...325 and see these carousel planters. Three sizes, lots of colours, the sources click on easily and just look at the prices.
There's plenty more to it. Might attend Green Thumb Sale. Look in the catalogue. It's fantastic.
Meat Shortcuts. The part-time meals for women who work full-time. New recipes every week where you buy your meat.
This is my survival kit for the bush. First my swag. You must have somewhere to sleep.
Then in next importance, my water containers. I've put in an extra one here to show you.
I've got a four gallon one. I don't like these. I prefer them in one or two gallons because of this bust I lose four gallons.
If they bust I only lose one gallon or two gallons. Much safer. I've got my petrol and jerry cans.
I've only got one jerry can because it's only a small trip. If I'm going on bigger trips I take more.
Esky for me Tucker and a coldy. That's the food's position. Now here I have my toolkit.
Toolkit is very important. You can't do repairs if you haven't got the right tools.
How can you get a nut off if you can't find a spanner to fit it? Have a reasonable toolkit.
Radiator hoses. Fan belt. Very importantly a pump. Now I prefer the air pump that hooks onto the engine and pumps the tyres up.
You can have a guts buster if you like. I don't like them. I've got a first aid kit.
Get a first aid kit. Make it up to suit yourself. Just things you prefer.
Now here this is what I call my boxer tricks. I've got dozens of little odds and ends in here but a couple of very important ones.
First of all is the coil. Now if you break down and you've done your coil you've had it.
Unless you have another coil. So you must carry one of these. A set of points and a condenser.
Now if you burned out a set of points in the bush you would have to have somebody come along
with the same maker car with a spare set and prepared to give them to you. That's ridiculous.
So don't do this. With these things all you're doing by having them with you is buying them a little earlier
because you'll be up for them this year or next year and it's for your safety that I'm talking about.
To most people living in the cities this is the real outback. A deserted empty country with a road
running away forever and they look around all of a sudden it occurs to them. I wonder what
would happen if I broke down here. On a road like this they would have no worries. It's a bitumen road
and they only put these roads down where there's a lot of traffic. Stop by your car and wait.
Somebody's going to come along. I go on these painting trips three or four times a year.
Normally I use a four-wheel drive vehicle but for this trip I've taken an average family car
just to show you that you can go into the bush with practically any car as long as you realise its capabilities.
I've been painting scenes like these for the last 10 years. I can't help it. This country fascinates me.
I've been around the world a couple of times but to me the Australian outback has something special about it.
Some of this country is desolate, dry, hot and bare.
You have to be prepared to be your own food supply, your own petrol supply and your own mechanic.
Out here there's no friendly service stations. They're very few and far between.
Just the odd sign to warn the unwary traveller.
I've come across many families like this. Good people who understand city living
but they do not know how to travel safely in the bush.
This has got to be ridiculous. These people have come out here with just their own personal luggage.
Like there's no toolkit, there's no spares, I can't see any petrol and there's no...
Alice goes in hot pursuit of poor Marty Jackson. Rodney learns how to deal with the women the hard way
and the freak pays for her double dealing. Prisoner, 8.30 Thursday on 10.
Messer, the Aussie alternative, brings you the remarkable smoothie.
Contoured footbed and orthopedic shape giving optimum comfort for people who are conscious of the condition of their feet and legs.
Messer smoothie, adjustable comfort and fully waterproof.
Unsurpassed quality at a realistic price. If you care about your feet there's only one Messer smoothie.
The specialist in foot care, Messer.
In woman's day this week we talked to a surrogate mother. Would you have a baby for your sister?
Bianca Jagger speaks frankly. Could it be that Mick doesn't like women?
That tomato in your fridge could be a beauty treatment, won't you look saucy?
Plus a free 16 page crepe book and a free gold bracelet offer.
No wonder people are saying what a difference the day makes. We'd love to hear from you too.
What a difference the day makes to you.
Here's a great dessert from SPC.
Ready, set, go, go, go. It's always ready. It's always set. So go, go, go for jelly fruits.
SPC jelly fruit. SPC peaches in mango jelly. SPC pears in passion fruit jelly. SPC peaches in orange jelly.
Absolutely sensationally delicious.
It's always ready. It's always set. So go, go, go for jelly fruit. Ready, set, go for jelly fruit.
Go for it.
This chap couldn't start this car. The odds are it's either petrol or it's spark.
Now I'm going to do a very simple test on the spark for a start off.
And what I do, I pull the center wire out of the distributor.
And I hold that in my hand. Then I take the top off the distributor.
And just push the top out the road somewhere. So it's not in my road.
Now with the car switched on, I then flick the points here.
And I should get a nice blue spark across onto the body.
