Australia Tropic of Capricorn

Imagine a line more than 22,000 miles long

that cuts through the most remote areas of the southern hemisphere.

And look what's up ahead of us. Look at this! Look at this sight!

The Tropic of Capricorn marks the southern edge of the Earth's tropical zone.

It runs through southern Africa, Australia and South America.

This is just nature showing off.

Following the line will take me to beautiful but troubled regions of the world.

Oh! Bloody hell!

Capricorn passes through areas of desperate poverty,

political conflict and environmental devastation.

Just ripping it down. Look at this.

This leg of my journey takes me thousands of miles across Australia through the red earth of the outback

to the tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

They are one of the great natural wonders of the world.

Oh, my God, that is incredible...

That makes the tears well up, that's just such an awesome sight.

Off the coast of Western Australia, just to the north of the Tropic of Capricorn,

hundreds of humpback whales are resting on their epic annual migration south to Antarctica.

Look at the size...look at this.

Exmouth Gulf plays a critical role in the lives and survival of these awesome giants.

It's a quiet spot where whales can bring their young to rest and put on half a ton of fat

before travelling thousands of miles to their Antarctic feeding grounds.

Ha ha, look at them...

I just got some spray over me from them.

Humpbacks were once hunted to near-extinction and need these rare

sanctuaries to survive, as biologist Curt Jenner knows only too well.

He's been studying them for 20 years.

It's a privilege on this planet in this day and age

to have a place like this that is so unique, so undisturbed.

These are baby animals that need some place to rest and to grow.

But like any nursery, there are silly things that go on.

These are precocious little animals that'll be rolling over Mum's nose one moment,

falling over backwards and getting their blowholes full of water...

they'll come up, "Brrrrrrrfffff!" There's a lot of just sort of playing that goes on.

To be able to see that in a place like this...

where literally there's one whale every square mile...

it's phenomenal, it's a fantastic place.

They're that close...

and hello to you... Look.

'Curt's wife Mich is also a marine biologist.

'She keeps a photographic record of thousands of whales to help identify individuals.'

We've got a cow, calf escort pod here.

And an escort is believed to be a male whale that is accompanying the female.

Now you might think that's noble.

-For what purpose?

-Really only because she is deemed successful,

she has a calf already, and the breeding season means to pass on genes.

-Ah, so she might be able to have another one.

-Exactly.

-One of his. Men, eh!

-That's it.

She invests two years of her life.

-And he invests two hours.

-And the male might invest two hours or two days.

But over dinner, Curt tells me of plans he fears could see the whales leave this area for good.

In last 6-12 months there's been plans put forward to develop

a salt mine, an evaporative salt mine on eastern side of gulf.

-It's a huge area from north to south, an extensive range.

-Of salt pans?

-That's right.

Apparently the world has an amazing appetite for plastic these days, as if we haven't noticed...

this is the key use for salt these days is in making plastic.

So we all have an evil hand in the need for this product.

How worried are you about the impact on the whales who are coming here?

Basically what we're looking at as a key threat in this resting area is noise.

Shipping noise and that sort of noise is not compatible with resting.

Imagine trying to rest with your newborn baby somewhere quiet

with dump trucks going by and people banging garage doors shut.

-I'd want to move.

-And that's what we're worried will happen with these whales.

It's a critical habitat for them. They have to rest here.

If they can't do that it's a population-threatening event.

-It's that serious.

-Exactly. If these calves can't rest,

they'll probably perish on their way to the Antarctic and that'll be the end of them.

'Out on deck I could still see whales all around the boat.'

The pregnant female has been lying on her back and slapping her fins

on the surface of the water and it creates an incredible sound.

It's an amazing sight. We've been so fortunate.

The salt company say their plans won't affect the whales

and they promise an economic boost to the area.

But it was time for us to leave the coast and start our journey east across this enormous continent

more than 2,500 miles wide.

We would be zig-zagging along Capricorn, crossing the vast emptiness of Australia's outback.

And the next morning I met my companion for the first leg of my trip.

This is Steckie who is going to be driving and guiding us across a large chunk of Australia.

And for some reason he seems to find our improvised hairnets

to keep the flies off our faces amusing.

What's so funny about this, Steckie?

Well, if you didn't open your mouth so much you wouldn't catch so many!

What's your advice for keeping the flies off?

Just ordinary Black & Gold fly spray.

-Just ordinary Black & Gold fly spray.

-Personal insect repellent.

Have a look. Just spray it on yourself.

-Right, I'll be quite pleased to get rid of the...

-Sand flies, midgies.

You can spray your face with it, close your eyes, spray your face.

