fine. You'll be fine. Trust me. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
'I headed out with Jamie, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
'his colleague, Richard, and boat skipper, Dave. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
'We were looking for jellyfish. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
'Many scientists believe that, because of our changing climate | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
'and the overfishing of their predators, | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
'global jellyfish numbers are increasing. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
'Some even worry they could become one of the dominant | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
'life forms in our seas.' | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
Jamie, what on earth are we - or rather, you - out here to do? | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
It's basically one of their major settling sites, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
where we come to chase box jellyfish. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:18 | |
This is one area where we find THE greatest density of these things. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
There is nothing on the planet, animal-wise, | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
that kills as quickly as these animals. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
There is nothing that even comes close. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
'Jamie was planning to catch box jellyfish, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:34 | |
'but first we had to find them. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
'Part of the reason they're so dangerous is that they're | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
'so hard to spot.' | 0:27:39 | 0:27:40 | |
There's lots of bait fish and things here that they'd be chasing. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
What's that down there? | 0:27:52 | 0:27:54 | |
-No, that's... -That's just white sand. -No, that's white sand. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
There's one. Deep in the water. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:02 | |
Big one. Big one. See him, just down here? | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
-Oh, yeah, yeah. Just a slight change in the colour. -Yep. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
I mean, I would not have noticed that. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:10 | |
The most venomous creature on planet Earth? | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
Yep. And look how far it is from shore. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
Well, it's only about 12 feet, isn't it? | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
Yep. That's the problem. We know what we're looking for. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
I've just shown you one just there, and you went, "I didn't see that." | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
Now, you imagine if you'd just come to the water to go for a swim, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
you blunder into that animal. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
It's all over. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:33 | |
So, you're going to try and catch that one? | 0:28:33 | 0:28:35 | |
Yeah, we need to get kitted up first. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:37 | |
You can't get in the water until we get kitted up. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
And is that creature enough to kill a human? | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
That animal, that size, 15 to 20 humans, no problems at all. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
-Could kill? -Oh, absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
In under two minutes. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:51 | |
Take it super-seriously. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:53 | |
Yeah. You screw up here, you only get one chance at it. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
Oh, this sucks. | 0:28:57 | 0:28:58 | |
'We put on thin wet suits, as protection from the stingers.' | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
-Just jump in here? -Yep. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
Now, I want you, to stay between me and the shore. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:08 | |
OK. I'm happy with that. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
So, swing in from here. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
-My God, it's just in front of me. -There. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
I wouldn't have even seen that. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:17 | |
Basically, what you're looking at is... | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
-I'll just get him to the surface. -Good God. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
-So, there you are. -There it is. -That's about half-grown. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:25 | |
It looks completely harmless. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
Now, if you have a look at the animal. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:28 | |
There you have, basically, a half-grown box jellyfish. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:34 | |
You can see it's still pulsing. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:35 | |
So, these are, basically, off here, you've got all the tentacles. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:40 | |
It feels like a, sort of, hard jelly. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
Just feeling it, I mean, you don't whether it feels alive. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:49 | |
It doesn't even really feel particularly alive. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:52 | |
-Squidgy. -Yep. -Quite squidgy. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:55 | |
-Another one coming in behind it. -Another coming in through here? -Yes. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
'Box jellyfish can move at almost 5mph, | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
'as fast as Olympic swimmers. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
