0:00:02 > 0:00:06For over two centuries, a remarkable collection of Scots
0:00:06 > 0:00:10blazed a trail into unknown corners of the world.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13Their epic journeys in the harshest of conditions
0:00:13 > 0:00:18helped forge nations and draw the maps of three continents.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24From the frozen wastes of Canada to the unseen heart of Africa
0:00:24 > 0:00:28and across the rolling oceans to the parched deserts of Australia,
0:00:28 > 0:00:33Scottish explorers have been at the forefront of expanding the frontiers
0:00:33 > 0:00:36of the world in which we live.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40This is the story of the Scottish discovery of our world.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53NEWSREEL: Today, seven million Australians celebrate with pride
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and thanksgiving the mighty growth of the seed
0:00:56 > 0:00:58planted less than five generations ago.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02In 1938, Australia celebrated its 150th birthday.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05The story of the arrival of Captain Cook
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and Captain Phillip, of the First Fleet
0:01:08 > 0:01:11first-footing an empty continent in the southern ocean,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14was by then a well known one.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21But behind the pageantry and backslapping
0:01:21 > 0:01:26was an unspoken truth - that the country called Australia
0:01:26 > 0:01:29was only just within the grasp of its white rulers.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31NEWSREEL: "A white man arrives..."
0:01:31 > 0:01:34A mere 80 years before these celebrations,
0:01:34 > 0:01:39no white man had even seen the centre of the continent.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Parts of the continent remained blank spaces on the map.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46Australians were celebrating the birth of a country they barely knew.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50People are still scared by this country.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Australia's a hard place - it won't give easily,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56because it's so old, so worn down
0:01:56 > 0:02:01and you have to know it really, really well to survive in it.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Lachlan Macquarie, from Ulva near Mull,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21became governor of New South Wales in 1809.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23The young colony was not in good shape.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27The life of the convicts in early Australia
0:02:27 > 0:02:31was nasty, brutish and short.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34People who have convict ancestors today will say,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37"Oh, no, they were all sent out for stealing a loaf of bread."
0:02:37 > 0:02:38This is rubbish.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Most of them were fairly crooked people
0:02:40 > 0:02:45and they were thrown on very harsh times and they had to survive.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48So, yes, there was a lot of nastiness going on,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50not only from the convicts -
0:02:50 > 0:02:54the soldiery were equally lecherous and evil.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59The corruption and vice offended Macquarie's staunch Presbyterianism.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02He immediately disbanded the local police force
0:03:02 > 0:03:05and replaced them with his own soldiers.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09He would rule New South Wales as a benevolent dictator.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12He was the first military army governor.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15There was always this tension going on between the armed forces
0:03:15 > 0:03:18who were supposed to control what was going on
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and the governor who was supposed to make the rules about what went on.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25Once Macquarie was here, there wasn't that tension,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27that was taken out of the equation,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31and so the governor was able to make decisions and force things to happen.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36And Macquarie had a vision for his dusty, unruly colony.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40He thought it could become a nation, populated by free men and women,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43paying its way within the British Empire.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Macquarie had a big repair job to do in the first instance
0:03:46 > 0:03:50and then moved on to develop the colony
0:03:50 > 0:03:53like no other governor before him had been able to.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Macquarie believed Australia needed more of three things -
0:03:59 > 0:04:01more free people, more buildings
0:04:01 > 0:04:05and more land...much more land.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07The first two were relatively easy.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Macquarie encouraged the rehabilitation of convicts
0:04:10 > 0:04:14and employed many of them in powerful positions.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17He was quite good at locating convicts
0:04:17 > 0:04:20who had something to offer the colony.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24An outstanding example is Francis Greenway the architect,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27who was very useful in many of the building projects.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Macquarie saw the need to build a proper nation
0:04:41 > 0:04:44and while there were people who said, "He's getting above himself,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48"this is too good, we just want slab huts,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50"that's good enough for the colonials,"
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Macquarie was building for a greater future.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58But if Macquarie's vision were to be realised,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02if New South Wales were to flourish, the people who lived there
0:05:02 > 0:05:05were going to have to move beyond their little strip of coast.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Sydney is hemmed in by the Blue Mountains to the west
0:05:17 > 0:05:19and the ocean to the east.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23When Macquarie arrived, Australia effectively stopped
0:05:23 > 0:05:27only a few miles from the water's edge.
0:05:27 > 0:05:28For 25 years, the Blue Mountains,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30the great dividing range west of Sydney,
0:05:30 > 0:05:34stopped anyone getting over to the arable lands
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and the good water on the other side.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Once we had a way across,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43suddenly the whole colony could expand massively
0:05:43 > 0:05:45and go in all directions, but people had to map it out,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47find where the good land was
0:05:47 > 0:05:50and Macquarie was the one to send people out to do that.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56Millions of acres of unmapped land sat on Macquarie's doorstep.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58If the land could be claimed and tamed,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00then the prison could become a nation.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04But to unlock that land, Macquarie would need explorers.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12North of Sydney is the city of Brisbane.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15200 years ago, this tropical paradise
0:06:15 > 0:06:18was the site of the Morton Bay penal colony.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Its commander was Captain Patrick Logan
0:06:20 > 0:06:22from Berwickshire.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Patrick Logan, like a lot of Scots,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33found an outlet for limited employment in Scotland
0:06:33 > 0:06:35by joining the army or the colonial service
0:06:35 > 0:06:39and he was certainly a zealous commandant
0:06:39 > 0:06:42of the Morton Bay convict establishment.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Logan was a harsh, unforgiving jailer.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52He had none of Macquarie's enlightened attitude to his convicts,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55who frequently suffered hundreds of lashes as punishment.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58So hated was Logan
0:06:58 > 0:07:02that he soon acquired the nickname The Tyrant of Brisbane Town.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06But Logan was also a compulsive explorer,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09sharing Macquarie's belief in opening up the country.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11He charted local rivers
0:07:11 > 0:07:13and travelled across a range of mountains
0:07:13 > 0:07:15he named the McPherson Range.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20When he ascended Mount Barney in 1827,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Logan had climbed higher than any white man on the continent.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Step by step, he was increasing European knowledge
0:07:28 > 0:07:31of the land west of Morton Bay.