I'm very trusting... Is it ok to use?

It only stings a little.

What's this pass the salt... 100 years of opportunity.

It's a local campaign for the salt,

the evaporated ponds over on the salt mine on the other side of the Gulf.

So you're in favour of it?

Oh, definitely.

You can't stop progress. It's a good industry, but the town's divided a bit, so...

Progress, we need a boost in our economy quite a bit.

-Why?

-Because it's the way it happens.

It's all going ahead. Western Australia, land of milk and honey.

Western Australia is enjoying a huge economic boom.

This state, bigger than Western Europe, is stuffed full of valuable natural resources.

But it hasn't always been the land of milk and honey.

In the 1930s, miners started hacking thousands of tonnes of asbestos

out of rocks in the beautiful Pilbara region.

A large asbestos mine was situated next to what's now the Karijini National Park.

The mine closed down 40 years ago

and the nearby town of Wittenoom has been in decline ever since.

The town is still there, but it's now closed.

And why's it closed?

Cos the government consider the asbestos is now hazardous to our health.

The dust is quite contagious to our lungs

so therefore the government in its best interest now closed the mine.

Steckie, can you just slow down. What does this say?

Warning, asbestos fibres and dust are present and may be airborne in and around Wittenoom.

Let's not try to kick up too much dust if we can,

let's just drive in nice and slow.

'We'd studied the risks posed by visiting Wittenoom before making the journey.

'Most reports suggest the threat to visitors is low,

'but the signs made me nervous.

'The state government has said the nearby mine is the most

'asbestos-contaminated area in the world.

'So we planned to make just a short visit to the town.'

Look at this! You've got houses that are

overgrown with weeds growing in the gardens and...boarded up there.

This is creepy.

When the nearby mine was operating, this was a dangerous place.

Studies estimated hundreds, possibly thousands of workers have died from cancer

after inhaling toxic fibres while mining the asbestos-lined rocks.

The town of Wittenoom has been dying for years.

Almost everyone has moved-out, the government has flattened houses and taken the town off maps.

But a few hardy souls are refusing to leave.

-Hello.

-Hello. How are you going?

-Would you be Meg?

-Yes, I am.

Hello, Meg.

'Meg and Frank Timewell are two of the eight stalwarts who remain.'

Who would want to go anyone else bar living here?

Look at those mountains, beautiful!

'Frank's been here in the Pilbara for more than four decades.

'But the couple have been offered Government money to leave.'

Some people say Wittenoom is the site of one of biggest industrial disasters in Australian history.

Why do you want to stay here?

It's our home. It was the first house in the town. This was the first house built in Wittenoom.

-The first house in the town?

-Yes, it's the first house, cost me 1,000 to buy.

How much is it worth now?

Well, the Government reckon it's only worth 40,000.

It's worth nothing, because we don't want to sell it cos it's our home, we don't have a value on it.

It's a bloody insult to come and offer us 40,000

-for our home of all these years.

-Is it not possible the Government wants you out

just because they're worried about your health?

Ohhhhhh!

-That's crap!

-Sorry!

Absolute crap.

'Despite evidence the threat from asbestos has declined,

'the local government isn't taking chances and wants Meg and Frank out.

'Gradually, all lifelines to the town have been cut.'

What services have you lost, what's been turned off by the council?

We've lost our power, through the grid, power grid.

We now have to provide our own water, rubbish collection,

street lighting, road maintenance, we've lost our postal services,

police, the only thing we haven't really lost is our communication.

And the other thing you haven't lost is each other.

Cos two of you quite a formidable partnership.

We will never lose each other, despite any adversity,

we will never lose each other.

In actual fact this has made us all the more resilient and the more determined.

We're just not bloody well going.

And Mr Government can't kick us out,

because it's freehold country.

It's our country, it's our home.

-Otherwise, we'll have to get Pilbara law going.

-Pilbara law?

We don't talk about Pilbara law.

-Meg's trying to stop you there, what could that be?

-Pilbara law?

What have you done to these people?

Are we going to drive down the road and find bodies hanging from trees?

No, we will deal to them as they deal to us.

If they steal our gear, we will steal some of their gear.

Not their life of course,

but we might break a leg or an arm you know,

just teach 'em a lesson of some sort,

but I'm not saying that we would.

-No, no of course not - perish the thought.

-That would be terrible.

'Meg and Frank are a tough outback couple determined to stay right where they are.'

Is it a long way?

'But there's not much of the town left to stay for. It's been pulled down around them.

'Even their local church has gone.'

So just around here, in this area, was where you got married?

Yes, come over here, love.

-You were standing that side of me.

-Yes.

-I want you to come over here.