'Two metres of tentacle contact is enough to kill an adult human | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
'and even the tiniest sting can be agonising.' | 0:30:09 | 0:30:13 | |
It's getting to the stage where I want to get out of the water. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
We need to get back in the boat, cos we've been here a bit too long | 0:30:19 | 0:30:23 | |
and they're worried that crocs are watching us all the time | 0:30:23 | 0:30:26 | |
and the window is, basically, sort of, 20-25 minutes before | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
a croc will come in and start to launch an attack, | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
which, as you can imagine, is quite a scary prospect. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
-All right, Rich, let's get out of here. -OK. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
'Jamie has had several close shaves himself, | 0:30:41 | 0:30:45 | |
'but he's hunting for box jellyfish | 0:30:45 | 0:30:47 | |
'precisely because they are so dangerous. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:50 | |
'He's convinced their venom will be enormously useful | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
'for medical research. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
'The venom has so much potential | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
'that drug companies are helping to fund his work.' | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
'You need to think of venom as a cocktail.' | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
So there's a heap of things in there | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
and they all target different components. So we know, for example, | 0:31:03 | 0:31:07 | |
in box jellyfish venom, there's a component that attacks the heart. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
But then there's another 20, 30, 40 different compounds | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
that we haven't even started to look at, that we know don't cause death, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
but they're in the venom. What do they do? | 0:31:17 | 0:31:19 | |
They could be there to help the drug get into a certain area quicker, | 0:31:19 | 0:31:22 | |
so, if we're looking at that, for example, | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
it may make it go quicker to the heart. | 0:31:25 | 0:31:26 | |
It's a matter of understanding what's going on. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
So, by studying jellyfish venom, you can come up with new drugs | 0:31:28 | 0:31:34 | |
or a new way of treating people for ailments and problems | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
entirely unconnected with jellyfish. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:39 | |
The chances of finding a novel compound in here | 0:31:39 | 0:31:41 | |
that could save people's lives is enormous. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:46 | |
If there wasn't, | 0:31:46 | 0:31:47 | |
pharmaceutical companies would NOT be going down this track. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
There's one, Simon. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:51 | |
'Research into the composition of venoms | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
'is already producing results. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:56 | |
'Scientists recently discovered a compound in the venom | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
'of an African snake that has potential as one of the world's | 0:31:59 | 0:32:03 | |
most powerful painkillers. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
We want some tentacles from this guy, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:07 | |
because that's where the venom is, | 0:32:07 | 0:32:08 | |
so we're going to take the bottom end off this. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
So lift that underneath there, Rich. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
So we put the animal back in the water. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:16 | |
You can still see that he's got the vast majority of his tentacles. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
The tentacles have got the venom in it. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:20 | |
He'll regrow those in such a rate that he'll | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
regrow something between 1-2cm of tentacle in 24 hours. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
-Astonishing. -Just take that top. That'll do. That'll do us. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
I find it absolutely stunning that what you're doing here and now | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
could help to find new drugs, | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
new ways of treating some of the most intractable human ailments. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:41 | |
If, somewhere in the future. the work that I did | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
-saved somebody's life... -Made a difference. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
Let's be honest, just saying those things, at the moment, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
I can just feel all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
One day it will happen. I know it will happen. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
It's a matter of when. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:57 | |
I continued my journey across the remote Cape York Peninsula. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
It's one of the least populated areas of Australia | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
'and most of the people who do live here are Aboriginals.' | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
I headed to the town of Aurukun. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
After white settlers arrived in Australia, | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
the indigenous people suffered brutal treatment. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
In some parts of the country, they were exterminated. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:44 | |