0:07:31 > 0:07:32But this kind of exploration
0:07:32 > 0:07:36inevitably brought Europeans like Logan into contact
0:07:36 > 0:07:38with Australia's Aboriginal people.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45The result was a clash of two very different civilisations.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48The first instinct of Aboriginal people in seeing Europeans,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52because of all the gear, the paraphernalia,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55the boats and things like that, there was an element of fear
0:07:55 > 0:07:58and a bit of aggression as well,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00as has been documented time and time again.
0:08:00 > 0:08:06But a lot of the time, they wanted Europeans to take their pants off.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10You know, "Who are you? Oh, you're a man." They wanted to know that.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14It might have seemed funny to the explorer.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16For Aboriginal people, it was deadly serious.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19"We need to know who you are, what sex you are
0:08:19 > 0:08:21"and where you've come from."
0:08:21 > 0:08:25So the whole meeting between Aboriginal people
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and Europeans was generally completely misunderstood.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Craig Ross is an Aboriginal land owner from central Australia.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37The experience of his ancestors
0:08:37 > 0:08:41in meeting European explorers for the first time was typical.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45When our great grandmother, when she was a little girl
0:08:45 > 0:08:47and seen them people coming here, most of the time
0:08:47 > 0:08:53they seen them coming sitting on top of the bushes, in a sense, floating.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Might have been with no shirt on.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00And they're like, "What's this here, coming back? Mumoo,"
0:09:00 > 0:09:03you know, monster or spirit, you know, bad one,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05coming back to visit again.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08So it was a "run away" job!
0:09:08 > 0:09:13And the pale colour of European skin was not a good omen.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Death, in a way, is represented by white,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20so our people viewing the white skins of those visitors
0:09:20 > 0:09:24had some type of fear - fearing of returning spirits and so forth.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31In 1830, as Logan pushed inland,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35tensions with the local Aborigines were running high.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38On several occasions, Logan's party was confronted
0:09:38 > 0:09:41and warned not to cross the river.
0:09:41 > 0:09:49Logan was a very strong commandant but he perhaps was too zealous
0:09:49 > 0:09:53and too lacking in care for his own safety.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Impatient with the slow progress,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Logan abandoned his travelling companions and pushed ahead alone.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04He was never seen alive again.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11A search party found his lifeless body buried in a shallow grave,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13his skull caved in.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20Logan is said to have been killed by Aboriginal people
0:10:20 > 0:10:22at the instigation of convicts.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25That's one theory.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Another theory is that perhaps runaway convicts
0:10:28 > 0:10:31in cahoots with Aboriginal people did the deed.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37Blame for Logan's death eventually fell on the local Aborigines.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Shock, fear and anger spread through white Australia.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46Logan's exploits had expanded their knowledge of their country,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50but his death crystallised the dangers of their new home.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Outside their small settlements and beyond the barricades,
0:10:54 > 0:10:59lurked a strange group of people they simply did not understand.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11But exploration need not always open the door on a terrifying world.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16Another Scottish explorer who looked beyond the city walls
0:11:16 > 0:11:19saw a land ripe for cultivation and settlement,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21a paradise beyond the Blue Mountains.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31Thomas Livingstone Mitchell
0:11:31 > 0:11:33from Grangemouth was the Scotsman
0:11:33 > 0:11:37whose surveys and maps opened the way for the settlement
0:11:37 > 0:11:40of much of South Eastern Australia.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43"Of this Eden, I was the first European to explore its mountains
0:11:43 > 0:11:46"and streams, to behold its scenery,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51"certain to become at no distant date of vast importance to a new people."
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Mitchell was a very dominant figure
0:12:00 > 0:12:03in the survey department and perhaps domineering.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08I think he's a man of enormous ambition.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11I don't think I'd like him as my boss on an expedition,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14but if I were travelling with the expedition and I didn't know much
0:12:14 > 0:12:16about the country, I would rather have him in charge,
0:12:16 > 0:12:21because he was going to get through it and he was going to survive.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Thomas Mitchell honed his surveying skills
0:12:24 > 0:12:27on the battlefields of the Peninsula War.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Mitchell spent a lot of his time behind enemy lines
0:12:29 > 0:12:31with a theodylite and a rifle
0:12:31 > 0:12:35and he did topographic surveys where Wellington's troops were to go.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37The type of surveying
0:12:37 > 0:12:40was what we call reconnaissance trigometrical surveying,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42where you climbed up the top of mountains
0:12:42 > 0:12:45and you observed other mountains and features down the valley,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49then you went to another mountain and you observed again
0:12:49 > 0:12:53and put them all together like a matrix of triangles.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55He put a lot of the country on the map
0:12:55 > 0:12:58in a way where others could then find their way through it,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00but a lot of it was finding routes.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03People think it was about going out and looking for stuff,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05but often it was just getting a way through,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08knowing this was a direction you could travel.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10The more Mitchell explored,
0:13:10 > 0:13:15the more he realised the immense potential of the land.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17"We were delighted with the prospect
0:13:17 > 0:13:20"of so favourable a country for extending..."
0:13:20 > 0:13:21"The soil of this last plain..."
0:13:21 > 0:13:24"Trees grew upon it in beautiful groups..."
0:13:24 > 0:13:27"The grass resembled a field of young wheat."
0:13:27 > 0:13:29"The scrub beyond was close
0:13:29 > 0:13:31"and consisted of a variety of dark leaves..."
0:13:31 > 0:13:34"The region beyond these mountains is beautiful
0:13:34 > 0:13:36"and it is sufficiently well watered
0:13:36 > 0:13:38"to become an important addition
0:13:38 > 0:13:41"to the pastoral capabilities of New South Wales."
0:13:42 > 0:13:48In 1831, only 12 months after the death of Patrick Logan,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Mitchell began an extraordinary series of expeditions
0:13:51 > 0:13:52into the Australian heartland,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55journeys which would transform Australian's knowledge
0:13:55 > 0:13:59of their own country and pave the way for the nation it would become.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08Today, Australian artist Eliza Tree is retracing Mitchell's steps,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10camping in the same sites that he did
0:14:10 > 0:14:13and re-imagining, through Mitchell's eyes,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15the way that Australia once was.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Well, I suppose when I discovered Mitchell's journal,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23I realised that it just contained so much information
0:14:23 > 0:14:25which I'm really intrigued with.
0:14:25 > 0:14:31When I found out that he had taken such a huge party of people with him
0:14:31 > 0:14:34and all that kind of thing, I just thought,
0:14:34 > 0:14:35"This is bigger than Ben Hur
0:14:35 > 0:14:38"and I need to find out what it's all about."
