0:00:02 > 0:00:04BBC Four Collections,
0:00:04 > 0:00:07specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09For this collection, Sir David Attenborough
0:00:09 > 0:00:13has chosen documentaries from the start of his career.
0:00:13 > 0:00:14More programmes on this theme
0:00:14 > 0:00:18and other BBC Four Collections are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59DIDGERIDOO PLAYS
0:00:59 > 0:01:04PERCUSSIVE STICKS
0:01:04 > 0:01:07ABORIGINAL SINGING
0:01:25 > 0:01:27If you like the wide open spaces,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30if you want to get away from it all, well, this is the place to be -
0:01:30 > 0:01:33in the middle of the Northern Territory of Australia.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36This highway here - the bitumen, as they call it -
0:01:36 > 0:01:41links Alice Springs in the centre of Australia 600 miles that way
0:01:41 > 0:01:45with Darwin on the north coast, which is 400 miles that way.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48And in the entire 1,000 miles of highway,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52which is longer than the length of the entire British Isles,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55there are perhaps three or four settlements
0:01:55 > 0:01:58that can compare in size with a large English village.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00In-between, a few hamlets
0:02:00 > 0:02:05consisting of no more than a petrol pump, a store and a place to sleep.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08That's lonely enough, but if you REALLY want to be lonely
0:02:08 > 0:02:11then turn off the bitumen, down a road like this.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16Down here, you travel for 250 miles and you see nothing.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21No settlement, no store, no house, no human being,
0:02:21 > 0:02:23not even a source of fresh water.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26If you break down, you don't go and walk for help
0:02:26 > 0:02:29because there's nowhere to walk to and you would die of thirst.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34No, you just settle down beside your car and prepare for a long wait
0:02:34 > 0:02:36until a car may come by, perhaps a week,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and you prepare too to drink the water of your radiator.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45We set off down this road a fortnight ago
0:02:45 > 0:02:48and we took with us an extra five gallons of oil,
0:02:48 > 0:02:5420 gallons of petrol, 25 gallons of water and food for a week.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56The road is flat and straight.
0:02:56 > 0:02:57You can drive for 20 miles
0:02:57 > 0:03:00without having to move the wheel more than a few inches.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03The worst hazard is dust.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12A fine talc-like powder lies over the road in drifts so deep
0:03:12 > 0:03:17that it conceals boulders and potholes big enough to break an axle.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21It swirls behind you and filters into the car, covering everything.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24It sticks in your hair and clogs your eyes and your mouth.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27It was unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as the thought
0:03:27 > 0:03:30that if the car broke down and we couldn't repair it,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32we would be marooned in this wilderness for days
0:03:32 > 0:03:36and maybe weeks until a passing car could take a message for help.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43After 250 miles of emptiness, this was the first building we saw.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45This is Borroloola Hotel.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54HARSH BIRD CALL
0:04:05 > 0:04:09Once, there was enough room here for 20 guests.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Perhaps the accommodation, even at its best, was never very comfortable.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16But at least they would have got shade from the sun
0:04:16 > 0:04:18and shelter from the dust storms.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21A horseman reaching Borroloola might have travelled for days
0:04:21 > 0:04:24with little to moisten his mouth but tepid water from a water hole
0:04:24 > 0:04:26green with scum.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29Here, he could've got a decent drink.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Here, once, he would have found company
0:04:33 > 0:04:37after days without seeing another human face.
0:04:37 > 0:04:43Now the only sound is the wind creaking in the corrugated iron roof.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48A wind that has already blown down much of the place.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51From the look of it, another gale will be sufficient
0:04:51 > 0:04:53to demolish the whole rickety construction.