For decades, Australia treated its indigenous people appallingly. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:49 | |
There was abuse, almost apartheid. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
Aboriginal communities now suffer | 0:33:52 | 0:33:56 | |
significantly lower life expectancy and higher unemployment than the | 0:33:56 | 0:33:59 | |
rest of Australia, and Aurukun is a town gripped by social problems. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:03 | |
I met up with Gina, who has first-hand experience | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
of the issues people here struggle with. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:08 | |
Gina, is this a community in crisis? | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
It's like a pressure cooker of social problems. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
We still continue to endure very low socioeconomic standards, | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
compared to that of the mainstream Australia - | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
no businesses, no jobs, | 0:34:22 | 0:34:25 | |
most of the people in the community are on welfare benefits. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:29 | |
Most people? | 0:34:29 | 0:34:30 | |
Yes, the majority. Yes. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
A lot of people are dying too young. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
The average life expectancy here is still very, very low. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
-My mother died, she was 42. -How did your mother die? | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
My mother was murdered by her partner at the time. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:47 | |
I was 14 years old. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:48 | |
-God, I'm so sorry. -That was alcohol-fuelled violence. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
Blame for many of the problems affecting Aboriginal people today | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
can no longer all be pinned on the white establishment. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:00 | |
Many Aboriginal communities across the country have their own ingrained | 0:35:01 | 0:35:06 | |
problems with drug abuse, child abuse, | 0:35:06 | 0:35:08 | |
alcoholism and domestic violence. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:10 | |
And it can be shocking to discover just how many families are affected. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:15 | |
It's just really sad. Look at it. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
This place is a classic example of what happens when people lose | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
their sense of purpose and meaning, | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
when they lose their role in life and become | 0:35:32 | 0:35:34 | |
welfare dependent and rely on sit-down money, as it's called here. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:40 | |
I've seen and I've felt, I think, that same sense of helplessness | 0:35:40 | 0:35:45 | |
and hopelessness in many other parts of the world, | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
but I've never felt it quite so strongly as I have in | 0:35:48 | 0:35:52 | |
any number of Aboriginal communities here in Australia. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
Across Australia, | 0:35:59 | 0:36:00 | |
Aboriginal lands sit on top of huge deposits of minerals - | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
coal, copper and, here on the Cape York Peninsula, | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
the aluminium ore, bauxite. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
A culture of welfare dependency in Aboriginal communities | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
has been fuelled by the fact that many receive royalty payments | 0:36:15 | 0:36:18 | |
from mining companies, to mine their land, | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
which have become little more than hand-outs or sit-down money. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
But Gina wants to help end the dependence on these pay-outs. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
We went to a mine owned by Rio Tinto, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:31 | |
a multi-billion pound mining giant, which hires bulldozers from Gina. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
Over here is one of our dozers. It's called a D10 dozer. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:41 | |
-When you say it's one of our dozers... -Aurukun Earthmoving. | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
So this bulldozer is actually owned by the people of Aurukun? | 0:36:45 | 0:36:51 | |
Yes. We're establishing businesses, | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
so that we can actually have economic participation - | 0:36:53 | 0:36:56 | |
and economic participation means jobs for our people. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
It means wealth creation. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
It is not just about receiving royalties. We don't want to just | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
get sit-down money from the companies who mine our land. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:07 | |
This is our land and we want to be involved in any developments | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
that happen on our land. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:11 | |
What's your involvement in the company? | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
I played a role in establishing the business and I've been | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
a company director, managing director, for the last eight years. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
-Did you set the company up, then? -Yes. 18, 19. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
-You were a teenager... -Yes. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:28 | |
-..when you... How many of these do you own? -Four. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
We started out with one dozer and we went knocking | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
on Rio Tinto's door and said, | 0:37:33 | 0:37:35 | |