0:14:38 > 0:14:43They usually travelled between 10 and 16 miles a day,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48which was pretty well all they could manage with the oxen and drays.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53Mitchell himself would have covered vastly more country than that.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58He would have been up every hilltop, every valley.
0:14:58 > 0:14:59Beautiful country.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08Well, Mitchell at the time was the surveyor general of Sydney
0:15:08 > 0:15:11and this was what was known as the 19 counties
0:15:11 > 0:15:14which they'd spent quite a bit of time mapping
0:15:14 > 0:15:16and this was the outer limits of the settlement.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Mitchell had, in 1831, taken a journey up north.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26In 1835, he travelled out west but on his journey of 1836,
0:15:26 > 0:15:27which is my main focus,
0:15:27 > 0:15:32it was a 2,400 mile journey
0:15:32 > 0:15:34over eight or nine months.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It was extensive.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42So extensive, in fact, that Mitchell realised he would need help.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45He developed a profound appreciation of the bush ranging skills
0:15:45 > 0:15:47of the Aborigines.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49"Their shrewdness shines,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51"even through the medium of imperfect language,
0:15:51 > 0:15:56"and renders them, in general, very agreeable companions."
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Mitchell saw the great beauty of Aboriginal life.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03He saw the comfort, the happiness, the produce,
0:16:03 > 0:16:09the health and he was enamoured of those things
0:16:09 > 0:16:13and so many other fellow explorers and settlers,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16they went out of their way to demean Aboriginal people.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Mitchell pushed further and further
0:16:19 > 0:16:23into the heart of South-Eastern Australia.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27In March 1836, disregarding orders to return home,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31he set off on what is regarded as his most significant journey -
0:16:31 > 0:16:36the Australia Felix - or Happy Australia Expedition.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Mitchell had instruction to look around for any good pasture land
0:16:47 > 0:16:52and pasture land was very important in those days because sheep
0:16:52 > 0:16:57came into their own as a primary earner of money in Australia.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01In South-West Victoria, Mitchell uncovered a region
0:17:01 > 0:17:05of rich agricultural land that reminded him of home.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09The land is dotted with familiar names.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14To follow these place names today is to follow Mitchell's route.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21He discovered very valuable pastureland
0:17:21 > 0:17:24and he made his name through that in many ways.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27You don't make your name as being a surveyor - you make your name
0:17:27 > 0:17:30being an explorer and discovering things that people appreciate.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Mitchell's Australia Felix expedition
0:17:37 > 0:17:40confirmed Lachlan Macquarie's belief
0:17:40 > 0:17:45that the land beyond the cities would be the foundation of a new nation.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49But Mitchell could also see the ancient way of life he so admired
0:17:49 > 0:17:51was under threat.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53"The kangaroo disappears from cattle runs
0:17:53 > 0:17:57"and is killed by stockman merely for the sake of its skin
0:17:57 > 0:18:00"but no mercy is shown to the natives who may help themselves
0:18:00 > 0:18:03"to a bullock or a sheep.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06"Such a state of things must infallibly lead to the extirpation
0:18:06 > 0:18:10"of the Aboriginal natives unless timely measures are taken
0:18:10 > 0:18:13"for their civilisation and protection."
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Every time you got on a horse
0:18:18 > 0:18:24and rode into new country, they knew that within days,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27sometimes hours, there were other men following these footsteps.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The reports of Mitchell's discoveries in South-West Victoria
0:18:37 > 0:18:40were a clarion call.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43His expeditions were the first footsteps in a frantic process
0:18:43 > 0:18:45which would see large parts of Victoria
0:18:45 > 0:18:50become populated by like-minded Scottish pioneers.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Well, the 1830s was a period of rapid expansion of settlement
0:18:54 > 0:18:58because of the development of the wool industry.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04You've got huge areas of land being opened up extremely quickly
0:19:04 > 0:19:08because you needed vast areas of land to run sheep
0:19:08 > 0:19:13and a lot of the impetus behind exploration comes from that.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25On Bannockburn Road on the outskirts of the city of Geelong
0:19:25 > 0:19:30stands a blue-stone mansion house built in 1876.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Its owner was George Russell, a Fife-born sheep farmer.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Russell's descendants still live in the area today.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54When he ruminates on the past, he'd hoped to earn...
0:19:54 > 0:19:56something like £100 a year would be great -
0:19:56 > 0:19:59his own 30-40 acres,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03£100, a few heads of stock and things.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07I think the last published accounts for his personal assets
0:20:07 > 0:20:12was something like £280,000.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14That's money, plus the land he'd accumulated.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17I guess he'll be feeling pretty good about that.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20George Russell's journeys are an example of how the exploration
0:20:20 > 0:20:24of Australia could be the passport to riches,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27if you played your cards right.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30It just must have been overwhelming to have been somewhere
0:20:30 > 0:20:31so absolutely different.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34He talks when he goes back to Scotland about how constraining
0:20:34 > 0:20:36the view is in that it's all villages
0:20:36 > 0:20:39and wee little paddocks and hedgerows and everything's broken up.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42He said there's no vistas like there is in Australia
0:20:42 > 0:20:45where there are no fences and nothing to break the view.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48I think he was riveted by what he'd found.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55For Scots like Russell, Australia offered an escape
0:20:55 > 0:21:00from the hard scrabble, impoverished existence they had known at home.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03"The continuous hard work day after day caused me
0:21:03 > 0:21:07"to be too tired for improving myself to any extent.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11"My father was never in a position to put his sons on farms of their own,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14"which was one of their reasons for their settling in the colonies."
0:21:19 > 0:21:23When George Russell emigrated to Tasmania in 1831,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26he was typical of a new wave of Scottish pioneers.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Youthful and hard-working, educated but certainly not rich.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35The aristocracy didn't need to emigrate
0:21:35 > 0:21:37and the really poor people couldn't,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41so what you got was the upper-working class,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43the lower-middle class, predominantly,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47and they were very keen to get on
0:21:47 > 0:21:49but they had a keen sense of their own worth.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53"The principle which prevailed at the time
0:21:53 > 0:21:57"in the taking up of the country for occupation by early settlers
0:21:57 > 0:22:02"was that the person who was first on the ground had the prior claim to it.