0:04:55 > 0:04:5950 years ago, Borroloola was quite a large settlement.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01A base from which prospectors and cattlemen
0:05:01 > 0:05:05set off into the largely unexplored Northern Territory.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07It stood on the banks of the McArthur River,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09up which sailed ships laden with stores
0:05:09 > 0:05:13having made the thousand-mile voyage round the coast from Darwin.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Pioneering cattlemen bringing up herds
0:05:18 > 0:05:22to establish new stations in the territory came through Borroloola
0:05:22 > 0:05:25because there was good fresh water by the river.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Here, the drovers stopped and drank the hotel dry.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32If there was a white flag flying above the pub
0:05:32 > 0:05:33then all the drinks were free,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36for it meant that one of Borroloola's citizens had become a father.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40At the turn of the century, Borroloola had two hotels,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44five stores and a permanent population of over 50 Europeans.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49Even more remarkable, there was a library here of nearly 3,000 books.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52The government sent up surveyors to lay out squares and terraces,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and divide the desert into building plots.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Borroloola seemed certain to grow into a big and prosperous town.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04But somehow, for some reason, it never happened.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Out in the desert, boreholes were drilled for water
0:06:07 > 0:06:09and it was no longer essential
0:06:09 > 0:06:12for the cattle to come by way of Borroloola.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15New roads were driven through the parched bush
0:06:15 > 0:06:18and traffic up the river dwindled.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22The ox wagons, waiting at Borroloola to take the ships' cargoes
0:06:22 > 0:06:26and haul them out to the cattle stations, waited in vain.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28One by one, they rotted
0:06:28 > 0:06:32until nothing remained of them but the iron hoops of their wheels.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36In the 1920s and '30s,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39a few cars came roaring and rattling across the desert,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41driven by enterprising prospectors.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Some managed to return to civilisation,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47but others coughed their way as far as Borroloola
0:06:47 > 0:06:50and then stopped for good.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53There was no-one here to tackle a major repair.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Already, business at the hotel had shrivelled to almost nothing.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03White ants chewed their way through the entire library.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Only one volume survives.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10The Imitation Of Christ by Thomas Akempis.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Its title page is still easily legible.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17But, inside, the termites have eaten most of the holy man's words.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Although gold had been found close by, the claim petered out
0:07:23 > 0:07:27and the machinery, brought in with enormous labour to sort the ore,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30was abandoned to rust.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33Up in the hot hills, the last of the full-time prospectors
0:07:33 > 0:07:37sitting alone, shot himself.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42Life ebbed away from Borroloola. But it never entirely left it.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46For some, the town was more attractive as a dead shell
0:07:46 > 0:07:49than it would have been had it grown and flourished.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52The last keeper of the hotel never left it.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55He's an Irishman and his name is Jack Mulholland.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Jack, what brought you first to Borroloola?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03I heard it was a good place, nice country.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09Plenty of water holes and springs and ducks and geese... Nice climate.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11And did you settle down in the place then?
0:08:11 > 0:08:15No, no. I stopped one night here, joined the library up here
0:08:15 > 0:08:18and put in about three or four months' reading.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Did you? What did you read?
0:08:20 > 0:08:23All those books in the lib... Not them all, but quite a few of them.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25- What sort of thing? - Oh, well,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29it had almost a complete set of WW Jacobs, and I like Jacobs.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32- Oh, yeah? - And I read all those.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34What else?
0:08:34 > 0:08:36And also various other books. I've forgotten them now.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38I remember reading one medical book.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40- Did you? - After I'd read the medical book,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I reckoned I suffered with every disease known to man.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44HE LAUGHS
0:08:44 > 0:08:47I liked the place while I was here.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Then I had this offer to manage this public house here, which I did.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54I took it up and came over this way.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Was that a full-time job?
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Well, yes. You had to be here all the time.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02- Yeah. I mean, was it a busy job? - Definitely no, no. No.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05You got plenty of time to sleep, plenty of time to read,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07plenty of time to eat.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10How many guests do you reckon you would get at any one time?
0:09:12 > 0:09:15At one time, oh, never more than one, and I don't think there'd be more
0:09:15 > 0:09:21than about four or five all the time I've been here while it was a hotel.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23What? Do you mean at any one time?
0:09:23 > 0:09:25Or four or five guests at all?
0:09:25 > 0:09:27- At all. - What, total?
0:09:27 > 0:09:29- Total. - No wonder it closed.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Jack, what do you reckon keeps a man in this country?
0:09:32 > 0:09:35It must be a pretty lonely sort of life.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Oh, no. That all depends.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41I've never been lonely in my life.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44There's always been so much in life,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47I could never honestly say I was lonely.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50I've lived for years on my own in the desert,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54haven't seen anyone for months, but I've never been lonely.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58The trees are company and the birds and all the rest of it.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01You've made a lot of sacrifices to live here.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Which one would you like to take back, as it were?