"Please, would you give us some work?" | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
And here we are today. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:39 | |
We've got a five-year contract that was just recently signed, | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
so it's a fantastic result for all of us. We're very happy. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
'Owning and renting out mining equipment | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
'is the start of Gina's plans. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
'There are bauxite-rich deposits around her community at Aurukun. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:56 | |
'Even though it's in a wilderness area, | 0:37:56 | 0:37:57 | |
'it seems likely it'll be mined and Gina wants the people | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
'of her community to be the ones who mine it.' | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
We have spoken to the highest levels in government. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
We have spoken to the Deputy Premier, | 0:38:05 | 0:38:07 | |
we have spoken to the Department of Infrastructure. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
We want to be the owners of that resource. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
We want to develop our own mine. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
This is very exciting. Has this been done before? | 0:38:16 | 0:38:19 | |
Has an Aboriginal community in Australia | 0:38:19 | 0:38:22 | |
run their own mining operation? | 0:38:22 | 0:38:24 | |
Never. It's never happened. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
We want to lift the bar. We'll be able to, | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
with our partners, of course, | 0:38:29 | 0:38:34 | |
we'll be able to show the world that this is how it should be done. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
Aboriginal communities need strong, inspiring leaders, like Gina. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
She's trying to get the people of Aurukun off welfare | 0:38:43 | 0:38:48 | |
and give them purpose and meaning again, through employment. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
I'm on the move again | 0:38:55 | 0:38:56 | |
and I'm heading now to the airport, where I'm going to hop on a flight | 0:38:56 | 0:39:01 | |
which is going to take me to the east coast | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
and the Great Barrier Reef. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
I headed to the city of Cairns, | 0:39:11 | 0:39:12 | |
a gateway to one of the greatest natural wonders on the planet. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:17 | |
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest natural structure on earth. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
It extends for more than 1,500 miles | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
and is big enough to be seen from space. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:26 | |
Very excited about this. Trying to remain calm. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:34 | |
A chance to get onto The Great Barrier Reef is not one | 0:39:34 | 0:39:37 | |
you want to miss. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
-Hello there. -Hey, welcome on board. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:41 | |
-Are you Col? -I'm Col, and pleased to have you in my work place. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
-Thanks, Col. Oh! -Right there. I got it. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:46 | |
'Col McKenzie represents tour operators | 0:39:46 | 0:39:48 | |
'who take tourists out on the reef.' | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
-Nearly made it into the water! -Yup. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
'He's also one of the people | 0:39:55 | 0:39:57 | |
'responsible for keeping the reef at its best.' | 0:39:57 | 0:40:00 | |
Col's kindly taking me out to see a beautiful bit of reef, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:05 | |
and I get to snorkel on it. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:06 | |
The sheer diversity of the reef is jaw-dropping. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:18 | |
It's a home to more than 130 types of sharks and rays, | 0:40:18 | 0:40:23 | |
1,800 species of fish | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
and every type of coral and colour the mind can imagine. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
But coral reefs aren't just pretty to look at. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:32 | |
They're vital to the health of our oceans. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
Reefs occupy less than 1% of the Earth's surface, | 0:40:34 | 0:40:38 | |
but they support more than 25% of all marine life. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
But of all the life down here, | 0:40:47 | 0:40:49 | |
there's one creature in particular that Col is concerned about. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
It's a type of starfish that is literally eating the reef. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:56 | |
You can actually see an area that's just been eaten. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:59 | |
It's been eaten in the last 24 hours. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:01 | |
It's a bright, white skeleton, | 0:41:01 | 0:41:03 | |
because all the animal has been dissolved and taken away. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
'It was easy to see the dead white coral skeleton | 0:41:06 | 0:41:10 | |
'that Col was talking about. | 0:41:10 | 0:41:12 | |
'The creature responsible for the damage is a spiky starfish | 0:41:12 | 0:41:16 | |
'called the crown-of-thorns.' | 0:41:16 | 0:41:18 | |
While we were down, we could see one crown-of-thorns | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
that Col pointed out to me. And it is a monster of a creature. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:27 | |
Really like something from a sci-fi film. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
Crown-of-thorns starfish are native to the reef | 0:41:31 | 0:41:34 | |
and they naturally eat fast-growing coral | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