Because when we were getting married we were so nervous,

I had to put the ring on Frank's finger and instead of getting this hand,

I lent across and tried to push it on this finger.

And it wouldn't go on the knuckle and I'm thinking "what have I done wrong?"

And Frank said "Here, give it to me,"

and he pulled it out of my hand and put it on this finger himself.

This is where we were standing, arm in arm.

I find it sad and I think you two are amazing to have been able to put up with it.

-It's more than a lot of people could face.

-If you let it get to you, it destroys you more.

It makes you bitter and you get ill from the stress.

We knew it had to go so yeah, that's it, let it go.

'Asbestos can be deadly, and I can understand why the authorities

'might want to get the residents out and bury Wittenoom.

But I think the state government might have met its match in two of the most extraordinary

characters I've met on my journey around Capricorn.

'The next morning, I hitched a ride in one of the world's biggest trucks.

'It's called a road train - this 50 metre giant costs half a million pounds, and today it's

'carrying 120,000 litres of fuel towards the Tropic of Capricorn and the town of Newman.

'Graham Wilcox, owner of the Capricorn Roadhouse,

'the local petrol station, was giving me a lift.

'He's making a small fortune out of the extraordinary resource boom gripping the area.'

Can you just explain to me what's this resource boom, what is happening in this resource boom?

It's all the minerals in the ground in this area,

it's all the iron ore that goes to make steel and countries

like China and India that are starting to lead the world market.

They need the resources to make the steel and we've got the iron ore that makes it.

Ten years ago there were 6 mines in this area, now there's 18.

So they say China's going to go for another eight years and then India will be online

and go for another ten years after that, so the resource boom for Australia is looking good.

Just up ahead

is a sign by the side of the road that says Tropic of Capricorn.

-Ahh fantastic, I feel we have to...

-HORN BLARES

We're on the line.

Well, thank you very much indeed for that ride, Graham.

Hope you enjoyed your trip down to Capricorn in a road train.

We're here, we're back on Capricorn.

Fantastic!

'Newman, the town at the heart of the resources boom.

'Workers are flooding here from all over Australia to make a quick buck.'

Well, you can see they are bringing in houses on the back of trucks now

cos there's such a need for accommodation in this town

to try and cope with all the influx of new workers.

'And this is what the boom is all about.

'Mount Whaleback is the world's largest iron ore mine.

It's more than three miles long and a mile wide.

Each year, they dig up 22 million tonnes of iron ore to send to Asia

to make steel to feed the world economy.

People from across the country are packing in office jobs and coming

here to drive huge mining trucks for huge pay packets.

Justin Edwards is one of them.

What brought you here?

Money.

-In a nutshell.

-In a nutshell, money.

-What were you doing before you came here?

-Bricklaying, then I tried to

get out of the physical work side of things and get into suit jobs, I did sales and then I became

a recruitment consultant for a bit, but yeah, it didn't suit me, I'm not a suit person at all.

You're originally from Melbourne. How did you hear about Newman?

I actually had a mate who I worked in sales with five years ago.

I didn't hear about Newman until

half way through January this year and by end of February I was here, just to try it out.

-As quickly as that.

-Since we've been here, it was originally was just going to be me

and a partner for two years, but we can't see us leaving in short term, might turn into five or six years,

cos it's just so cruisey and better lifestyle too.

Justin drives the monster of all dump trucks.

In a country where wages are lower than in the UK workers here can earn £50-75,000 a year.

This is your truck.

It is, this is mine, for today.

Before we start we have to walk around the truck for damage. So we walk under here.

You walk under the truck?!

The engine, all the way along there. Oil leaks and things like that.

'These beasts, when full, weigh in at nearly 400 tonnes,

'the same as a fully laden jumbo jet.

'I left Justin to go and work his shift and headed down to the railway yard.'

In front of us just here is the end or front of a huge train.

Trains from here are the longest, heaviest in the world.

'Trains leave the mine every day each filled with around 26,000 tonnes of iron ore.'

This iron ore down here is going to be sent to the coast, put on boats,

taken to China and turned into consumer goods that China is pumping out at this ferocious rate.

It's extraordinary, really, cos this is globalisation,

this is what is feeding this great Chinese economy that's emerged in the last few years,

these raw materials coming out of ground here in Australia.

'As the train headed off north, I continued my journey east.

'I followed Capricorn into another country-sized chunk of Australia the Northern Territory.

'We flew to Alice Springs in the baking centre of the continent.

'Around 600 miles from the nearest beach, this is the centre of the outback.

'Alice is home to more than 24,000 Aussies living the desert life in air-conditioned comfort.