0:10:07 > 0:10:13Well, I can't honestly think of any sacrifice that I regret...making.
0:10:13 > 0:10:14Hmm.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18No, I honestly can't think...
0:10:18 > 0:10:20You must miss... You must miss people?
0:10:20 > 0:10:22Oh, no, no. I don't miss people.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Oh, no.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Or the company of drinking companions or beautiful women?
0:10:30 > 0:10:33No, I don't miss beautiful women.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Women never made much impression on me.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39- No? - No.
0:10:39 > 0:10:40What's wrong with them?
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Oh, I consider they're very deceitful, they're liars
0:10:44 > 0:10:46and they're totally without principle whatsoever.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48But they're lovely to look at.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50I admire them and I like looking at them.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53It sounds as though you might have come out here
0:10:53 > 0:10:54for the classical reason
0:10:54 > 0:10:57of an unhappy encounter with a beautiful woman, Jack.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Oh, no. No. Definitely no.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01You just never had any use for them?
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Oh, I wouldn't say I wouldn't have any use for them.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Oh, no. I like them...very much.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11But, er, as far as...
0:11:11 > 0:11:16as, er, devoting my life to any particular woman,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18no, definitely no.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Jack, how do you fill your days?
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Well, most of the time I'm in the bush.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Got an old truck there,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31I make periodic visits out into the scrub, prospecting and...
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Prospecting? What are you looking for?
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Well, I'm supposed to be looking for copper or gold, silver and lead,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42something like that, but I'm looking for contentment mostly.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45- For contentment? - Yeah.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Of course, the prospector wouldn't admit that.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51But most of them are doing just that very thing, looking for contentment.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56- Do they find it? - I think they do.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58- Do you find it? - I find it, yes.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02I'm still the same as I was when I was 25,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04I like to see what's over the next hill.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09Yeah. And that's a reward for life in itself?
0:12:09 > 0:12:12- I consider it is, yes. - Yes.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Have you ever found any diamonds or gold or...?
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Oh, yes. I've found a little bit.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20I've found a little bit of opal, a little bit of gold.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22I've found copper.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Have you ever exploited it?
0:12:24 > 0:12:29No. I've sent samples away, parcels away, but never did any good.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Which is typical of most prospectors.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34DAVID LAUGHS
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Well, isn't that pretty disappointing?
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Oh, no. No, it would break a man's heart if he DID discover anything.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43What would there be to live for? Nothing.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46- Truly? - Well, there's nothing in life.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49If you've a lot of money, what good's money to you?
0:12:49 > 0:12:51Well, it can make life comfortable, easy.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Yes, well, what are you going to do, drink it?
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Give it away to women, something like that?
0:12:56 > 0:13:01Buy a few motorcars? A yacht or two? Something like that?
0:13:01 > 0:13:03No. I can see nothing in that.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05You must have a need for SOME money?
0:13:05 > 0:13:07- What do you do? - Yes, you have to.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10This life makes it necessary to have a few pound.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Well, I, er, get it where I can.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Scalping dogs and crocodile hides and...
0:13:19 > 0:13:20DAVID LAUGHS
0:13:20 > 0:13:26But...that way you get enough pounds to sort of buy, what, flour?
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Flour and tobacco is the main things.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30Flour, tea, sugar, tobacco - that's the main things.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Ammunition, of course.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35You don't work over-hard at it?
0:13:35 > 0:13:41Oh, you work... I work MORE the way I'm living now, I work harder
0:13:41 > 0:13:45than the present day fella in this country works
0:13:45 > 0:13:47to get his £25 and £30 a week.
0:13:49 > 0:13:50You spend a fair amount of time
0:13:50 > 0:13:52sitting and thinking, don't you, Jack?
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Oh, I do a lot of thinking at times,
0:13:54 > 0:14:01but when you've got to walk 20 miles a day prospecting, that's work.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Would you describe yourself as a happy, contented man?
0:14:04 > 0:14:05I should say so.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08- The gods have been very good to me. - Yeah.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10I consider myself a remarkable fella.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Why remarkable?
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Well, I'm reasonably happy and contented.