And if I get that blue spark, there's nothing wrong with electrical.
And there's the blue spark. No worries at all there.
That's good. Now that shows me there's nothing wrong with that electrical system at all.
It's got to be the petrol now.
Now what I'm going to do here is get the air cleaner off the top of this carburetor.
Just put it out the road.
And I should be able to work the accelerator and squirt petrol in there.
But there's none. Now this is the trouble. There's no petrol squirting in there at all.
So I've got to block it somewhere between the carburetor and the petrol tank.
Now don't start pulling things to pieces for a minute. Just look.
Follow it along. Come down here. Petrol pump. Ah, we've got it, mate.
I've got a fuel filter here.
Might as well get him off with more garbage in it than there is in the rubbish dump.
Have a look at this. Paint, water, petrol.
That's what's caused the problem.
That's blocked the fuel from coming through to the carburetor.
Now I'll either put a new one of those on or connect the line together.
But we can get petrol through to that and it will go.
You don't trust me, do you, mate?
No, mate. Always suspicious of bush supplies, I'm telling you.
Thank God they're out here. We'll never get any petrol.
What I'd done there was tipped a cup of methane in my tank.
And the idea of that was that if I got any water out of this petrol, which you'd get in the bush
simply because of condensation out of the drums, that methane would break it up
and it would go through and you would burn it and then there would be no risk.
So that's protection.
You remember down in the track when those people were broke down and the fuel filter was blocked?
Now that was caused mainly by water in there.
There was a lot of other rubbish but the water had finally blocked that filter up.
If they'd have put methane in, no hassle at all that it had gone through.
The thing I like about coming out into the bush is all this nature.
Look around and enjoy it all.
Like I've come hundreds of miles to get off the beaten track and to see something like this is just marvellous.
This is what it's all about. You've got to enjoy the thing.
And like in a place like...
There's two very important things in a situation like this.
One is water, which I have plenty of, and the other one is patience, which I have plenty of.
Now when I bogged that bloody thing up there, I was furious.
That is not the state of mind to be in to do anything.
You're far better off, sit down quietly, boil the billy, relax, think about it all.
This isn't much of a sand bog.
If I'd have been concentrating instead of bloody talking, I wouldn't have ever got into the thing.
Now what you've got to do is just let your tyres down enough so that they're not cutting into the sand.
They're rolling on top of the sand.
And then don't let anybody get near a shovel, for God's sake.
The first thing they'll do is start digging you deeper.
All you need to do is just get down like this, scrape out the sand from in front of the tyres.
When you've done the forum, just get in the car and just drive the damn thing out.
Now these tyres are too flat to drive safely around this country, so I must pump them up again.
I always pump my spare tyre to 100 pound pressure.
And then when I get problems like this, I transfer the air out of the spare tyre into these tyres.
No hassles, cost nothing, nice and simple.
I've made up this air transfer hose.
And what I'm going to do is just transfer the air out of my spare tyre into the flat tyre and pump it up.
It's as simple as that.
And there is no problem with pumping your spare tyre up to 100 pound pressure.
It's quite safe at this.
A short story about a tall family.
We like everything tall.
So they got the Sigma high roof wagon.
It's tall, Dad.
And off they went to pick up this tall load.
Plenty of leg room.
And because they chose the Dynamic Astron Mark II engine, they had all the power to climb this tall hill.
Sigma high roof wagon for the long, the short, and the tall.
From Mitsubishi, carmaker of the year, again.
Greetings, Earthlings.
For $9.99 you get 10 pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken plus two Crown Corning glasses, each with a Frederick or Charlie scene.
Or you can get the glasses pack alone for just $2.99.
But it won't last long.
So rock it in.
Watch out.
Katie's.
Top Rocks.
Great skirts.
Mini frocks.
Top spots.
Lots and lots of gorgeous frocks.
At the Katie's shops.
Katie's, Katie's is where it's at.
Only $24.
Top that.
One of our recent tragedies in Australia.
A woman and a child perished.
In country, very similar to this.
Now, they did not die of lack of water.
They died of exposure.
That's the killer out in this country.
But you've got to remember that people and animals have lived in this country for thousands of years.
And they've worked out how to handle this.
Look, let me take and show you how the kangaroo handles it.
Beautiful shady tree.
Lovely dried up creek bed.
What a nice place to make a camp.
This is the kangaroo camp.
He's come in here and he's dug this hot soil off the top down here to the damp stuff where it's cooler.
And he lays in that.
And even the wind funneled along this creek keeps him cool.
And with the shade, perfect spot.
Like when you look around here, dry creek, there's not much evidence of life.
But there is life here.