'As we explored the town I came across a refuge for one of the country's most famous residents.'

Just spotted on the other side of the road, this Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre.

Well, I've got to have a look.

'Joeys orphaned on the roads around Alice are cared for by Chris Barns,

'outback man turned surrogate kangaroo mum.'

What are the names of these two?

This little one here's Tilly Grace and this one's Amy.

So one little girl is about five-and-a-half to six months,

this one six-and-a-half to seven months at a guess.

Once you've got them in a pouch and you hold them to your body,

the breathing and the warmth of your body,

that motion of the body, calms them down.

If you don't have them in the bag, they're gonna kick you in the face!

I've got to ask.

Can I hold one next to my little beating chest?

Certainly, mate.

I'll pass Amy on to you.

-Just make sure she doesn't kiss you.

-Does she often try that?

She can do, she does with me and my partner cos we're mum

and baby kangas take a lot of saliva from their mum's mouth.

How far does your devotion go?

We take it all the way.

I've given up my job now, I don't work any more, other than running the kangaroo rescue centre

to talk with travellers. That's the whole idea.

Trying to educate people to the fact that a dead animal out here is not

just a dead animal, could have a baby still alive in its pouch.

-So check the pouch.

-Check the pouch.

'Kangaroos have an unfortunate habit of jumping out in front of cars.

'We'd been warned against driving at night because of the high chance we'd hit one.

Chris takes in about 80 Joeys a year, hand-rearing them to 16 months

until they're ready to go back to the bush.

Alice Springs is becoming famous as an important centre for Aboriginal paintings and culture.

Aboriginal people have been here for tens of thousands of years and their

extraordinary artwork adorns gallery walls around the town.

The paintings are internationally prized, with price tags to match.

This is number eight. So this is about £11,000.

OK, 12's not too bad -

it's still costly about £1,500.

This is about £4,000,

About £3,000.

Number 52,

well, it is fantastic, but that is about £20,000.

'The paintings tell ancient stories of the first people of this land,

'but the recent history of the Aboriginals is perhaps the darkest aspect of this country.

'And at the moment Aboriginal people are at the centre of the biggest controversies in Australia.

'I needed a guide to take me out into the Aboriginal heartland, traditionally closed to outsiders.'

Hello. Hello.

Just come to meet up with a guy called Vince,

who's a respected member of the Aboriginal community.

-Don't know who this is. Good morning, Vince.

-How you going?

I'm all right. Hello. Simon.

-Welcome, Simon.

-Nice to meet ya.

Welcome.

-Welcome.

-Is this what they call a swag?

-Yes.

-That is the swag!

-That's the swag.

It's my precious's swag. Can Daddy use your swag?

This has got your name on it, eh?

Can daddy use your swag. Daddy gonna go bush. Yep?

All right, then. Daddy can use your swag.

You always travel with your bed, hey?

-Very sensible.

-You can lose everything except your swag.

As long as you've got that and a glass of water, you can survive.

Vince Forrester, an artist and Aboriginal elder, agreed to take me to visit some remote communities.

He lives an integrated life with his wife in Alice Springs, and campaigns hard for Aboriginal rights.

And he hasn't lost touch with the outback traditions.

On the way out of Alice he thought he'd spotted something in the undergrowth.

You see him?

He was about that long.

What were you looking for, Vince?

-I was looking for a...

-An iguana?

-A lizard about this long

and when you see one, you can hypnotise him.

-You can do what?

-You can hypnotise him. When he walks along you say the word "ullbaloo"

and he turns his head that way... so you can hit him.

Is it good eating?

Awww, white meat, like chicken, mm-hmm, yeah.

A lot gamier, of course, and not as tender as a chicken.

'We were too late for any hypnotism, the lizard had got away.

'But Vince took the opportunity to stock up on a bit of bush medicine.'

When you have a wound that won't stop bleeding,

you put this in the hot ash of the fire and then you run

the smoke over the wound. This will congeal the blood

and it'll stop bleeding. They've also got antiseptic in it.

-Antiseptic as well?

-And this one here,

you can cook like beans in the hot ash of the fire.

These little seeds.

So this is my supermarket and pharmacy all in one.

'While they still maintain some of the traditions of their hunter-gatherer past,

'most Aboriginals were forced or encouraged to live in permanent settlements decades ago.

'We travelled to Titjikala, a community of about 200 people just south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

'On the outskirts of town we spotted someone who'd been a bit quicker

'than Vince at catching a bush tucker meal.'

-Where did you get it?

-Not far from home.

It took off to climb up a tree.

So you had to climb up the tree after him?

-No.

-You waited?

I just stunned him with an axe.

