Episode 1 - Giles and Gibson - Two Men Ride Out but only One Rides Back!           By April 1874, explorer Ernest Giles had pushed west from Peake Station as far as a range he named the Rawlinson, almost half way to the Indian Ocean, near the site of today’s Giles Meteorological Station. Desperate to find out what lay to the west, he split his party, and together with Alfred Gibson, four horses and a couple of kegs of water he headed into a sea of sandhills. Ninety miles on and a series of mishaps they were reduced to two men, one horse and one litre of water. Giles sent Gibson and the horse back along their tracks to bring relief. He then commenced one of the most extraordinary forced marches in Australian history, only to find that half way home Gibson’s tracks diverged from the main route, and he had disappeared into the wastes never to be seen again. Giles staggered back to the Rawlinson some days later and named the desert the Gibson ‘after the first white man to fall victim to its horrors!’ The disappearance of Gibson raises more questions than it solves, and the much-loved Giles may have had a sinister side...                   Episode 2 - David Lindsay and the Great Ribbed Desert           David Lindsay set off from Dalhousie Station on 4 January 1886 in 45° heat accompanied by the station owner, a local Aboriginal guide named “Paddy” and half a dozen camels, and headed east into the wilderness that is today one of the world’s largest longitudinal sand dune deserts – The Simpson. For the next 19 days Lindsay and his party struggled across the dunes, locating nine wells or mikiri used by the Wangkangurru people. Sub clans of the Wangkangurru inhabited each of these wells. Today they have silted over, their locations virtually forgotten. Andrew led a successful expedition a decade ago and relocated the locations of all nine wells. we return to the desert to find out more...                   Episode 3 - Gone off Droving Down the Cooper - In the footsteps of Starlight         In 1869, Harry Redford aka Captain Starlight was working as a stockman on the vast Queensland frontier at Bowen Downs Station where he hatched a plan to filter off fat ‘cleanskin’ cattle west to some secret cattle yards he had built. In a month or so he had mustered over 1000 head, including a prized pedigreed white bull that he tried many times unsuccessfully to turn away. In the following three months he pushed the mob down the Barcoo, down the Cooper past the spot at Innamincka where Burke and Wills had perished just a few years before, then south west through unexplored country, crossing the Strzelecki Desert until he reached the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia, where he sold the mob. Flush with a promissory note, Redford headed south for Adelaide to live like a pig in clover. The head Stockman at Bowen followed the tracks of the stolen mob 1600kms to Blanchewater. Recognising the white bull, warrants were issued for the arrest of Redford who was subsequently returned to Queensland in irons along with exhibit number one – the white bull. The jury took no time to find an obviously guilty Redford not guilty in deference to his extraordinary bush skills. Andrew heads for the Strzelecki Track to get the low down!
	Episode 4 - Lake Eyre -" One vast dreary waste..."
	Eyre could not have been more incorrect when he stood on Eyre Lookout in 1844 and made his famous journal entry. A vast brooding giant, 8030 square kilometers in area, 15 meters below sea level. Salt flats extend to where the duck egg blue sky bleeds into the shimmering horizon. Then once every 10 to 20 years cyclones hundreds of kilometers to the north dump meters of rain that percolates down the great rivers the Diamantina and the Cooper, and the lake fills. The 300 million tonnes of salt dissolves into fresh water, and a desert transforms into a maritime environment, replete with cormorants, pelicans, bream, perch and a multitude of other opportunistic species all mating furiously to continue their gene pools. And then gradually the lake dries out. The last fish to die are the Lake Eyre Hardyhead, which can survive in fresh water and can tolerate water with a salinity 15 times that of seawater. Join Andrew as we penetrate this spectacular part of the Australian wilderness, where vehicles have hardly ever been, and no tracks lead.
	Episode 5 - Wrecks of the Southern Ocean
	45 million years ago Australia broke away from Antarctica, and into the rift poured the Southern Ocean. Two circumpolar currents refrigerate the sea; wild winds sweep across her rugged coastline, a coast that has sent hundreds of ships to their watery grave. Andrew cooks his way along the south coast, visiting wild and isolated shipwreck sites. Along the way he goes fishing, meets fishermen and divers who harvest King Neptune’s bounty and seeks out colorful locals with plenty of stories to tell. He visits two of the worlds most famous surf beaches, Bells Beach and Cactus, cooks up a feast on the beach and explores spectacular wilderness coastlines stretching from Victoria to the Bunda Cliffs where the Nullarbor falls to the sea.
	Episode 6 - Bogong Jack and the Mountain Men
	Follow the daring exploits of the early mountain pioneers following George McKillop as they carried all their possessions on carts and came down from the Monaro to cross the Snowy and settle the Victorian High Country, meet the descendants of the mountain cattle families and unravel the stories of it’s rogues. On packhorses, Andrew joins mountain horseman Steve Baird to ascend onto the Bogong High Plains. Here in this alpine wonderland they discover stories of pioneering families, gold miners and that most famous of horse thieves Bogong Jack. Ascending onto the highest mountain in Victoria they discuss the awful final days of Cleve Cole, who died in horrendous storms after completing the first winter ascent in 1936. They trace the now forgotten Dungey’s track, and learn how the Jaitmathang Aboriginal people once ascended the mountains to feast on the Bogong moth. High above the winter snowline, Andrew cooks some memorable dishes and provides handy tips on transporting and serving great meals in hostile environments.