When I see plants as green as this, I know that their roots would have to be going down into moisture
because they couldn't be that green in an area as dry as this.
This bank has lots of tracks, most of them kangaroos.
They've been coming and going out of this creek.
They need to be leading to the one spot where they've been scraping around.
Much of Australia's water is below the surface in huge basins and underground streams.
Sometimes these streams flow near the surface and form a soak just like this.
Nothing wrong with that.
That's beautiful water.
I'd dash a whiskey to improve it, but marvelous.
They're all working very nicely.
I don't think I'll go thirsty tomorrow.
Quite pleased with this.
I'm going to have a look at the rest.
Here we have a variety of different plants.
I've put saltbush in this one, going all right.
Bluebush in this one, that's condensing nicely.
And this one's the squashy stuff.
Bullocky bush and other squashy plants.
You can use any plant, any of the foliage off the trees,
any plant you see right throughout Australia.
That sun that's dragging the moisture out of me is dragging the moisture out of in there.
Just the same.
So I've turned the thing around.
It's working for me now.
So really, there is no excuse to go thirsty in a country like this.
There's enough bluebush out there to have a bath if you had enough plastic bags.
One of the most common problem areas in the bush is a flat battery.
Now, that battery does two things.
It supplies power to the starter motor to turn the engine over,
and very importantly, it supplies power to the coil to fire the spark plugs.
Now, although that battery is flat to the stage it would...
and it wouldn't turn this engine over,
there's still enough power going through that coil to give me the spark at the spark plugs to start it.
Now, that's all I need.
Now, I've chocked all the wheels.
All I have to do is jack the rear wheel on the driver's side up and make sure that it's solid,
because when this car starts up I don't want it to fall off the jack.
I turn on the ignition and I put the car in top gear.
Then I'm going to use the wheel as a crank to start the car.
Now, be careful of clearance for your hand because this can be a little dangerous.
Now, that wasn't easy, but the point is I've got the car going.
That's the important thing.
Now, supposing that I had no battery at all,
somebody had pinched it or lost it or whatever you like, there's no battery here.
Most people have another battery in their car and they don't realize it.
My spare batteries are in this, just a torch.
Now, these batteries are not going to have enough power to turn the starter motor,
but they've got plenty of power to give me the spark at the plugs to start the engine.
And in this case I've got two 6-volt ones.
You don't have to have 6-volt.
You can have the small ones and join them together,
but you must have 12 volts when they're joined.
First thing is to connect the two batteries together, positive to negative.
Now, this gives me 12 volts.
Now, I've taken the wires off the coil on the positive side,
so I put my own wire on this
and I connect it to the positive side of the torch battery, which is here.
The last thing is to connect the earth of my batteries to the earth lead of the car.
Now, after you've done this, all you have to do is tape everything up solid
so it won't rattle about and come loose, then start your car up.
I've driven a car like this for over 100 kilometres just on torch batteries like these,
and it was still going strong when I stopped.
In any case, there's no problems about it getting you to help if your battery's failed.
This is the dog-proof fence.
It was built many years ago just to keep the dingo from coming into the sheep country.
There are gates similar to this every 30 or 40 kilometres all the way along this fence,
and they must be properly closed after use.
These sides always fascinate me.
Every time I come to one of these gates, I'm tempted to leave the thing open,
and I look around and I wonder which bush the bloke's going to jump up from and say,
left me gate open, give me me $100.
If you're going to have any trouble in the bush, the sooner you know about it, the better.
Now, the person that gets out to open the gates is the only one that's seeing the outside of the car
and the load all the time, and it's very important for him to check the tyres,
look at the load, and especially when he's closing the gate, look back to where the cow has stood,
because if there's been anything wrong, say like a hole in your gearbox,
there'll be a little pool of oil where it'd only be a drip if you're driving along.
So this is important, and you chop it all off before it starts.
Come on, Smith, get in line, boy.
Your bank is still treating you in the same way it did when you first opened a passbook account.
Next, come on, come on.
Think about ANZ new high-performance passbook.
Your money is at call, and it pays high interest on balances over $500.
Big interest that's calculated daily.
The ANZ high-performance high-interest passbook, now open due to overwhelming interest.
School's out.
And this is Luigi Calamari, famous ladies' man and Grand Prix racer.
Luigi! Luigi!
This one is just for you.
Hey, Luigi, new GTX2. She's ready to go.
With this better GTX2 in my car, my engine will have a bonze protection.
Hey!
New, improved Castrol GTX2. Oils ain't oils.
That Castrol GTX2 ain't just an oil, hey, boss. Luigi should have remembered that.
Masser, the Aussie alternative, brings you the remarkable Smoothie.