-And this was today or yesterday?

-Today.

-Today.

So it's a fresh kill, some fresh lizard ready to be cooked just over here.

You'll cook it on the coals after putting the sand on top of it?

'Ever since white settlers arrived in Australia more than 200 years ago

'the indigenous people have been marginalised.

'Alcoholism, poverty, violence and poor healthcare means the life expectancy of

'Aboriginal people is now nearly 20 years less than white Australians.

'But I have arrived in the Northern Territory during a critical period in Aboriginal history.

'A recent government report has revealed that

'some Aboriginal settlements were rife with child abuse and suffering.

'A national emergency has been declared, and a powerful army-backed

'taskforce has descended on Aboriginal communities.

'So I've come here, in the middle of a dust storm,

'to meet the head of the taskforce, Major General Dave Chalmers.'

This intervention is as a result of a study done into

child abuse in remote communities.

The intervention is primarily designed to protect children.

There are many measures we have to take and these are measures to increase the level of policing,

to reduce the amount of alcohol that's coming into communities,

to break the cycle of violence in communities.

The report said alcohol abuse was fuelling widespread violence.

So the taskforce is entering aboriginal communities to restore law and order.

Government has tried many programmes in the past to address these issues.

The difference now is that, for first time, mainstream Australia

has really understood that we have people living in third world conditions of poverty in Australia.

Can you understand why remote communities like this might feel

intimidated, given the history of white and Aboriginal relationships,

when you turn up in your combat fatigues, can you understand how that's intimidating for them?

Sure, but I'm not a scary guy and most people, when I talk to them,

then we get past that and get over that, I'd say for example...

Let's just shelter over here, I think, between the cars cos the dust is gonna get out of control.

If you look about you'll see that there are government officials

from the department of employment and workplace relations, Centrelink, our welfare organisation,

from the department of education, so there's no army invasion.

After decades when the authorities left Aboriginal communities to run their own affairs,

the government has now re-taken command of dozens of settlements across the Northern Territory.

Alcohol and pornography have been banned.

The taskforce is even taking control of how Aboriginal people spend their benefit money.

Some settlements have welcomed promises of improved healthcare and new police patrols

and there's no question that domestic violence has plagued many Aboriginal communities.

To get to one of the communities at the very centre of the controversy,

I headed south of Capricorn towards one of the most important indigenous sites in the country.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock.

-Wow!

-Yeah, what a sight.

It's just a wow sight, isn't it?

It is this country's most famous natural icon, an image used to promote Australia around the world.

Yet just a few hundred metres from the rock is Mutitjulu,

an aboriginal community in the spotlight for violence and abuse.

It's Vince's hometown.

My community that I belong to is Mutitjulu, just there.

It's a third or even a fourth world community in this rich country.

Them things didn't happen overnight.

-It took decades to create the poverty.

-What about the problems of sexual abuse?

At the present time,

we're being demonised in our own land.

Demonised. Not every man bashes his wife,

not every man is a drunk, not every man is a paedophile.

They're saying that's what we do in our culture.

That's rubbish, that's lies, that's demonising, that's racism at its best.

'Vince believes the problems in aboriginal communities

'are caused by the appalling conditions people are living in.'

If the Australian knew the truth...

..they'd be shocked.

Hang on a minute, the conditions of the community,

that's neglect from the government so they're blaming the victim.

Vince invited me into Mutitjulu, a community normally closed by law to outsiders.

The people here own Uluru and receive a rent for its inclusion in a national park.

But within sight of the great rock, the poverty and squalor was shocking.

Alleged child abuse in Mutitjulu was said to be one of the main reasons for the formation of the taskforce.

Yet in the months since officials first appeared here, no-one has been charged with sexual abuse.

It's something that confuses Dorothea Randall, the secretary of the local Aboriginal Council.

Why was this community targeted so intensively by the task force?

Well, that's a good question cos none of us in the community

really understand that, because we don't know what we've done wrong.

Have you been told what the taskforce is trying to achieve here,

what they're planning to do, or what their goal is?

There's no communication between the government and community people

and that's what's really frustrating

to individual people.

We're going past these houses here.

-Are people living in them at the moment?

-No.

Housing is very crucial here because we do have an overcrowding problem.

They need to be debolished or refurnished.

Money is filtered down but, by the time it gets down to the community, there is never enough.

On the other side of the rock

tourists got everything

and people living on this side of the rock got nothing.

One of the most striking things about Mutitjulu is the rubbish.

The situation here is desperate, but I was puzzled why people

haven't done more to improve conditions for themselves.

It's as though the decades of deprivation

have sent many Aboriginal people into a spiral of self-destruction.