0:14:15 > 0:14:16Yeah?
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Well, there are not many people
0:14:18 > 0:14:21who can sit down and say that they're happy and contented.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Oh, yes, well, of course, there's a screw loose somewhere.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26- Yeah. - Definitely a screw loose.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31'Jack's old truck is a 1928 model.
0:14:31 > 0:14:32'When we first saw it,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36'there was a large nest of white ants in the middle of the engine,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39'but Jack assured us that it was only a moment's work
0:14:39 > 0:14:41'to get it into running order.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44'It had no electric starter, nor even a crank handle,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47'but Jack had his own method of starting it.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50'The rear axle has been jacked up and the engine is in gear.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56'To have suggested to Jack that it might not go
0:14:56 > 0:15:00'would have been extremely tactless and have offended him deeply.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02'But I must admit I had my doubts.'
0:15:02 > 0:15:04- Nearly. - Nearly, but not quite.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13ENGINE SPLUTTERS
0:15:16 > 0:15:19ENGINE ROARS
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Jack rather prides himself on making his own roads.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44And when the engine is going sweetly,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46he never misses an opportunity
0:15:46 > 0:15:50of knocking down a few trees to improve one of his tracks.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07CLUNKING
0:16:12 > 0:16:16People in the territory say that Jack and his like are mad.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19They call them hatters or no-hopers.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22But he's not the only one in Borroloola.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Two others live around the decaying remains of the town.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28One of them has built himself a cabin
0:16:28 > 0:16:31some five miles away from Jack's hotel
0:16:31 > 0:16:33by the side of a small lagoon.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35He's known as the Mad Fiddler.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38VIOLIN MUSIC
0:16:42 > 0:16:46He sits for weeks on end without leaving his tiny cabin,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49playing his violin. He refuses to be photographed.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53He's even been known to threaten unexpected visitors with a shotgun.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Every few months, he drives out to a store in an ancient car
0:16:57 > 0:17:00to collect flour and tea and tobacco.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03But his visits are as short and as infrequent as he can make them.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06VIOLIN MUSIC CONTINUES
0:17:15 > 0:17:17There's a story in the territory
0:17:17 > 0:17:21that he is the titled son of an English aristocratic family.
0:17:21 > 0:17:2240 years ago, he told us,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26he had been an actor in the theatres of the north of England.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29And when I asked him why he had left, he replied,
0:17:29 > 0:17:31"I got out of England for England's good."
0:17:31 > 0:17:36Now he seeks no company except the birds that haunt his lagoon.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39VIOLIN MUSIC CONTINUES
0:17:41 > 0:17:45"A man's riches," he said to us, "are the fewness of his wants.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49"I find all I want in the country around me."
0:17:49 > 0:17:51VIOLIN MUSIC CONTINUES
0:17:58 > 0:18:03The last of the hermits of Borroloola is its oldest inhabitant, Roger Jose.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05No-one knows how old he is,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08and Roger himself has been claiming that he's 68
0:18:08 > 0:18:11for at least the last five years.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19With him lives Biddy, his wife,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23who catches fish for him in the river and cooks his meals.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Every morning, he fetches water and chops wood
0:18:32 > 0:18:37so that he can have a fire to keep himself warm during the cold nights.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40His hat was made for him to his own design by Biddy
0:18:40 > 0:18:44out of the leaves of the pandanus trees that grow nearby.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50His house is extremely odd -
0:18:50 > 0:18:54a circular construction of corrugated iron with no windows
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and only a small opening cut in its side to serve as a door.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01It must be suffocatingly hot during the heat of the day,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04but then Roger spends most of his time outside,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08sitting down by the wall of his extraordinary house, thinking.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15Roger, this is a rather curious house. What exactly is it?
0:19:15 > 0:19:19It's a tank, a conservation of rainwater.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21How many gallons did it hold?
0:19:21 > 0:19:235,000, I think.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26Where was this tank originally?
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Up there. You can see the base of it now.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31- What, by the hotel? - Yeah. Under that mango tree.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33What made you shift it?
0:19:33 > 0:19:35Well, it was crippled. It got badly crippled.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40And it was no longer any use. You can see where it's been patched.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43You can see patches stuck onto it in all sorts of cruel manner.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45I don't...