and help give slower-growing coral a chance to thrive. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:40 | |
But if they reach plague proportions, | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
they can destroy the reef, leaving nothing | 0:41:44 | 0:41:46 | |
but algae-covered coral skeletons. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
In recent years, that's exactly what's been happening | 0:41:49 | 0:41:52 | |
on large areas of The Great Barrier Reef. | 0:41:52 | 0:41:54 | |
They eat everything. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:57 | |
They eat all the hard coral, all the soft coral, | 0:41:57 | 0:42:01 | |
they eat the whole lot out. I've seen a reef go | 0:42:01 | 0:42:03 | |
from 55% live coral cover to 5% live coral cover | 0:42:03 | 0:42:07 | |
in less than six months. These things can really devastate a reef | 0:42:07 | 0:42:11 | |
and it's, unfortunately, human intervention that's caused it. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:16 | |
It's because of our farming and grazing practices. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
It's because of the cities that are growing up along our coastline. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
That's what's causing this problem. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
Many scientists believe that increased use of fertilisers | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
in farming has led to more nitrogen and phosphorous being washed into | 0:42:29 | 0:42:33 | |
the seas off Australia's east coast. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:35 | |
They provide food for plankton which are, in turn, | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
the food of choice for crown-of-thorns larvae. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
Crown-of-thorns plagues are linked directly to flood plumes | 0:42:42 | 0:42:45 | |
and to the water quality that's coming off our land. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
So you get more baby starfish, more teenage starfish, | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
more adult starfish, etc, etc. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
Three years after a flood plume, | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
we will have an outbreak of crown-of-thorns. | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
The Great Barrier Reef is in serious trouble. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
A recent report revealed it's lost 50% of its coral cover | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
over the last 30 years. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:08 | |
Our changing climate is having a huge impact, | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
but so are crown-of-thorns. To protect the reef, | 0:43:11 | 0:43:14 | |
the starfish are being targeted by Col's team of divers. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:19 | |
I'm loving this Australian meal. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
A proper Aussie barbecue. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:23 | |
There's basically ten kilos of steak, ten kilos of sausages. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:27 | |
Oh, no, look, that was unfair of me. I was going to say no veg. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:31 | |
Look at this. Pumpkin and tatties. Looks fantastic. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:36 | |
'The crown-of-thorns aren't only dangerous to coral. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:40 | |
'They can be tricky for a diver to deal with.' | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
The problem with handling these creatures is that | 0:43:43 | 0:43:45 | |
those spines on them have a neurotoxin poison | 0:43:45 | 0:43:49 | |
and this is what protects the crown-of-thorns. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
Of course they've got a neurotoxin. This is Australia. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:54 | |
Everything is venomous or poisonous. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:56 | |
Well, I know of a case where a diver doing crown-of-thorns work | 0:43:56 | 0:44:00 | |
in the coral reef around Japan only two months ago | 0:44:00 | 0:44:03 | |
died from a crown-of-thorns sting. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
-Really? -They'll go through a 5mm wet suit, no trouble. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
So the plan is we eat this fantastic meal, sleep, | 0:44:09 | 0:44:14 | |
and then tomorrow, we'll see what you're doing to tackle the starfish. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:18 | |
Absolutely. So far, you've seen some good sites | 0:44:18 | 0:44:20 | |
and some pretty bad sites. Now we'll show you how we protect it. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:23 | |
Beautiful little sharkies in the water. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:53 | |
I'm just cleaning my teeth and it's out here, down beneath us. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:57 | |
'After breakfast, Col and I went out to see his dive team at work. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:13 | |
'It wasn't long before the team found coral scars, | 0:45:28 | 0:45:32 | |
the telltale sign there were crown-of-thorns nearby. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
'The starfish typically feed at night. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
'During the day, they're often hidden away.' | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
Really bizarre. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:53 | |
There were almost a dozen of them, these multi-armed feeding machines. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:59 | |
I'm going to go back down and see how they deal with them. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
As with the cane toads I saw earlier on my trip, and other feral and | 0:46:05 | 0:46:09 | |
invasive creatures that are damaging the environment in Australia, | 0:46:09 | 0:46:13 | |
the crown-of-thorns are just doing what comes naturally to them. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:17 | |
But human actions have seen their numbers explode | 0:46:17 | 0:46:19 | |
and so conservationists have decided the only way of protecting | 0:46:19 | 0:46:22 | |