The conditions are bloody shocking.

Any person can see that,

but this hasn't happened overnight, we've got to understand that.

-It still seems hard to understand why this community is in the state it is.

-Mm-hm.

Well, oppression and all that sort of thing.

-Oppression.

-And overcrowding of houses and all this type of thing.

These houses, you've got 20 people in one house.

-20 people?

-In one house, yeah. You'll see.

I'd love to know what you feel, Vince...

Ahh, my country...my country has just been...

Look at the bloody rubbish.

It would take nothing to clean this up but now,

since the invasion happened, what's going on?

People are dropping the bundle and all that type of thing.

-Dropped the bundle, what, they've lost civic respect?

-Hope, yeah.

The taskforce says it wants to help communities and improve conditions and services.

But the problems affecting Aboriginal settlements have deep, dark roots.

That evening, the mood on the other side of the rock couldn't be more of a contrast.

Each year, up to 500,000 tourists come to see Uluru.

Hundreds of millions of years old,

it is one of the most impressive natural sites on the planet.

Well, there are coaches pulling in here all the time,

loaded with wealthy tourists who are here obviously to see this incredible sight.

You can hardly begrudge people

the experience of a lifetime, coming to see Uluru,

but...

it does feel weird to have come straight out of the community

which is, what, 10 minutes away down the road? And the conditions they've got there.

And then to see people having this much fun.

It does jar.

The tourist industry makes millions here every year,

but Vince's community, to whom this rock is so sacred,

seem to get little benefit.

After the visitors have gone, we sat down to watch the sunset.

Daytime, the tourist industry own Uluru.

Nighttime it belongs to me.

I sit out, recharge my battery.

We have stories of the land.

I don't know how many ancestors of mine have walked through this sand

I'm putting my hand through now, I don't know how many generations.

Do you object to the tourists coming here?

If only we can benefit from the tourist industry,

but in equal partnerships.

They call that one Ayers Rock.

Who's Ayers? I got "ayers" on the back of my bum.

If we can show...

the world our land, let us participate, hey?

Let us show it.

I came here...

I've been very excited coming to Uluru, seeing Uluru,

and then you see how people are living just around it.

I don't think it's going to change...

very quickly any time soon.

It was time to move on, leaving the Northern Territory and following the Tropic east to the Sunshine State.

Queensland is famous for its rainforests and tropical coastline.

But I was travelling through its parched interior.

The town of Longreach sits right on the Tropic of Capricorn,

and there's even a monument to mark it.

It's not particularly big, but there you go, Tropic of Capricorn,

a line running across here.

Temperate zone here,

a little bit chilly.

On this side, the torrid zone, scorching.

This is the planet turned on its side. This is north, this is south.

This line here is the equator, this is the Tropic of Cancer,

and this is the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere.

You've got the sun

up here at the top.

But this really explains what it is.

The Tropic of Capricorn marks the southern boundary of the Tropics region of our planet.

Longreach is famous throughout Australia as the home of the stockman.

This is cowboy country, where the hats are big and farms are even bigger.

But the future could be bleak for these stockmen,

as they face up to a crisis that may one day affect us all.

I drove south to visit a local farm to find out more.

It was three hours away, just a short hop by Australian standards.

The nearby hamlet is called Stonehenge, but this is far from green and pleasant Salisbury plain.

The area is the centre of a modern-day dust-bowl.

This is about as desolate as the planet can get.

You look to the right, there's not a single tree or bush to the horizon.

I was in the middle of the Big Dry,

a harsh drought that has gripped vast areas of Australia.

For miles I had been crossing a farm called Eldwick, but the weather appeared to be on the turn.

Looks as though that's rain.

Whether it's enough to end the drought, I doubt it.

It's a bit of an oasis here.

And here we are, this is Eldwick.

Hello!

Hi, I'm Simon.

-I'm Donna.

-Lovely to meet you, and this must be Peter.

Hello, Peter. Simon.

Nice to meet you. How are you?

-So you found us, eh?

-Found you, yes.

Eldwick is a farm, or station, about half the size of Greater London.

The population's a little smaller though.

Just Donna and Peter Batt and a whole load of sheep and cows.

They've been farming here for 19 years,

and it seemed I might have brought a very welcome present with me.

We've just got here,

and I can just feel a couple of little drips.

Little bit, little bit.

This is what they say about the English, they bring the rain with them.

If you can bring a couple of inches, that would be excellent.

-You'd welcome that, wouldn't you?

-Yeah.

'Sadly, the clouds were teasing us.

'After a few moments of a few drips, the rain was gone.'

That is a parched land.