0:19:46 > 0:19:49And I thought it would make a good dwelling.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53So, I got it off and brought it down here.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56When did you first come to Borroloola?
0:19:56 > 0:20:02About... A little later than this, about this time in the storm time.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05- But which year? - 1916.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07A long time ago.
0:20:07 > 0:20:1046 years, I think.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13You're a man who likes solitude, I imagine.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15Oh, indeed I do.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18I don't know whether it's vanity, I'm very fond of my own company.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21- I never feel lonely. - Never?
0:20:21 > 0:20:24No. Well, hardly, to be honest.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29I've mostly always had a mate, a female, like a...
0:20:29 > 0:20:31And prior to that, I lived in civilisation.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34I got married about 30.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Well, I hadn't developed this superiority complex, you know.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40I found out
0:20:40 > 0:20:43I couldn't get any better company than my own by then, you know!
0:20:43 > 0:20:46And I'd already learned enough off my fellows, savvy?
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Oh, goodness, yes.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50So, you came out for the wilderness?
0:20:50 > 0:20:55In a sense, but I'm at bay in a sense.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59I'm here. This is as far as I can travel!
0:20:59 > 0:21:03A lot of people, I suppose, would find this loneliness unendurable,
0:21:03 > 0:21:04Roger, for a long period of time.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07True enough! Oh, that's obvious.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12- Oh. It would overpower some men. - It would overpower them.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16It is overpowering, but I doubt it would ever overpower me.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21But like I said, I'm not an example of complete loneliness, see?
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Old Biddy, although she's primitive and all that, she's company, yes.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29And the sort I like - she won't argue the point with me!
0:21:29 > 0:21:33And moreover is not a bit interested in what I've got to say!
0:21:33 > 0:21:34THEY CHUCKLE
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Are you seeking loneliness?
0:21:38 > 0:21:42No, not loneliness. I want you to understand, I'm not a bit lonely.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44- You're not? - No. Oh, goodness, no.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47If you said isolation, well, that would be slightly different.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Yeah, I could say yes, I am fond of isolation.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53But I couldn't really talk of loneliness
0:21:53 > 0:21:56because I don't know what it is.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59But I gather that, for some men, it's overpowering, yes.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Talk to a stump or anything. Well, I suppose I would, in a way.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07- In fact... - Do you talk...?
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Do you talk to the birds?
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Oh, yes, and talk to myself too.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13- Do you? - Yes. Quite often.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15You get the best answers that way?
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Yes, it improves my mental state too, talking to an intelligent man! Yes.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22DAVID CHUCKLES Oh, yes.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24There was a library here at Borroloola, wasn't there?
0:22:24 > 0:22:26What sort of things did you read?
0:22:26 > 0:22:32Oh, nearly anything. I'd read the labels on jam tins. Yes, really.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35- I'm a good reader once I start. - Yeah.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38But it's rather an odd place to have a library at Borroloola, isn't it?
0:22:38 > 0:22:39Beg yours?
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Borroloola's not the first place you'd think of as having a library.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45- Indeed no. - Was it a big library?
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Like I told you the other day, there was at least 2,900 books in it.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50There may have been more.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54I got a job rearranging them once and I distinctly remember 2,900.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Who are your favourite authors, Roger?
0:22:57 > 0:22:59First and foremost, I would put Gray.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Thomas Gray?
0:23:01 > 0:23:03- Was that his name? - What? Gray's Elegy, you mean?
0:23:03 > 0:23:08Yes, well, that'll just tell you how much I know. What was his name?
0:23:08 > 0:23:15I mean Gray, the author of Gray's Elegy, or the Lincolnshire poet.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18- I forget when he died... - And who else?
0:23:18 > 0:23:22Oh, well, I would put him first and foremost.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26You must understand I can only read English, like. Yes, that's all.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29But I don't want to read anything else, in a way.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31I would like to read
0:23:31 > 0:23:34anything that was better than Gray's Elegy, I would.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38And...and...and Shakespeare, of course.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40You sound particularly fond of poetry.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42- Me? - Yeah.
0:23:42 > 0:23:43Oh, indeed I am.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Have you written much yourself?
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Oh, a good bit, but you know what I mean...