Contoured footbed and orthopedic shape, giving optimum comfort
for people who are conscious of the condition of their feet and legs.
Masser Smoothie. Adjustable comfort and fully waterproof.
Unsurpassed quality at a realistic price.
If you care about your feet, there's only one Masser Smoothie.
The specialist in foot care, Masser.
G'day. Just because I'm in the bush doesn't mean I go without good tucka.
Come and have a look how I cook at home with my Weber barbecue.
The Weber is just like an oven, only better.
Being round, the Weber's unique airflow system,
means that the heat completely surrounds the food,
sealing in all the natural juices and flavour.
Now, you can't burn the food and there's no flare-up
because the fat drops into this tray. Ingenious!
Just put the food in, pop the lid on, forget about it.
You don't even have to turn the food over.
And while she's cooking, you can do whatever you like.
Now for the proof of the pudding.
Oh, ain't that something?
Look, magnificent! And it's fat-free.
With a Weber, you can barbecue anything,
from chops and snags to delicious roasts.
But make sure it's a genuine Weber.
The only barbecue with this one-touch system
to sweep out all the ashes.
Do yourself a favour, get a Weber.
It's the best way to barbecue anything.
Friday night, live from the Apollo Stadium,
the Adelaide 36ers take on the Brisbane Bullets
in the second final of the National Basketball League,
7.30 Friday, live and exclusive to Channel 10.
In that bag is the greatest invention
that was ever offered to the outback traveller.
I would have paid $1,000 for that a few years ago
when I was in the bush all the time,
because Boggs drove me mad. I hate him.
If I got in a mud bog, this is the thing to get it out.
Look what's in here.
That's all it is.
There's a bag with a lead on it.
Put that under me car.
Just there.
And then all I do is connect the connection...
..to the exhaust pipe.
And that'll fit any exhaust pipe.
How easy was that?
All we've got to do now, if it was a mud bog,
is get the hole out,
put some sticks or stones or a piece of tin,
whatever you can find, let the car come down on it,
then go and do the other side.
And all I've got to do to let it down, to stop it,
take that off there,
let it down here any time I like, just steadily.
And I drive away laughing.
And if you can tell me anything easier than that to get out of a bog,
I'll buy it.
One of the main problem areas I find that travellers in the outback have
is getting not so much really lost but spun around.
They get onto wrong roads and this type of thing.
Now, the easiest way to eliminate this
is after you've had dinner overnight and you've settled out,
get your map out.
Go and buy the bonnet of the car.
Put north to north, face it up level,
and then have a look where you're going to travel next day.
And just for instance, you look and you see that you're travelling west all day.
So when it happens that the road branches into two
or a turn-off comes up or something like this,
you can very easily pick the right one.
Just look into your comments bearing in mind that you're going to go west.
That's fencing wire.
I bet everybody that has been in the outback has done exactly what I've done there,
had to climb under their car to unhook a bit of this stuff.
You've got to do it because if it wraps around your diff,
it can chop your brake hoses in halves.
Trailers and caravans can be a nightmare because you can't hear it.
It's behind and it chops the seals out.
The finish up the dirt gets into the bearings and you've got big problems.
But don't knock it.
This stuff has replaced more parts in motor cars
over the years than probably anything in the bush.
They've used it for everything, for nuts and bolts, for wiring this up and everything.
I'll show you what I'm going to do now.
As soon as I get this cut off,
a piece like that, we will show you how to make a compass.
With a piece of fencing wire, I wrap around an ordinary piece of electrical wire.
Then by touching these ends of this electrical wire onto the terminals of the battery,
I make an electromagnet.
My piece of fencing wire is now a permanent magnet.
Why I've come over here, whenever you want to read a compass,
get at least 30 or 40 feet away from the car
because there's too many influencing things in a car with your compass.
Not only this compass, any compass.
And also another thing, when you've got a compass like this, try and get out the wind.
A little bit breezy today and it's very hard to settle down.
Now what I've done, I've just stuck a bit of taper in here with a bit of cotton on.
And I hold that compass up,
and it's roughly pointing that way and this way.
So look, we'll draw a line here.
That is roughly the line of this compass.
Now, some smart person's going to say to me,
oh yes, that's bright, which ends north and which ends south.
Good question.
But because we are in the southern hemisphere,
every shadow cast by the sun is cast to the south side.
So if I put up a stick and we see which way the shadow of that's pointing,
it's pointing that way.
So that is the south end.
So that must be the north end.
There you are.
I've showed you how to make Absalom's bush compass.
No risk with it.
But you must know what hemisphere you're in.
And if you don't know that, then you're completely bushed.