0:22:02 > 0:22:03"The whole country was open."
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Russell boarded a schooner for Port Phillip Bay
0:22:08 > 0:22:11and headed out into the uncharted bush
0:22:11 > 0:22:13to claim as much land as he could.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Geelong, close to where Russell first landed,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19is now a pleasant modern city.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23But in 1836, it consisted of a few huts and some tents
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and George Russell wasn't the only pioneer
0:22:26 > 0:22:28landing livestock on the beach.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Russell watched as John Aiken, formerly of Edinburgh,
0:22:32 > 0:22:37unloaded his brig full of sheep onto the beaches at Port Phillip Bay.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41"Mr Aiken carried every sheep to shore from the boats himself,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44"wading up to his neck in the sea.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48"They continued to work day and night until all the sheep were landed -
0:22:48 > 0:22:50"I think about 800."
0:22:52 > 0:22:58He had to physically lift 800 sheep, he and the others,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02into the lifeboats and then push them or swim them in,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04I don't know how they got them to shore.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07It took all day and well into the night.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Absolutely extraordinary, I can't imagine how you'd do it.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15Physically, it would have been just a huge feat.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Russell found himself racing through the bush with livestock
0:23:19 > 0:23:20to grab land,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23leapfrogging the Scots who had already staked their claim
0:23:23 > 0:23:25closer to the bay.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27As he did so, he was pushing into territory
0:23:27 > 0:23:30that no European had ever set foot in.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33This was the era of a different sort of exploration.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Not one made with the intention of taking survey reading
0:23:36 > 0:23:40with compass and sextant, but one solely motivated by land.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43The main thing now is to find good farming land
0:23:43 > 0:23:47and hopefully to get it and claim a big clump of it for yourself first.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49If you couldn't succeed in doing that,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51then you pretty well missed the boat.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55The land Russell eventually selected was ideal for farming
0:23:55 > 0:23:59and he set about building huts and erecting fences.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01His prospects looked good.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Out they went looking for good land, good water,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and then quickly as possible to grab as much of it as they could,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10get some stock, get it on the land so it was theirs.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14But Russell had travelled far beyond established colonial territory.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18He was, in the parlance of the day, a squatter.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Well, squatting simply means you squat on the land.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22You just go and occupy the land.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26But how did he accumulate 72,000 acres
0:24:26 > 0:24:30without anybody saying to him, "That's far too much land?" I don't know.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33It was really impossible to survey
0:24:33 > 0:24:37and those that got there first got the best land on the river.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41No man's land this may have been, but that didn't mean the government
0:24:41 > 0:24:44passed up a chance to make money from it.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48The land was put up for auction and, to add insult to injury,
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Russell was outbid for the country he had discovered and improved.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58So he simply upped sticks and moved further inland.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01This new country became the basis of a pastoral empire
0:25:01 > 0:25:05that eventually spanned 40 square miles -
0:25:05 > 0:25:08one tenth of the size of his native Fife.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12In the end, having got through all that and ended up owning his land
0:25:12 > 0:25:15and ending up with his big bank balance
0:25:15 > 0:25:18and his family and all of that around him, he must have felt pretty good.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23The journeys of George Russell were central to the expansion
0:25:23 > 0:25:26and taming of Victoria.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30His life is a fine example of the virtues of hard work,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32thrift and determination.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36But whilst he and his fellow Scottish settlers flourished,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38he noticed others were suffering.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43"After some years, the periodical visits I had received from
0:25:43 > 0:25:48"the parties of natives became less frequent and their parties smaller.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50"Great numbers of them
0:25:50 > 0:25:54"died from inflammation of the lungs brought on by severe colds.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58"The general opinion appears to be that the natives are destined
0:25:58 > 0:26:02"to become extinct as a race."
0:26:02 > 0:26:07As Scots and others became ever more successful explorers
0:26:07 > 0:26:10and ever more dedicated to building the Australian nation,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13the predicament of the people who had lived in this land
0:26:13 > 0:26:16for thousands of years grew worse day by day.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24The initial reaction of the Aboriginal people was,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27if someone enters your country you try to deal with them.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Your first instinct is not to kill
0:26:29 > 0:26:34but to make these people respond to the law of the land
0:26:34 > 0:26:36and you just expect that they will,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40because in 60,000 years that's all you've known.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Accompanying the arrival of white Australia
0:26:42 > 0:26:45was a whirlwind of violence.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47There was a war going on in the country
0:26:47 > 0:26:52and Aboriginal people were turning back Europeans all over Australia.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55In Victoria, in the western district,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Aboriginal people drove the early settlers out of the country
0:26:58 > 0:27:00back towards Melbourne.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04On the 9th June, 1838,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07the Aborigine people of Myall Creek in New South Wales
0:27:07 > 0:27:10were confronted by a band of frontiersmen
0:27:10 > 0:27:13intent on punishing Aborigines for rushing their cattle.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18The frontiersmen rounded up nearly 30 men, women and children.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Tied together they were led into the hills.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24There they were killed - their children were decapitated.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30There's not only brutality happens on the Australian frontier
0:27:30 > 0:27:33from time to time, there's actually depravity.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37There are just appalling things happening.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Depraved is the right word for it
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Even by the lawless standards of the frontier,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49the Myall Creek massacre was an outrage which could not be ignored.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54Seven frontiersmen were tried, found guilty and sentenced to death.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00In their defence, they claimed that killing Aborigines was so common they hadn't realised it was illegal.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06In all these places, it was possible to do things a bit differently
0:28:06 > 0:28:11and you probably didn't need to drive people
0:28:11 > 0:28:12off cliffs into the sea.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15You didn't need to round them up and shoot them in water holes.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20The events of Myall Creek left a profound impression
0:28:20 > 0:28:23on the settlers in nearby Victoria, many of them Scottish.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25The lesson was clear.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28If you were going to get into a fight with the Aborigines,