	Episode 7 - The Wonnangatta Murders
	In 1917, in the remote Wonnangatta valley in the Victorian High Country, the murder of the station manager Jim Barclay was to capture the imagination of a nation already preoccupied with the horrors of World War One. The prime suspect was the Station Cook, however one year later his body was found near a cattlemen’s hut on the Howitt High Plains, sparking endless theories, accusations and a mystery that still divides the people and families of the High Country. Join Andrew as he heads to the High Country to meet with the descendants, cattlemen and local characters. Follow the adventure as he four wheel drives high into the mountains, shelters from violent storms in haunted cattlemen’s huts, and descends into the Wonnangatta Valley itself in an attempt to solve a mystery that is both chilling and fascinating. Along the way he will cook delicious meals on campfires in huts, campsites and remote ridges far from civilisation.
	Episode 8 - Straightsmen - The Wild Men of Bass Strait
	Journey by boat to the Bass Strait Islands, once home to the straitsmen, a wild breed of lawless outcasts that ruled the island chain that stretches from Victoria to Tasmania and considered to be one of the roughest stretches of water on the planet. In the early nineteenth century His Majesties Government reckoned that the Islands would remain safe from French invasion so long as the Straitsmen ruled them, so they turned a blind eye to these renegades. Chiefly made up of escaped convicts, deserters, pirates and brigands, they managed to repel the flinty eyed Nantucket Whalers by force in the early 1800’s. We visit Cape Barren Island and learn the sad tale of the Tasmanian Aboriginals, exiled here and cared for by George Augustus Robinson. On Flinders Island we discover shipwrecks, deserted beaches and fascinating locals. We sail north, Island hopping to Deal and Erith Islands in the Kent Group. We visit the King Island Dairy, where local legend has it that the straw used to stuff mattresses that were washed ashore from shipwrecks contributes today to the flavour of the cheese through King Islands unique pasture. Join Andrew as he catches wild Cape Barren Geese and Mutton Birds, and cooks up a feast using local produce in this most beautiful wild and remote place.
	Episode 9 - Tasmanian Bushrangers, Bolters, Pirates and Thieves
	See Tasmania in a totally different light. This beautiful Island, with its magnificent World Heritage listed wilderness, stunning coastlines and quaint towns full of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in Australia was in its early days a hell on earth for those unfortunate enough to be transported there. This eighteenth century final solution spawned some of the most colourful villains and heroes ever to claim the title of outlaw. Take everybody’s darlin’ the bushranger Matthew Brady. A true gentleman, when Governor Arthur placed a reward on his head, Brady responded by posting a notice on the door of the Royal Oak hotel at Cross Marsh which read, “It has caused Matthew Brady much concern that such a person known as Sir George Arthur is at large. Twenty gallons of rum will be given to any person that can deliver this person to me. I also caution John Priest that I will hand him for his ill treatment of Mrs Blackwell at Newtown.” Join Andrew as he wanders the remote beaches, misty mountains and backwaters of Tasmania meeting interesting locals and discovering some of the quirkier side to Tasmanian history. Along the way he celebrates some of the wonderful food produced here, from the market gardens of Hmong mountain tribesmen, to Japanese Wakame and Wasabi farms, magnificent seafood and more!
	Episode 10 - The Black Cloud Incident... Atomics across the Desert!
	When Sir Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia approved British nuclear testing on Australian soil, he did it without even consulting his cabinet. After blowing up a fair piece of the Montebello Islands off the coast of Western Australia, the Government sent a young sapper and surveyor out to find a sit suitable for the detonation of an atomic bomb on the Australian mainland. He eventually found a claypan with an emu’s foot etched on it that came to be known as Emu Claypan, some 500kms west of Coober Pedy in the Great Victoria Desert. Two devices, Totem 1 and Totem 2 were detonated here in 1952. Under top-secret conditions, a huge camp was established here, British scientists flew in, a squadron of mustang aircraft, a section of a ships hull and a centurion tank were carted into the middle of nowhere to ascertain the effects of the blast. Today, two concrete plinths mark the site, as well as patches of molten earth, concrete anchors, miles and miles of cabling, and signs in Pitjantjatjara warning not to hunt Kangaroo in the area. The McClelland Royal Commission in 1985 found a lack of evidence that the atomic tests were indeed responsible for the alleged poisonings, but a cloud has always remained over the findings. We explore the Woomera township and travel out to the ruins of the Lake Hart rocket firing pads on the range. We then head west from the opal mining town of Coober Pedy into the wilderness of the Great Victoria Desert, four wheel driving out to the Emu Atomic site, meeting some surprising animals and fascinating vegetation along the way. Andrew cooks some magnificent meals along the way and shows us how to live and survive in the Australian desert.
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