This Australia of ours is a very dry place.
And when you look around an area like this,
it makes you realize just how dry.
Like if it wasn't for this water here,
all this area wouldn't be worth a tinker's curse.
The worst thing that can happen to this water is for it to become polluted.
The most common way that happens is when people put soap in it,
because then the stock won't drink it.
They can't drink it. You wouldn't. I wouldn't.
And consequently, they perish.
Look, I've seen people sitting in there having a bath,
just a bath the same as you do at home.
I've seen 800 sheep perish because a person used soap powder
to do their washing in there.
Now, when all this happens, this property owner, he becomes very angry.
You can't blame him because you've probably cost him thousands of dollars.
He's stock has perished just through one thoughtless act.
How you going?
Good day, Jack. How are you?
Good.
You're pretty warm. You want a cup of tea?
Bloody oath. That's the best news for the day.
John Ferguson and his wife Sue are typical of the bush people throughout Australia.
They've lived here all their lives, and they will help anyone in trouble.
Hello, Sue.
Hello, Jack.
How are you going?
Very well, thanks.
They've not realised that these people have a large property to run
with plenty of problems without the tourists adding to them.
We're not the dinky-dod tourists we don't,
but it's these fly-by-nighters with the weekenders.
They knock off work about four o'clock or so
and grab a few echoes and jump in the car and away they go,
head up north, in the outback.
And they're the ones we have the most problem with
because they usually leave without a jack or...
No preparation at all.
No preparation whatsoever, you know.
They'll just go and get an old jalopy and then they go,
she'll be all right.
She's all right on her bitumen probably,
but get out here in the corrugation and the rocks
and next thing they'll call in on you for tyres and tubes,
you name it, you know.
It's supposed to be a garage.
Do you have any other problems?
Well, like that time when we came back from the Angipina races that day.
There we are, driving down the road,
and I looked at the water up the road here
and there's these two caravans right next to the trough,
and they had a line of washing from the windmill to the overflow.
No worries.
They were pulled up alongside the trough?
Yes, right alongside the trough.
And the cattle, that was the main watering point
for about, what, 150 head of cattle,
because they wouldn't come in.
Of course they wouldn't.
That's the sort we call terrorists.
Most station owners don't call travellers tourists anymore.
Like Sue, they call them terrorists.
It's a pity it's got this way
because it's only a small percentage of the tourists
that cause this trouble.
But if you are in real trouble, they'll all help you.
They'll demand help.
Just ask politely.
I've never known one of them.
Some cars find it hard to keep pace in the car race.
They just don't have the legs to survive.
However, one car keeps going the distance, Mitsubishi Sigma.
With big 2.6-litre and strong power,
Sigma's track record has proven year after year
to be the best band in the long run.
So why buy a car that's flat out trying to keep up
when one car just keeps on going?
From Mitsubishi, Car Maker of the Year.
When the boss said you are not required,
it was fairly clear that I'd just been fired.
So I thought it might be appropriate
to have a go at playing Lucky Dates.
You just pick two, it's up to you, of course.
I picked the day I was fired and the day I was divorced.
50 cents a game is all it takes.
You can play on your own or with your mates.
Even one right date wins a very nice prize.
If you don't have a go, you'd be most unwise.
Both mine came up, which was very satisfactory
because I fired the boss when I bought the factory.
It's hard at first.
You're away from home and everything's new.
But, boy, it's never, ever boring.
The journey to Europe and back can be rather a long haul.
Can you see her?
Not yet.
Mind you, she's out there doing her.
So we've introduced the Singapore stopover.
You get to break your trip and relax in a first-class hotel.
I suppose you got the day right.
Of course I did. I'm not stupid.
You get to do a bit of shopping,
maybe take in a few other sights,
get into the swing of things.
Little old ladies don't just disappear in midair, Geoffrey.
Certainly not grand. She's out of the adventurous type, is she?
You can try exotic dishes, make new friends,
meet the locals and all from only $20 a night.
Wayne, come along now. We're going home.
The Singapore stopover.
Just don't forget to tell the folks.
I can't understand it. She's so reliable.
I wonder how many people realise what they're looking at here.
These are not ordinary stones.
Each one of those stones has been carted up here,
specially selected for its hardness or softness
or for its grinding qualities, whatever it may be.
This is an Aboriginal campsite, a workshop,
where they've worked for thousands of years making their tools.
If your house got burnt down and I was the first one there,
I would expect to find everything that you would have in a house.
Your pots and pans and knives and forks and all this is in this whole area.
And this is why it's so exciting to come to a place like this, untouched.
This is a treasure house here.
This is our heritage all through here.
Oh, look at this. That is something.