0:28:28 > 0:28:29best to keep quiet about it.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38To the east of Melbourne is a region called Gippsland. It is remote.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Cut off from the rest of the continent by the Snowy Mountains.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45Much of it today remains a wilderness.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Its discovery and mapping are largely down to one man -
0:28:52 > 0:28:56a Gaelic-speaking islander called Angus McMillan.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02In the 1830s, traditional Gaelic culture in the Highlands
0:29:02 > 0:29:04of Scotland was in decline.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07Estates were being cleared of tenant farmers
0:29:07 > 0:29:09to make way for profitable sheep.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12Poverty and hunger stalked the glens
0:29:12 > 0:29:16but many Presbyterian Highlanders saw this disaster
0:29:16 > 0:29:18as an opportunity to start again -
0:29:18 > 0:29:22to build a promised land on the other side of the world.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25There's a certain amount of imagery around the immigration
0:29:25 > 0:29:30of Highlanders that calls on biblical images of Exodus.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33That's not uncommon.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37You know, people who were in captivity
0:29:37 > 0:29:43and suffering under the Highland Clearances who were now reluctantly
0:29:43 > 0:29:47leaving their homeland but they're looking for a new promised land.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52Born in Skye and brought up on Barra, Angus McMillan
0:29:52 > 0:29:55sailed for Australia at the age of 28.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01An austere, religious young man, McMillan did not want to leave Scotland
0:30:01 > 0:30:03but he believed God had a plan for him.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06If Australia was to be his destiny, so be it.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12McMillan arrives in Australia with not much notion
0:30:12 > 0:30:17of what he's going to do but with letters of introduction to men of much more means,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20much more status and probably much more education.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29McMillan found work with Lachlan McAlister - a fellow islander
0:30:29 > 0:30:32and owner of huge tracts of land in New South Wales.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36But in 1839, a drought struck.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39McMillan, the determined and resourceful new man,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43was sent out to find new land to farm.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48McMillan pushed on into the endless bush,
0:30:48 > 0:30:50forcing his horse through forests,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54into gullies, around swamps and up mountain slopes.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59Finally, after weeks in the saddle, McMillan crashed through the trees -
0:30:59 > 0:31:01he was delighted with what he'd found.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10"It put me more in mind of the scenery of Scotland than any other country
0:31:10 > 0:31:13"I had hitherto seen and therefore,
0:31:13 > 0:31:19"I named it at that moment Caledonia Australis - Scotland of the South.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25"It was then I keenly felt I had a noble and glorious task to perform
0:31:25 > 0:31:30"and that I was only an instrument in the hands of the almighty.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33"This was land sufficient to feed all my starving countrymen."
0:31:37 > 0:31:41He's doing the Lord's will. He must be, it's manifest.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43Why else would he be here?
0:31:43 > 0:31:46Why would it be so good for cattle if it wasn't the Lord's will?
0:31:48 > 0:31:50But really, while he's thinking about the Lord's will,
0:31:50 > 0:31:55he also thinking how he, Angus McMillan, can grow fat.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59McMillan returned to Sydney
0:31:59 > 0:32:04and drove 500 of McAlister's cattle into the new territory.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08He claimed a property for himself twice the size of Barra,
0:32:08 > 0:32:10the island where he'd grown up.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15He was soon joined by others as an almost exclusively Gaelic community
0:32:15 > 0:32:17of cattlemen followed his path south.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21One of them was Robert Thompson.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24His great, great grandson Andrew is still there.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32There's about 550 in this mob. Enough to keep busy.
0:32:32 > 0:32:33Not enough to make money.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Because Macmillan was the main explorer,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41everyone knows everyone in your community
0:32:41 > 0:32:44so he's not going to give first heads up that there's good country
0:32:44 > 0:32:48down here to the Irish, to the Poms, to the Welsh or anyone else.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50It's all going to be, "Right, I'll get on the phone
0:32:50 > 0:32:54"and tell all my Scottish mates this is the promised land."
0:32:55 > 0:32:58"This is all good. There are acres and acres of grass,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01"you're going to be able to make a quid down here."
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Today, Andrew Thompson trades in a global market
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and farming is a tough business.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11But the greatest risk was taken by men like his great,
0:33:11 > 0:33:16great grandfather who followed in McMillan's footsteps 180 years ago.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19To come over those mountains with animals
0:33:19 > 0:33:22and not know what's at the other end... You break a leg up there,
0:33:22 > 0:33:29you got nothing. And to punt your whole life, your family's life
0:33:29 > 0:33:32and all future generations on something like that
0:33:32 > 0:33:36when you could have just sat at home and done nothing, that's fairly amazing.
0:33:36 > 0:33:42It's a real test of character and sign of strength,
0:33:42 > 0:33:43so it's kind of amazing to me.
0:33:46 > 0:33:53By the 1850s, Angus McMillan owned nearly 2,500 cattle, 9,000 sheep
0:33:53 > 0:33:57and had land stretching as far as the eye could see.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02The Presbyterian prophecy of a Gaelic promised land was fulfilled.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05The name Caledonia Australis didn't stick,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09but McMillan was quickly recognised as one of early Australia's
0:34:09 > 0:34:12most important explorers and agriculturalists.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19Among his many positions was protector of the local Aborigines.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26But on closer examination, this picture tells a different story.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30My skin crawls when I see that photograph.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34When I first saw it...
0:34:34 > 0:34:40I felt like vomiting, because it's so plain in the photograph
0:34:40 > 0:34:43that the two Aboriginal men have fear
0:34:43 > 0:34:46and revulsion in their eyes.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53In 1843, Aboriginal warriors ambushed
0:34:53 > 0:34:56and killed a prominent local white man.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59The Aborigines made one terrible mistake when they killed a man
0:34:59 > 0:35:03because he turned out to be the nephew of the number one man,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Lachlan McAllister, who financed McMillan's trips.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12In response, McMillan formed a posse of stockmen.
0:35:12 > 0:35:14He called them the Highland Brigade.
0:35:16 > 0:35:22Macmillan...got his fellows, the clans, organised
0:35:22 > 0:35:27and...he was of the opinion -
0:35:27 > 0:35:32and militarily, it makes for common sense -
0:35:32 > 0:35:37that you hit early and you hit hard and you solve the problem
0:35:37 > 0:35:42before the soft hearts get a chance to become involved.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49McMillan reminded his men what had happened at Myall Creek.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52Too much loose talk had alerted the authorities.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55The men pledged a pact of silence.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01The covenant held, for a time,
0:36:01 > 0:36:06but the terrible events of that day are no longer shrouded in silence.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10In 1925, an anonymous account appeared in a Melbourne newspaper.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15"The brigade coming up to the blacks camped around the water hole
0:36:15 > 0:36:17"at Warrigal Creek surrounded them
0:36:17 > 0:36:20"and fired into them, killing a great number.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28"Some escaped into the scrub, others jumped into the water hole
0:36:28 > 0:36:31"and as fast as they put their heads up for breath,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35"they were shot until the water was red with blood."