0:23:49 > 0:23:54Strange to say poetry was never in favour, was it?
0:23:54 > 0:23:55People bought it,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58but I don't think any poets ever made a fortune out of it.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Can you recite any of your own poetry?
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Come to think of it, yes. One is not unconventionally long. Mm-hm.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Strange to say it's got no title! THEY CHUCKLE
0:24:10 > 0:24:13But, er, would you like to hear it?
0:24:13 > 0:24:14- I would. - Wouldn't bore you?
0:24:14 > 0:24:17- No. - Well, I'll tell you about it.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21You can get a bit of a sideline on how I came to write such weird poem.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25There was one of the old-timers about here called Gaunt, Charlie Gaunt.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28And he was well up in the... must have been towards 70.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32He got a bug to write about the early days.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Raiding the blacks, you know, and shooting them up.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Well...
0:24:38 > 0:24:42I wrote once... I remember writing something.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48Here doddering in senile decay My memory harks blithely away
0:24:48 > 0:24:52To pink dawns when I'd creep on blacks fast asleep
0:24:52 > 0:24:55And knock 'em hell-west in all of a heap
0:24:55 > 0:24:58A bravo just hired to slay
0:25:02 > 0:25:05That their weapons could scarcely compare
0:25:05 > 0:25:07Didn't cause me much care
0:25:07 > 0:25:13Nor the fact that they slept while sheer murder crept
0:25:13 > 0:25:18By red embers guided And no sentinel kept them apprised
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Of the sinister shapes lurking there
0:25:22 > 0:25:27And any who are prone to declare This one-sided fight wasn't fair
0:25:27 > 0:25:31Should have seen the bold bids made by women and kids
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Whom we slew for the benefit of opulent yids
0:25:35 > 0:25:37Reclining in far Belgrave Square.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39That'd be a joke if I haven't got that wrong.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42- Is that a residential area? Posh? - Yes, that's all right.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Belgrave Square is a residential area.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47I couldn't afford to stop, you know.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Reclining in fair Belgrave Square...
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Mm-hm. Don't know where I am now.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Roger, it would seem that living out here,
0:25:56 > 0:26:00your life really couldn't be more simple.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02What do you live on, for example? What do you eat?
0:26:02 > 0:26:07Well, I live on the simplest kinds of food perforce.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12I would fain eat a bit more of the master's oxen, but I can't get 'em!
0:26:12 > 0:26:17I live mainly on tinned beef, damper - oh, not so bad.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Damper is flour and water?
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Yeah, and baking powder. Might as well be without the baking powder.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27And I could go out and slay a marsupial or one of master's...
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Slay a marsupial? You mean, knock off a roo?
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Beg yours? Knock off a roo?
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Yes, that's to put it in your best Australian...
0:26:34 > 0:26:37HE MUTTERS
0:26:37 > 0:26:39Would you regard yourself as a philosophic man?
0:26:39 > 0:26:41Oh, yes.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46Like, er... I would interpret it this way for my convenience.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50I surely love wisdom and learning, goodness me, above all things.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55What do you regard as the greatest reward
0:26:55 > 0:26:57that comes from living this rather harsh life?
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Harsh and lonely out here in Borroloola?
0:27:02 > 0:27:04People wouldn't understand.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07I think one of the great advantages about living here...
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I've been accused of thinking too much, like,
0:27:11 > 0:27:12if you could think too much.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14What is a man frightened of?
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Did he uncover things in his thought or what? But, um,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21a keen sense of values of what really matters.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23And what does matter?
0:27:23 > 0:27:24Peace.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28And... Yeah, peace, I suppose.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29And, er...
0:27:29 > 0:27:34And you mightn't believe this, might think I'm piling it on,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37but I'm a very religious man, you know.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39And...
0:27:39 > 0:27:42You say, "Do I feel lonely?"
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Why should I feel lonely with God
0:27:46 > 0:27:51and men that ought to be immortal - Bill and Gray and old Omar, eh?
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Why should I feel lonely?!
0:27:54 > 0:27:57VIOLIN MUSIC
0:28:39 > 0:28:42ORCHESTRA JOINS IN
0:29:00 > 0:29:02MUSIC CRESCENDOS
0:29:20 > 0:29:27MUSIC DIMINUENDOS