S01E01 Arnhem Land
Major Les Hiddins of the Australian Army explores Arnhem Land, northern Australia, and learns Aboriginal survival methods. He's on a mission to record the many bush foods and medicines of northern Australia. Les travels to...
Bush Tucker Man
S01E05: Rainforest
Far North Queensland: dry season in rainforest near Cooktown, similar to where Les grew up and started Bushtucker studies - Les used rainforest experience in Vietnam - Meg Waterfall, fast flowing river drops 1000m to coastline on horizon - abseiling - Tin mining ruins, edges of "Big Scrub", north of Townsville - lacked understanding - tried to grow bananas, chilli - local food, water, shelter - ginger pips - ginger roots as strong flavouring - but in general the looks of fruits etc can be deceptive - looking for something to add to stew - caution on rainforest stinging leaves - travels further north, out of rainforest near Cooktown, Black Mountains volcanic granite - caves and crevices - legends of convicts and lost tribe of locals - mud road to Cape York - excellent Land-Rover scene crossing Cape York creek - open savanah country, Iron Range a great undisturbed rainforest - makes natural shelter in cane frame and banana leaves - leaves a yabby trap in the creek a few hours - eels, turtle, fish, yabbies, water snakes, nocturnal animals - boils the billy and makes yabby stew with rice and ginger - candle nuts as high energy food and 'candles' - sets up candle nuts.
Overview
Major Les Hiddins of the Australian Army was born in Queensland and was always interested in Aboriginal customs and practices and how those practices helped a people survive in a hostile environment for thousands of years. When he joined the Army he developed this interest into a skill and put it to good use. Learning how to survive in the Australian bush and then to teach others the same skills. He wrote various survival manuals for the Australian Armed forces and added survival notes to the back of maps used by pilots flying over the Australian bush. In this series of programmes Les shares that knowledge with us, teaching us some of his survival skills and his great respect for the Aboriginal people that taught him.
Episodes
S01E02 The Wet in Port Keats
Northern Territory: south west of Darwin - Daly River to Port Keats - monsoon growth after 4 weeks rains - the wet January to April - mud 'roads' under water for miles and miles -...
S01E03 Desert
Northern Territory: central Australia west of Alice Springs - Papunya - desert types - dry times - no wet season for some years - need tribal knowledge to find water - fierce competition for food...
S01E04 Prince Regent Gorge
Northern Western Australia: (end of wet season - start of dry) by chopper into the Kimberly sandstone plateaus - Prince Regent River gorge - boab tree and nuts - carved history on trunk by sailors...
S01E05 Rainforest
Far North Queensland: dry season in rainforest near Cooktown, similar to where Les grew up and started Bushtucker studies - Les used rainforest experience in Vietnam - Meg Waterfall, fast flowing river drops 1000m to...
S01E06 Northern Queensland Coastline
Les goes coastal. Bush Tucker Man, Les Hiddins is dropped into the east coast of the Cape York Peninsula and travels via chopper, on foot and even via blow-up mattress along the Jardine River to...
S01E07 Doomadgee
Crash survivors could have prevented starvation. In this episode, Les Hiddins is in the Gulf Country of Queensland around Doomadgee. In 1942, an American bomber crashed not far from here. Les relives the extraordinary story...
S01E08 Aurukun
Les Hiddins joins a group of soldiers on an expedition into the Bush to learn first-hand about the survival techniques of Aborigines
Cast
Les Hiddins