That is a prairie point.
We don't know what they made that for.
A lot of people say spear points, but there's no evidence.
But that is marvellous workmanship.
Look at this magnificent discordal scraper.
See that work on that, the secondary work?
Beautiful stuff. Just superb.
These are marvellous tradesmen here.
Here's a very interesting one.
Look, these here are little microliths.
They're so beautifully made.
See the edge they've got on those?
Now, he would get, say, four or five of these,
and he cuts them into a stick, puts them in the stick,
so they're sticking up something like that.
And when he gets them in with all glued up and everything,
then he can saw with this.
Look, look, there's dozens of these little discordal scrapers.
Look, little things.
The same as the bigger one I just showed you, like this.
Look at the size of them.
It's just unbelievable.
Here's one he hasn't quite finished.
See, he's made this side, nothing on this side,
and he's probably broke the point off
and said, I'm gonna thing and threw it out.
This is what would go on here.
But this whole place... Look, there's another little thing here.
If you look down here, because the Aborigines camped here,
they had to have food.
And look, see all the pieces of bone? Look at it here.
This is from the animals they've eaten
all over the place here, you see?
Look, another one there, see?
This is what observation in the bush is all about.
Noticing things like this.
If there's been that many Aborigines here
and it's taken a lot to do this work,
then they must have had one thing, water.
This doesn't look much now,
but this would have been where they got their water.
They would have camped over there,
and this is where they've got it from.
But when you look at it closely, there's a soak under here.
This water is gradually draining in here.
And they would have cleaned all this out.
It wouldn't be a mess like this.
And of course, when it rained,
it would have filled up probably five or six feet,
which would have been an added bonus.
This is as near to a permanent waterhole as you could get.
But it could dry up in a severe drought,
and then they'd be forced to move on.
But then the Aborigines were known as nomadic people,
and they used to move from water to water
because they had no means of carrying it.
I believe the greatest thing
the white man ever gave the Aborigine was a billy can
because he gave him the means of carrying water.
Previously to this,
they used to have to mark their waters,
like this, with water markers, cans of stones.
This is a waterhole. It's a natural spring.
It's never been known to go dry.
It's marked by an Aboriginal water marker
and would have been used by the Aborigines for thousands of years,
but now is used by the white man.
A lot of people often ask me
that if I broke down out in the bush, totally broke down,
no, couldn't do a thing about the vehicle,
I'm on shanks as ponies, could I survive?
And I've said, well, yes.
I've been around this country a long time,
and I look for nature signs.
Now, I've been following this cattle pad for a while,
and I've been waiting for another cattle pad to come in and join it,
because when that happens, that's like an hour ahead.
In dry countries like this, cattle water every day.
Now, look, it's not unreasonable
to expect water to be within walking distance.
Now that I've found this water, I'm safe.
I've got no worries at all,
because I know that the station owner that owns this property
is going to come around at least twice a week.
So even if I've missed him today,
I've only got to wait three days at the most.
The first time I ever came to the Flinders Rangers,
I was about 13 years of age, and I couldn't believe it.
These magnificent colours, the mountains,
and I was fascinated by them,
and I think they've haunted me in a way ever since.
I did my first painting in this very area,
and I thought it was marvellous.
I was that thrilled with this,
and yet when I look back at it now, it was a great heap of rubbish.
I can't see now what I've seen in it then,
but you couldn't get this painting off me for anything.
I think when you come in here,
especially to paint or to take photographs,
you've got to get a feel for the place.
So what I like to do now is to come in,
just drive around the first day
and have a look at all the afternoon lights,
and then the next morning have a look at all the morning lights,
and I get this feel for it.
And then it's like magic painting,
because I know what's coming.
I've seen the morning lights yesterday,
and I know tomorrow morning they'll be magic.
I don't know what else to think.
I think really this is one of the treasure spots of Australia.
Driving into these creek beds is a real experience.
These most magnificent gums,
and often the creek running with water,
like it could be paradise itself.
Unbelievable scenery.
But just a word of warning.
It doesn't rain that often in this country,
but when it does,
a thunderstorm could dump five or six inches back in those hills,
and yet down here we haven't got one spot of rain.
We haven't a clue what's happened.
Let me tell you a story
that my people have told to me many times
about probably one of the worst tragedies
that ever happened here in the Flinders Ranges.
A chap by the name of Harry Crocombe
had loaded his two daughters into his car at Port Augusta,
plus a girlfriend of theirs,
and they were going up to Corn.
And they were coming down this road,
and a day similar to this.
A few spots of rain, heavy clouds,
and back in the ranges there'd been four or five inches of rain,
a very heavy downpour, and all this was building up.