I'm just wondering if you find it

-a bit depressing?

-Well, yes, just willing those clouds to bring us some rain.

I do look out and think, "Why do I live here?" Yeah, you do.

On the best years, when you've had enough rain, what do you see out here?

Beautiful, lush.

The ground's just covered in grass.

When it's green and when it hays off it's that lovely yellow.

We get magnificent wildflowers.

It's just something you wouldn't believe, it's beautiful.

And how many years is it since you've seen that?

-Seven.

-Seven years?

-Yep.

-Seven dry years.

Seven dry years, yep.

'Seven years into the Big Dry, they're still struggling to farm this land.

'With the green grass gone, there's little for the animals to eat,

'so I headed out with Peter to feed his cows.'

Maybe it's just my eyes, but they are looking

at you or us and licking their lips.

That's it!

They know what we're bringing.

COWS MOO

Right, Simon, shovel some in there.

You'll have lots of friends, they'll like you.

Here you go, ladies.

Every time I come up here I tell them it's going to rain next week, I think they still believe me!

-You tell them that every time?

-Yep!

Poor girls.

Some people will attribute this to

climate change, the global warming. What's your view?

Ah well, bloody hell, Simon, I don't know.

The jury is still out, I think.

I mean, what does it mean to you out here?

Well, better go and pack our port.

-If that's the case.

-You think it would be the end?

I'm certainly not giving in yet, by no means, but if the rain is going to stop, we stop, don't we?

Have you said to each other as a couple, if we have another summer, another year with no rain,

we're going to have to think seriously about leaving.

Have you set yourself a target at all?

Another summer without rain, I don't know. Yeah, don't know.

We don't want to leave, we love living here, but...

economics will drive us away, won't it. We live in hope

that it will stay green, as it is!

Australians have been among the world's worst emitters of greenhouse gas per head of population,

and Australia may be the first developed country experiencing the effects of global climate change.

But it's not just a problem for Australia, the Big Dry has helped push up world food prices.

That evening, some of Peter and Donna's neighbours popped round for dinner.

Next door is 60 miles away.

Jim Nunn has been farming there for 24 years.

What do you think about the scientists who think the Big Dry is global warming?

Nah, nah.

Well, look at it this way. The world has been here for millions of years.

It's not going to die in my lifetime, surely.

Sometimes nature works quite quickly.

No, I reckon it's a cycle.

I have not given in.

It's a cycle.

You're pinning your hopes on this.

Yeah, what else can you do?

-Otherwise just throw the towel in and what?

What then?

So you carry on.

Carry on. That's it, carry on.

I don't...I'm not going to chuck the towel in yet, I'm going to hang

in here till they give me some rain, they'll give in.

They'll give in upstairs.

They'll give me my 40 inches they owe me.

-They'll give in before you do, basically.

-They will.

-Well, let's hope for that.

Optimism is clearly vital in the Outback.

But scientists predict that over the next few decades,

Australia's droughts will get significantly worse.

If that's the case, this land will only get hotter and drier.

The life of a farmer is tough,

and the next morning Peter dragged me out of bed at dawn.

Peter, I haven't ridden a motorbike for years.

I can't even remember what you do.

What have you done to it, Simon?

-Let me have a look.

-Let the expert get on.

ENGINE SPUTTERS

What did you do?

You were talking to it the wrong way.

I'll give you talking to it!

The farm covers almost 300 square miles and Peter's animals can be a long distance from his front door.

It was a 20-minute ride to where sheep needed moving to a different field.

So why are you moving them?

Into a paddock that has got some grass in it. Not much, but some.

-Grass?!

-It's not green grass.

Can it be(?)

We're going to put these sheep into here. This is your last lot of sheep

that are going into your last paddock that's got the last bit of grass

on your whole land.

Pretty well. That'd be about it, Simon.

How big is this paddock?

That paddock we're putting in is 16,000 acres.

That's just colossal.

Trying to save it for... Yeah.

-For a rainy day?

-That's it.

-Or the opposite of.

-Yeah.

Save it for an un-rainy day.

You're always smiling and you tell a few jokes about it, but this is crunch time, isn't it?

Well, I suppose it is really.

But it's going to rain. I'm sure it is.

THEY LAUGH

There's no green pasture, but Peter hopes the 25-square mile paddock

will keep his sheep fed for a few weeks more.

Well done, Simon, well done!

Once this is gone, that's it.

He either sells the stock or starts the expensive job of buying in feed.

Where to, Peter?

On the way back we passed the reservoir that supplies their farm house.

So this is the dam for your house, or is supposed to be.

House supply, yeah. House supply, it is.