0:36:37 > 0:36:40Estimates of the number of Aborigines killed
0:36:40 > 0:36:43at Warrigal Creek range from 60 to 150.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50In the case of Angus McMillan, he and his Scottish friends seemed to
0:36:50 > 0:36:55have been especially savage in their reprisals.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59He was prepared to do anything to get what he wanted
0:36:59 > 0:37:03and he had no time for Aboriginal people at all.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09He held the Aboriginal people in contempt.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12I think his bible allowed him to do that.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18By the mid 1850s, when Angus McMillan's
0:37:18 > 0:37:22transformation from destitute cattlehand to a wealthy explorer
0:37:22 > 0:37:27was complete, there were barely 100 Aborigines left in all of Gippsland.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31When McMillan arrived, there had been 2,000.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37The grand irony is that a lot of these people who came
0:37:37 > 0:37:44and moved by force, or some other means, the Aboriginal people
0:37:44 > 0:37:48off the land had been themselves moved off.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52So I think that made them quite immune
0:37:52 > 0:37:55to any sentiment about moving the next lot.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59McMillan is the dark side of the Scottish exploration of Australia.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03The thirst for new land was all-consuming
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and even in one of the biggest countries in the world,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10for some Scots there was no room for anyone else.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17But by the mid-19th century, European knowledge of the size
0:38:17 > 0:38:20and nature of Australia was still limited.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23For all their achievements, Australians could not truly
0:38:23 > 0:38:26regard themselves as masters of the continent
0:38:26 > 0:38:28until they knew what lay at its heart.
0:38:36 > 0:38:42In October 1860, a small, thin, bearded man arrived in Adelaide.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47A crowd of people, including newspaper reporters, had gathered to meet him.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49He looked half dead.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53He told them he'd been to the centre of Australia and back.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58Like a man today claiming he'd walked on Mars, his tale defied credibility.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04The national library in Sydney has a tiny leather-bound notebook
0:39:04 > 0:39:07and a series of hand-drawn charts.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09These are the original field journals and maps
0:39:09 > 0:39:12of Australia's greatest inland explorer.
0:39:12 > 0:39:18Obsessive, one would say. Neat in his expeditions.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23In his personal life, I think you'd describe him as chaotic.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24THEY LAUGH
0:39:24 > 0:39:28He certainly wasn't a dandy.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33John McDouall Stuart from Dysart in Fife
0:39:33 > 0:39:36was not only a brilliant explorer -
0:39:36 > 0:39:39he was the epitome of the Australian spirit.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43His battles with this harsh land and with his own personal demons
0:39:43 > 0:39:48combined to create a compelling, flawed, yet heroic figure.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53He was, in the words of one historian, "A very big little man."
0:39:53 > 0:39:55There's lots in his character
0:39:55 > 0:39:58and his personality that appeals to Australians today
0:39:58 > 0:40:03because he was tough and he was successful and he was resourceful.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07He didn't consume a lot of people's efforts.
0:40:07 > 0:40:08He could do it alone,
0:40:08 > 0:40:14a lot of it, and that's sort of the great Australian spirit that we all aspire to.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Stuart's early prospects were not good.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22Orphaned at the age of ten, he was too short for the military
0:40:22 > 0:40:24and mumbled too much to be a minister.
0:40:25 > 0:40:31When he washed up in Adelaide in 1839, he was only 23 years old.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34What's surprising about Stuart is how quickly
0:40:34 > 0:40:37he adapted to the Australian landscape.
0:40:37 > 0:40:43Within a few years, he was going deep into the fringes of civilisation,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47producing maps for pastoralists who were looking for land.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50He was able to survive in quite arid country, leading just a few
0:40:50 > 0:40:52horses and two or three helpers.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56But after returning from the punishing harshness
0:40:56 > 0:41:01of the outback, Stuart routinely headed straight for the pub.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03He did love a drink, there's no doubt about that.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05So when he got to town, he had a few.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13After five years in the colony, Stuart had no money and no fixed abode.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18But in 1844, he was accepted as part of explorer Charles Sturt's
0:41:18 > 0:41:21expedition into the centre of Australia.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24It was the job that changed his life.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29Sturt was looking for a legendary inland sea believed to be
0:41:29 > 0:41:31in the centre of the continent.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36All societies had their dreams of the paradise,
0:41:36 > 0:41:42and in Australia, that dream was of an inland sea.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45That is that the rivers flowing from the east
0:41:45 > 0:41:48and the west must go somewhere,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52because navigators had never found an Amazon or a Nile coming out
0:41:52 > 0:41:57into the ocean. Therefore, there must be a huge pond in the middle.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01This was enhanced by indigenous people
0:42:01 > 0:42:05relating stories of a watery paradise
0:42:05 > 0:42:10surrounded by flocks of kangaroos and emus and a place where
0:42:10 > 0:42:14there were no white men but there was lots of food and birds to eat.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19It doesn't exist and it never did.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31Sturt found no inland sea.
0:42:31 > 0:42:36Instead, his expedition encountered the full harshness of the Australian climate
0:42:36 > 0:42:40and the further he went, the drier and more brutal it became.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43Sturt wrote in his journal that,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46"Nothing can exceed the dreadful nature
0:42:46 > 0:42:48"of the country we have entered."