the Great Barrier Reef is to cull the crown-of-thorns. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:25 | |
Originally, researchers tried cutting the starfish in half, | 0:46:25 | 0:46:30 | |
but, remarkably, each part survived, doubling the numbers. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:35 | |
Injecting them with chemicals is a slow, laborious process, | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
and Col's team are only protecting the parts of the reef | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
most visited by tourists. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:45 | |
The cynic in me wonders, I suppose, if tourists weren't coming | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
to these parts of the reef, whether there would be the incentive | 0:46:54 | 0:46:58 | |
and the pressure for you to proactively try and protect them. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:02 | |
High-value tourism and high tourism numbers give us | 0:47:02 | 0:47:07 | |
the financial clout to be able to invest in protecting the reef. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
It's ironic, isn't it? | 0:47:10 | 0:47:11 | |
Everybody said, "Oh, tourism will be the death of places." | 0:47:11 | 0:47:14 | |
Here, it's actually contributing to the salvation of it. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
Without tourism, we'd have no financial incentive to do a thing. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
With all the different threats there are to coral reefs around the world, | 0:47:20 | 0:47:26 | |
what's your take on what the future is for The Great Barrier Reef? | 0:47:26 | 0:47:31 | |
If we don't get control of it, reef-wide, in the very | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
near future, we're going to lose an enormous amount of biodiversity. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:38 | |
Where we have a couple of hundred species of coral, | 0:47:38 | 0:47:41 | |
we could end up like the Caribbean or the Bahamas or off Florida, | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
where you can count the number of species on two hands. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
So, see it while you can? | 0:47:47 | 0:47:48 | |
If people want to see the Reef in pristine condition, | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
they need to be out here right now and see it over the next five years. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
The future of the Barrier Reef is going to be different | 0:47:55 | 0:47:59 | |
to what we see right now. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:00 | |
Two million tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef every year. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
'Apart from anything else, | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
'it's an economic resource that Australia can't afford to lose.' | 0:48:06 | 0:48:10 | |
So, we're heading south from here, | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
down the magnificently-named Bruce Highway. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:26 | |
I'm sure there's a Sheila Street out there, as well. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
This area is actually a bit of a Mecca for backpackers, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
but, as you can see, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
with all the camera equipment, we can't travel quite so lightly. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:38 | |
Let's get on the road. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:43 | |
There is a giant Wellington boot. | 0:48:58 | 0:49:00 | |
Got to stop and show you this. | 0:49:04 | 0:49:06 | |
So, as we head south, we pass through this town called Tully, | 0:49:12 | 0:49:18 | |
which... Well, it gets a bit wet here and so they put this boot here | 0:49:18 | 0:49:23 | |
to commemorate, I suppose, to celebrate, really, | 0:49:23 | 0:49:27 | |
just how wet it gets. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:29 | |
I have to say, the Australians do constantly, rather constantly, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:36 | |
go on about how it rains a little bit in Britain, | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
but never does it rain as much as it does here. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:42 | |
So, average rainfall - | 0:49:42 | 0:49:43 | |
I checked this. Thank you, internet - | 0:49:43 | 0:49:47 | |
average rainfall in the UK per year is about a metre. About a metre. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:54 | |
Here, in one year, almost eight metres of water fell. | 0:49:54 | 0:50:00 | |
And so, to celebrate that, | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
what better way than to put a giant Wellington boot in your town, | 0:50:04 | 0:50:09 | |
to let everybody know you are one of the wettest places in the world? | 0:50:09 | 0:50:13 | |
'I continue driving down Australia's east coast, | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
'along the seemingly-endless highway that runs parallel to the Reef. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:31 | |
'500 miles south of Cairns, | 0:50:40 | 0:50:41 | |
'I arrived at Hay Point, one of the largest coal ports in the world.' | 0:50:41 | 0:50:46 | |
Almost 10% of the world's | 0:50:46 | 0:50:49 | |
seaborne coal is exported from just this port. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:54 | |
It's astonishing, really. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
It gives you a glimpse, I think, into the scale of Australia's | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
resources boom, which, in many ways, has been the biggest story | 0:50:59 | 0:51:02 | |
in this country over the last couple of decades. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
In the vastness of this continent-sized country, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:10 | |
there are all manner of mines and quarries and seams | 0:51:10 | 0:51:13 | |
that churn out the raw materials that fuel the furnaces and feed | 0:51:13 | 0:51:19 | |
the resource-hungry economies of countries like China and India. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:24 | |
This is the final stage of the process. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