There's not a lot in there, is there?

No, it's had it.

When I hear the facts, it sounds pretty bad to me.

But nothing is ever easy out in the Outback, on the land here, is it?

-It's a pretty easy life, it is.

-It's an easy life?!

-Yeah.

Oh, come on!

You've got 40-degree heat here!

But that's... Big deal.

Bring it on!

There's a lot easier ways of making a living as well.

Ah, yeah, yes and no.

Pain in the arse when it doesn't rain, but that's part of the deal

-of where we're living!

-Let's go and get some brekkie.

Righto!

Throughout their history, the Aussies have been brilliant

at adapting to the tough conditions of the outback.

If the warnings about climate change prove true,

it's a skill they're going to need.

After breakfast, I left Peter and Donna and got back on the road.

The last stage of my journey, a drive

east along the Capricorn Highway for hundreds of miles.

Leaving the heat and the dust of the outback, I headed for the warm, tropical waters of the coast.

I was leaving the dust bowl behind,

but I couldn't escape the whole issue of climate change.

In this part of Australia they're shipping out huge quantities of coal.

What a graphic illustration.

We've got a train coming back empty and another one going out full.

But then just a few hours to the west of here, the environment is changing.

These trains wind their way to an industrial coastline,

home to one of the largest aluminium plants in the world.

To find out more about how climate change might be affecting Australia,

I headed east, away from the mainland.

As the world warms, out here is one of our early warning systems.

We're aiming for a tiny patch of land called Heron Island.

It's home to one of the pre-eminent marine research centres in the world.

It's slap bang next to Capricorn, and it's also at the southern end of

perhaps Australia's greatest natural attraction, the Great Barrier Reef.

This is a tropical paradise.

The waters teem with a multitude of colourful fish and exotic sea life.

And this tiny dot of an island, less than a mile long, is home to up to 100,000 birds.

But just what does the future hold for this stunning ecosystem?

Heron Island Research Station.

Hello?!

-Are you Doctor Ward?

-Hi, I'm Selina.

Hello, Selina. Simon Reeve. Nice to meet you.

What hellish conditions that you live and work in(!)

-Hard, isn't it?

-How do you cope?!

-We manage, just.

-Just about.

Marine biologist Dr Selina Ward is part of a team researching the impact of climate change on coral.

She took me out for a walk on the reef flats.

This is a sea cucumber. Beautiful things.

-So soft.

-Isn't it?

-What exactly is it?

-It's a sea...

See it's spitting out that sticky tentacle?

We don't really want it to do that!

-So it shoots out superglue as a form of defence?

-Yes, because they can't escape at high speed!

-No.

-Another trick they have is that if something is about to try and

eat it, it can spit out its entire digestive system and leave it behind

in the hope that the predator will eat just that bit and be satisfied and let it get away.

How does something evolve to do that?

Who knows?

Selina, we know that coral is very susceptible to changes in climate and its environment.

How do the changes manifest themselves? Is there something we can see?

The main change if you have...

warmer than usual water temperature is that the corals will, what we call, bleach.

So, if we look at this piece...

See this branch is really pale, these branches are really pale.

If we turn it over, this is the colour we'd expect it to be.

Hmmm.

I've heard coral described as the canary in the coal mine.

It offers us a warning.

Yes. In 1998 we lost 16% of the world's corals in one bleaching event.

-16%?

-Yes.

You have no doubt that this is down to temperature change?

I have no doubt at all. I'm convinced of that.

I can't think of any coral scientists who wouldn't make that statement, not a single one.

If we want coral reefs for future generations, we have to act quickly.

We have to reduce emissions globally, and we have to reduce them a great deal.

We're seeing big bleaching events with, so far, a small increase in temperature.

I don't think we can say, well, we'll aim for a three-degree increase

this century, or even a two-degree increase this century.

If we do have that as our aim, we're aiming to lose these environments.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is predicting catastrophic mortality

for the Great Barrier Reef before the end of this century, unless climate change can be slowed.

I crossed this vast continent expecting to find

insular communities isolated from the rest of the world.

But the issues I've seen here don't speak of isolation.

Their resonance is global.

I've really enjoyed travelling across Australia.

It's an amazing country, and the people,

to a person, have been welcoming and generous with their time.

I can only hope we have as much excitement

on the next leg of our trip, as we head east to South America.

Next time on Tropic of Capricorn - I'll be crossing the driest desert

in the world and the high Andes mountains.

I'll be trying to round up some of the shyest animals on the planet.

Can you please stand still?!

And visiting one of the world's most anarchic border towns.

It's crazy here!

To find out more about the journey, visit our website.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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