0:42:48 > 0:42:52The first thing is the physical hardship. In patches,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56the scrub can be really tough and impenetrable, so that means the horses
0:42:56 > 0:42:59don't go through it easily, so you've got to force them or get off them
0:42:59 > 0:43:02and lead them and that can be really hard. But that's almost the easiest.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05What's harder is the lack of water and
0:43:05 > 0:43:08if you haven't got a drink from sun up to sun down, it's kind of tough.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Sturt's expedition was a failure
0:43:11 > 0:43:15and he brought back to Adelaide the appalling prospect
0:43:15 > 0:43:19that the interior of the country was one gigantic desert.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24But for John McDouall Stuart, the experience was a formative one.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28He had come face to face with the worst the outback had to offer
0:43:28 > 0:43:32and survived, and he learned some valuable lessons
0:43:32 > 0:43:34about how to navigate the interior.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39What Stuart probably learns from Sturt is that there might be
0:43:39 > 0:43:41another way to do it.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45You don't have to take oxen and boats and water wagons and travel
0:43:45 > 0:43:49quite as well provisioned and you could move more quickly, perhaps.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Stuart devised a new way of travelling,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55one specifically adapted to the outback.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59The way he did it was he'd get to a landmark
0:43:59 > 0:44:03and he'd look ahead for water and a route,
0:44:03 > 0:44:05so he'd use his telescope
0:44:05 > 0:44:08and probably his binoculars to pick a point,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10and you head straight for it.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Now, you can't do that with wagons all the time,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15and flocks of sheep and oxen and all the rest of it.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17It's too long and it's too slow.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19So he got this new pattern of travel from point to point,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22and it's very mobile and very quick.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27Stuart's journal is all about finding water -
0:44:27 > 0:44:32if he couldn't find water, he was doomed.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34He was accomplished at it.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36He would climb the highest mountain
0:44:36 > 0:44:40and look perhaps for a dip in the land and head that way.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44He knew the birds that would assemble at evening near water
0:44:44 > 0:44:46such as finches and pigeons.
0:44:46 > 0:44:53He would dig in the bed of dry rivers and after a metre or two down
0:44:53 > 0:44:56he normally found something to drink there.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59And Stuart was canny enough to pick the brains of the people
0:44:59 > 0:45:03who had long ago worked out how to live in this land.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Water is the most precious resource to us.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10Those first guys that came to us, our people seen them perishing
0:45:10 > 0:45:14and really struggling and thought, like, "Poor bugger,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17"maybe we should give them a hand". So we did.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21Stuart's mastery of the outback
0:45:21 > 0:45:25alerted Adelaide businessman James Chambers.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29He wanted to expand his cattle empire beyond the frontier.
0:45:29 > 0:45:36Between 1858 and 1859, Stuart set out on a series of ambitious expeditions,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38sponsored by Chambers.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Each journey took him further into the interior
0:45:41 > 0:45:43than any other European before him.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Stuart was mapping a pristine landscape
0:45:46 > 0:45:48for James Chambers' cattle.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53His success changed forever this part of Australia.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57The next lot of people that came back, there was a little bit more,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00so there had to be a little bit more water here.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05Then a mob after that came back with a cow and a horse,
0:46:05 > 0:46:11possibly a couple of sheep, so there was more water being used.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15It got to the point where sometimes there was not even enough for us.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20And Stuart had grander ambitions than just seeking out good agricultural land.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24There's no doubt that Stuart saw himself on a quest
0:46:24 > 0:46:30and that is to be the first European to cross the Australian continent from south to north.
0:46:33 > 0:46:38In 1860, Stuart set out for a fourth time,
0:46:38 > 0:46:40heading for the centre of Australia.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44His party consisted of three people including himself.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46Under provisioned, under equipped,
0:46:46 > 0:46:50under resourced in terms of horse flesh, man power.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54Travelling via springs and water holes
0:46:54 > 0:46:57he'd identified on his previous expeditions,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Stuart and his two companions made their way north.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05He was a hard taskmaster.
0:47:05 > 0:47:11He set by example, and if they had to ride a long distance,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15say 20 miles in a day, that would be what he did,
0:47:15 > 0:47:16with steely determination,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19and you'd better keep up because you'd be left behind.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Every day, pretty much, they're crossing a new frontier
0:47:23 > 0:47:25of toughness, and it might be environment,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29and it might be lack of water, and then finally it's lack of food.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32He keeps on halving his rations, so he gets a bit further north
0:47:32 > 0:47:36and, "Oh, I'm not going to make it back, we'll halve them again."
0:47:36 > 0:47:39It was really tough - beyond any modern comprehension of tough.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41Just way beyond.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50Six weeks after their departure, Stuart left his tent
0:47:50 > 0:47:54and took his daily readings of the sun to calculate their position.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58"Today I find from my observations of the sun -
0:47:58 > 0:48:03"111 degrees, zero minutes 30 seconds -
0:48:03 > 0:48:07"that I am now camped in the centre of Australia."
0:48:10 > 0:48:15Ascending the nearest peak, Stuart marked the momentous moment.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18"I built a large cone of stones, in the centre of which
0:48:18 > 0:48:22"I placed a pole with a British flag nailed to it,
0:48:22 > 0:48:24"then gave three hearty cheers."
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Stuart decided to push north
0:48:28 > 0:48:34to complete the crossing of the continent, but as the land beneath his feet dried up, doubt crept in.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39"We are expecting every moment to come upon a gum creek,
0:48:39 > 0:48:41"but hope is disappointed.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46"How far this country may continue is impossible to tell.
0:48:46 > 0:48:51"It is very alluring, and apt to lead the traveller into serious mistakes.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53"I wish I had turned back earlier,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57"but I am almost afraid I have allowed myself to come too far."
0:48:58 > 0:49:02As Stuart inched towards the north coast, the landscape changed,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05and so did the native people he encountered.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07"I heard the voice of a native.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10"He made the sign that natives generally do
0:49:10 > 0:49:14"if wanting something to eat, and pointed towards me.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17"Whether he meant to ask if I was hungry,
0:49:17 > 0:49:22"or to suggest that I should make a very good supper for him, I do not know."
0:49:22 > 0:49:27The days passed, and Stuart and his men realised they were being followed.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30At night, fires lit the horizon.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34When those people were observing those new explorers,
0:49:34 > 0:49:39it was a way to signify that you're not alone and you're being watched,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43and that's the same thing what happens as an Aboriginal person
0:49:43 > 0:49:46at that same time going into another's area.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50It's also signifying danger.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52"Suddenly, from behind some scrub,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55"upstarted three, tall, powerful fellows,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59"fully armed, having a number of boomerangs, waddies and spears.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03"In a few minutes, their numbers had increased to upward of 30.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08"We received a shower of boomerangs accompanied by a fearful yell.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10"They then set fire to the grass."
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Stuart named the place of the skirmish Attack Creek.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18Why the attack occurred on this particular location
0:50:18 > 0:50:21is not quite clear.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25It could well be that it was a dispute about water,
0:50:25 > 0:50:30because Stuart had been taking his number of horses from water hole
0:50:30 > 0:50:33to water hole and emptying them,
0:50:33 > 0:50:38and it's also extremely likely that he had crossed sacred ground.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41The attack shook Stuart and his men. Their rations were running low.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44They were experiencing the first signs of scurvy,
0:50:44 > 0:50:46and, with no sign of rain,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49they risked death should they continue into the unknown.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Reluctantly, Stuart decided to head for home.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56"It would be madness and folly to attempt more.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58"If my own life were the only sacrifice,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01"I would willingly risk it to accomplish my purpose,
0:51:01 > 0:51:04"but it seems I am destined to be disappointed."