Just before Harry pulled into this creek, approached it,
another chap from Corn had stopped over here,
a chap by the name of Harry Treburkey.
He pulled up because he'd heard a roar,
and he wondered what this roar was.
And as he looked up the creek here,
he sees a wall of water coming down, 15 to 20 feet high,
and at the same moment,
Crocombe and his family is driving into this creek,
and he waved frantically, trying to go back, go back, go back,
and they'd seen him,
and they probably thought,
Who in the hell's he waving to?
And they didn't take no notice of him.
He drove into this creek as this water came, and whoosh, the lot.
One minute, the whole thing's all over.
All that was left here to show of that
was the seat out of Crocombe's car,
15 feet up in the branches of a tree.
And I remember my mother telling me many times,
when she used to go down the street shopping,
she used to go past Mrs Crocombe's place,
and this dear old lady, even 10 years later,
would be out leaning over the fence, looking,
hoping for that car to drive back with her family
that had been wiped out in this creek.
Anybody that would camp down there would be very, very foolish.
You must come up out of the creek bed.
Then there's no risk of water worrying you at all,
and also you've got to get away from underneath
those big branches on the gum trees,
because when you get a change of temperature,
they just snap off and come down.
It's always best to make your camp before it gets dark.
While there's plenty of life, go and get your wood,
set your camp up, roll your swag out, do all these little things.
There's no hassle.
There's nothing worse than chasing around out there
looking for wood in the dark.
And then you can sit back and enjoy this,
the best time of the day.
I've got me fire going, me billy on, me tucking.
If you ever had kangaroo cooked in a camp oven,
it is really something.
A short story about a tall family.
We like everything tall.
So they got the Sigma high roof wagon.
It's tall, Dad.
And off they went to pick up this tall load.
Plenty of leg room.
And because they chose the Dynamic Astron Mark II engine,
they had all the power to climb this tall hill.
Sigma high roof wagon for the long, the short...
Come on, shorty.
And the tall from Mitsubishi, carmaker of the year, again.
McDonald's had the number one taste in chicken, so start dipping.
McDonald's chicken with nuggets, they're the biggest and the best.
Chicken with nuggets in packs are six, nine and twenty.
They're a step ahead of the rest.
Tender boneless chicken, McNugget dipping.
Fodderless and sausage is there for the picking.
It's a good time for the great taste.
Chicken McNuggets.
Of McDonald's.
Listen, I don't know how they found out about Kmart's Manchester sale
before you did, but they're buying like crazy.
Dickie's towels, piles and piles of them,
all coming down to a low 8.87.
Invictus Soft Sleep Pure Nourish,
Wool Pile Underblankets, Single, Double and Queen size,
all 15 dollars off.
And 25% off the entire Rio range of plain dyed sheets,
pillowcases and balances.
You can't do better than Kmart.
Rio.
Kmart.
In Women's Day this week, we talked with surrogate mother,
would you have a baby for your sister?
Bianca Jagger speaks frankly.
Could it be that Mick doesn't like women?
That tomato in your fridge could be a beauty treatment,
won't you look saucy?
Plus a free 16 page crepe book and a free gold bracelet offer.
No wonder people are saying what a difference the day makes.
We'd love to hear from you too.
What a difference the day makes to you.
They pushed him until they drew first blood.
Now he's battling for his honour and fighting for his life.
Sylvester Stallone in First Blood, the original Rambo Adventure.
Another Toyota Super Show, 8.30 tonight on 10.
It's been nice having you with me on this trip.
I've had a lot of fun showing you all these tips.
And I'm sure you've got a lot of pleasure out of it.
If you take notice of me,
the things that I've shown you through this program,
I'll guarantee that you will have a better holiday in the outback
because you'll travel safer, because you're confident.
You'll say, well, no worries here, I can do that, and course you can.
Some of the things I've showed you, try them home in your backyard.
Hook a plastic bag on a tree and see where it gets the water out.
You'll get a lot of fun out of this.
And if all this fails, I've got one more little tip for you.
Get a pack of cards and start playing Patience.
Just start playing Patience.
And I will guarantee that somebody will lean over your shoulder
and say, look, that black tin goes on that red jack.
And then you can ask him for help.
Nice knowing you. See you later.
I've got some work today.
A short story about a tall family.
We like everything tall.
So they got the Sigma high roof wagon.
It's tall, Dad.
And off they went to pick up this tall load.
Plenty of leg room.
And because they chose the Dynamic Astrone Mark II engine,
they had all the power to climb this tall hill.
Sigma high roof wagon for the long, the short...
Come on, Shorty.
And the tall from Mitsubishi, carmaker of the year, again.
We've shared the load together to build a better land.
We forged a bond that goes beyond.
Hey, mate, give us a hand.
Modern technology is making our farmers more productive.
We'll never break that give and take
because everyone can see that you can't take the country
out of our country.
No, you can't take the country out of our country.
Free from Mitre 10, the green thumb sail catalogue.
Fantastic.
Look at this wheelbarrow.
It holds four cubic feet,
and it's got a live 16-inch pneumatic-tired wheel.
Super value at only $49.95.
And this is fantastic lawn seed.
One kilo covers 35 square metres.
All the instructions are on the back, only $325.
And see these carousel planters.
Three sizes, lots of colours.
The sources click on easily, and just look at the prices.
There's plenty more to it.
Mitre 10's green thumb sail.
Look in the catalogue.
It's fantastic.
Sorry, that's not good enough.
Why is it that when you say stationery,
some companies stand still?
It doesn't happen with the big wigs.
You may have known that wigs were big,
but maybe you didn't know they were big in stationery.
They've been keeping it secret for over 130 years.
So now I am telling you, for all your stationery needs,
call the big wigs.
Say stationery and watch them move.
We call it Golden Rod,
and we've been using it for nearly five years.
It was this remarkable portable television transmitter
that enabled Eyewitness News to pioneer the regular use
of live stories and news bulletins in South Australia.
Today Eyewitness News continues to pioneer live television news,
not just taking its viewers live around Adelaide,
but live to just about anywhere in the world
where news is happening.
It's part of our commitment to bring you more news
from more places more quickly than anyone else.
What I'm trying to do here is do a painting of Sturt
trying to make friends with the Aborigines.
Now, he was renowned for this.
Now, except for that one incident down at Fort Grey,
I don't think there's another time
that he had any problems with the Aborigines
because he went out of his way to help them,
say, to give them damper or meat if he had it,
and also to seek their help.
And when he got to the Cooper here,
they were immense help to him because they told him
there was no water this way or no water that way,
and it became a good friendship,
and he was renowned for this.
And this is what I've been trying to do.
But, look, that's enough of that.
I want to let that dry for a while.
Come on, I want to show you something.
When I look at the evidence here of all these mussel shells,
now, this proves to me straight away
that this channel of the Cooper is loaded with mussels.
When you look at the size of some of these shells,
like there's almost a feed in one shell,
now, what I'm trying to illustrate to you
that when you go into Australia's inland,
now, it doesn't matter if it's an earth dam or a spring
or, in this case, the mighty Coopers Creek.
Have a look what's in the water
because, look, with all this evidence here,
this Cooper has fed these aborigines for thousands of years
on fish, mussels, probably yabbies,
could be shrimps, could be anything.
Now, it's not unreasonable to say
that it could easily feed you for a week or so.
It's worth thinking about, isn't it?
That pelican knows where the tucker is.
See all these bird tracks here
where the birds have been having a feed?
Look, see where they've been opening them? See that?
Now, wait a minute, here's a full one over here.
Look at that. Beautiful.
And if you get around in the mud here,
see, you'll find there's another one, see?
The aborigines would get them out of the river like that,
and then they'd just take them up
and throw them on the coals on their fires,
and when they opened, they'd then eat them.
And if they could do this, so can you.
Now, I've tried these many times,
and look, they're as tough as old boots,
but there's no reason why you wouldn't survive on them.
Another little tip for you.
Before I leave this part of the Koopa,
I've just taken a bucket of water out of there,
and it's pretty cloudy.
Not real bad, but mostly in the whole of Australia,
whether it's a dam where the Yabbies are
or the Koopas Creek or the Diamantine
or any of these rivers, they're invariably all muddy.
They look very cloudy.
Now, a lot of people can't drink that.
They just couldn't get it down.
Now, I'm going to show you very simply
how to clear that water, and it's quite safe.
And what I'm going to do...
I've got some Epsom salts here,
and I'll put a half a teaspoon of Epsom salts,
just sprinkle that on the top of this water,
and that will clear it.
We'll just leave that for a few minutes.
See the difference?
Not bad.
Dash of whiskey would improve it, but it's all right.
That even feels good.
Now, like all good things,
this program's coming to an end.
Now, I've enjoyed this trip,
showing you some of the search travels up through this country.
I hope you've got a lot of pleasure out of it.
And I also had a lot of fun showing you the little things
which you can think about when you go bush next time,
the Yabbies and the dams and the fish in the Koopas Creek.
And I'm going to stop here for a few days now
and paint on the Koopa.
I like doing this.
And possibly I might see you up here one day.
Until next time, see you again.
I've got some work to do.