The coal is being brought down through the nozzle over here | 0:51:30 | 0:51:33 | |
and loaded into the hold of this ship, | 0:51:33 | 0:51:36 | |
at the rate of up to two tonnes a second. | 0:51:36 | 0:51:39 | |
Out on the horizon over here, I can see any number of ships | 0:51:39 | 0:51:43 | |
just waiting to have their bellies filled. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
Incredibly, before they can reach the open sea, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
the huge ships are allowed to navigate their way | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
through the Great Barrier Reef. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
Even this, one of the most fragile and threatened environments | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
on Earth, cannot stand in the way of the Australian resources boom. | 0:51:58 | 0:52:02 | |
Any collision in the maze of coral islands would be disastrous, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:07 | |
so the ships are guided by specialist reef pilots, | 0:52:07 | 0:52:09 | |
like Richard Tennant. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:10 | |
These ships have a draft of about 18 metres, when they sail. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
It's a deep draft, so they haven't got very much water under the keel. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:16 | |
So, how far off the bottom is it? | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
The shallowest point would be about one metre off the bottom. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:20 | |
One metre off the bottom? So there are points when this ship, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:25 | |
loaded with 180,000 tonnes of coal is, what, that far off | 0:52:25 | 0:52:31 | |
the bottom of the seabed? | 0:52:31 | 0:52:33 | |
Yes, but they're not going very fast in that instance. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
They're only going about walking pace that close to the bottom. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:39 | |
They don't stop very easily, though, do they? | 0:52:39 | 0:52:41 | |
When they're going full sea speed, | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
yeah, they take a long while to stop. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:45 | |
In fact, it would be quicker to turn it around than stop it. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
'The helicopter flies Richard more than 100 miles out to sea | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
'and lands him on a moving ship. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:57 | |
'His job is then to guide the ship's captain through the shallow | 0:52:57 | 0:53:00 | |
seas of the Reef and into the coal port, to pick up its cargo. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:04 | |
A wrong turn would be catastrophic. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
In 2010, a ship called the Shen Neng tried to navigate its way | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
through the reef without a pilot. It ran aground, | 0:53:39 | 0:53:43 | |
carving a two-mile gash in the coral | 0:53:43 | 0:53:45 | |
and leaking three tonnes of toxic oil and chemicals into the water. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:49 | |
There we go. We're here. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:37 | |
Magnificent flying. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:39 | |
-See you this afternoon, then. -We wish you all the best of luck | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
-with your piloting. -Thanks. -Hope it goes safely. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
He's gone off to the bridge to pilot the ship | 0:54:48 | 0:54:51 | |
and we're going to take off | 0:54:51 | 0:54:53 | |
and watch, as it travels through the tight passage of the Reef. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:55 | |
In a ship this size, which takes hundreds of metres to turn, | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
there's no margin for error. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:20 | |
Australia's resource boom shows little sign of slowing down. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:27 | |
The government here is keen to open more mines and export yet more coal. | 0:55:27 | 0:55:32 | |
It's already one of the country's top export earners. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
So, despite the fact it's a protected marine park, | 0:55:36 | 0:55:40 | |
the number of ships passing through the Great Barrier Reef | 0:55:40 | 0:55:43 | |
is expected to increase up to five-fold. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:45 | |
But Richard's ship is in safe hands. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:55 | |
As he headed to shore, | 0:55:55 | 0:55:56 | |
the chopper pilot offered to show me a little patch of paradise. | 0:55:56 | 0:56:01 | |
So, we've landed on a coral cay. | 0:56:34 | 0:56:38 | |
It's a tiny one. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:39 | |
Look, the bits of the helicopter are hanging off over the water. | 0:56:39 | 0:56:44 | |
It's covered in coral. Look at this. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:46 | |
So, the ship's made it through safely. It's continuing its journey. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
I'm ending this part of my journey here. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:52 | |
On the next leg, I'll be travelling down Australia's | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
bustling and beautiful east coast, towards the bright lights of Sydney. | 0:56:55 | 0:57:00 | |
Next time, I'll be visiting | 0:57:00 | 0:57:02 | |
Australia's beautiful coastal cities. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
I'll encounter a side of Australia visitors rarely get to see... | 0:57:04 | 0:57:09 | |
Is it respect or fear? | 0:57:09 | 0:57:10 | |
If people fear us, they've got to fear us for a reason. | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
I'll get up close to Australia's iconic wildlife... | 0:57:12 | 0:57:17 | |
and to devastating bush fires. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
Look at this! A line of flames here. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:25 |