0:51:06 > 0:51:10And so he says that, "Because of my manpower, my lack of supplies,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12"because we're so far from anywhere
0:51:12 > 0:51:16"and because of the Aboriginal situation, I'm going to retreat."
0:51:17 > 0:51:20Stuart returned to Adelaide a hero.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23It's internationally hugely important,
0:51:23 > 0:51:28because, at that time, geography and travels
0:51:28 > 0:51:31were very much the popular press of the day
0:51:31 > 0:51:35and the great unknown was what's in the centre of Australia.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43Today, tourists can complete the journey from Adelaide to the centre in a matter of hours.
0:51:43 > 0:51:48The railway tracks run close to the route originally mapped by Stuart.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58But Stuart, so confident in the outback, did not enjoy his new fame.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02He retreated to Adelaide's pubs and, at a dinner given in his honour,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06was so nervous that someone else had to deliver his speech.
0:52:07 > 0:52:12He was an isolate. He preferred his own company,
0:52:12 > 0:52:16the isolation of the Australian bush.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20He preferred being in a bush tavern drinking
0:52:20 > 0:52:23than high society in Adelaide.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29In response to Stuart's success, the state of Victoria decided to send an expedition north
0:52:29 > 0:52:33to complete the crossing of the continent -
0:52:33 > 0:52:36the last great prize of Australian exploration.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40The Victorian exploring exhibition is completely different
0:52:40 > 0:52:43because it's funded by a very wealthy colony, Victoria,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46and they took everything, including the kitchen sink
0:52:46 > 0:52:49and the dining room table, and they were very well equipped -
0:52:49 > 0:52:53perhaps the best equipped expedition in Australia ever.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58The expedition was led by Irish policeman Robert O'Hara Burke.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03It consisted of 27 camels, two dozen horses,
0:53:03 > 0:53:08six wagons carrying food for two years, and six tonnes of firewood.
0:53:08 > 0:53:13The Burke expedition is a case study in how not to do things.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17They had tables, they had desks, they had huge amounts of stuff,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20most of which never made it out of Victoria,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24including the lime juice, which would have been quite good,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27because scurvy in the end was what undid the whole expedition.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34Burke is a joke. He was useless in the bush.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36He couldn't fend for himself,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40he couldn't eat, and when Aboriginal people gave him food
0:53:40 > 0:53:43and water, he shot over their head because he was afraid of them.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Burke's expedition never made it across the continent.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53Instead, he vanished into the interior and was never seen alive again.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00Despite Burke's death,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03the goal of crossing Australia was closer than ever.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07Stuart resolved to make one last attempt to cross the continent.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14And by now, the Australian interior was John McDouall Stuart's true home.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18He understood its dangers. He embraced its silence.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22He knew its landmarks - he had discovered and named many of them.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32Finally, after seven months of trekking
0:54:32 > 0:54:38and a lifetime of trying, the sound of the sea confirmed his triumph.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42"I came upon a broad valley covered in long grass.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45"From this, I can hear the wash of the sea."
0:54:46 > 0:54:49"I advanced a few yards onto the beach, and was gratified
0:54:49 > 0:54:54"and delighted to behold... the ocean."
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Stuart turned back towards Adelaide almost immediately,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04however, within days, his iron will and indomitable constitution began to fade.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09Ulcers blistered his mouth. Sharp shooting pains wracked his chest.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13His eyes, blasted by the glare of the desert sun for so many years,
0:55:13 > 0:55:15blurred and faded.
0:55:16 > 0:55:21"I am in the grasp of death - a cold clammy perspiration
0:55:21 > 0:55:25"with a tremulous motion creeping over my body during the night.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29"Everything near me has the smell of decaying mortality.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34"My limbs so weak and painful that I am obliged to be carried about.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38"My body reduced to that of a living skeleton.
0:55:38 > 0:55:44"My strength an infantile weakness. A sad wreck of my former days."
0:55:45 > 0:55:49At the end of his sixth expedition,
0:55:49 > 0:55:53Stuart was really a mental and physical wreck.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57He had to be carried back all the way
0:55:57 > 0:55:59from the northern part of Australia to Adelaide.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03It took Stuart six months to reach Adelaide.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07His greatest achievement had nearly killed him.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10But his crossing of the continent has had a profound legacy.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15The way he went is the way we still go.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19In other words, the route he used became the stepping stone
0:56:19 > 0:56:21for all the European development.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25And Stuart's notebooks provided the route map for the telegraph line
0:56:25 > 0:56:27that linked Australia to the rest of the world.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36But whilst John McDouall Stuart may have conquered Australia,
0:56:36 > 0:56:40Australia had perhaps also conquered him.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44He had his moment of fame, he was celebrated,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48but once in the town he began to drink heavily.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53It's almost as if he'd achieved what he wanted to out of life
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and had nothing to replace it.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00When he was aged 50, he died,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04and only seven people attended his funeral.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06And most of those were strangers
0:57:06 > 0:57:10who had come along to pay their respects to this great man.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25Modern Australia has many fathers.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28People from every corner of the globe
0:57:28 > 0:57:31have made this country what it is today,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35but the mark of Scottish explorers on Australia has been profound.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Resourceful, tough, successful.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48They're forming this Australian character.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53It didn't matter how you were born or what you were,
0:57:53 > 0:57:56these Scottish travellers, explorers,
0:57:56 > 0:58:00simply went out and got on with it and did what they wanted to do
0:58:00 > 0:58:02because they wanted to get on in life.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05And in opening this country to European eyes,
0:58:05 > 0:58:09Scottish explorers have helped make Australia what it is today.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16Because of where they came from in Scotland being a fairly hard
0:58:16 > 0:58:19country itself, they were probably set up better to handle it
0:58:19 > 0:58:22than a lot of other nations that came here,
0:58:22 > 0:58:24because Scotland's a tough bit of dirt, you know,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27and Australia's a tough bit of dirt.
0:58:47 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:51 > 0:58:54Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk