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00:00OK, anyhow, back the benders here, coming out of Sioux Street!
00:11Woo!
00:16Happy days! Have a look at that!
00:20Amazing!
00:24Central Australia possibly doesn't get any better than this.
00:28Uh-oh, looks looking bad.
00:30The thrills and spells of Northern Territory's heart range races.
00:35And that's where I'm heading.
00:41I'm Rae Johnston, and in this special double episode of Backroads,
00:45I'm following part of what's known as the Binns Track,
00:49a challenging 2,200-kilometre four-wheel-drive adventure,
00:55snaking through the middle of the Northern Territory.
00:59The Binns Track starts at Mount Dare.
01:03It's about 10km south of the Northern Territory-South Australia border.
01:07Gonna head up through the Simpson Desert,
01:11skirt around Alice Springs here,
01:14head through the East Mack Ranges,
01:16and hopefully make it in time for the Harts Range Races.
01:21I want to discover how this remote outback track
01:25attracts people to live, work and travel
01:28in this challenging part of Australia.
01:31Cheers!
01:32It might even take me to places I wasn't even imagining.
01:37My motto is, expect the unexpected,
01:40and be prepared for anything.
01:43Oh, boy! Hey!
01:46There we go!
01:47There we go!
02:00The Binns Track, created by a long-serving
02:03Northern Territory Parks Ranger, Bill Binns,
02:07actually begins in South Australia,
02:09right next to the Mount Dare Hotel.
02:12With the nearest major town a six-hour drive away,
02:17this lonely resting place is popular with travellers
02:20exploring the remote western edges of the Simpson Desert.
02:32Manager Shaney Scott has made sure
02:35it's a destination worth the effort.
02:38This is awesome.
02:40Thank you. We're pretty proud of it.
02:41Tell me about what's going on here.
02:43Okay, so we have the flying doctors come a lot
02:45because we have people on motorbikes
02:47who have accidents quite regularly.
02:49Uh-huh.
02:49So we like to raise money for them
02:51and help them in any way we can.
02:52So this is part of that fundraising effort?
02:54Exactly. How does it work?
02:55Right, so if you want to put a stubby holder up,
02:57we charge you $10.
02:59Yeah.
03:00If you want to put a hat up, it's $25.
03:02And if you want to put a shirt up, it's $50.
03:04Yeah.
03:04However, after a few drinks,
03:06some people will go up to $1,000 up here.
03:09They're happy to part with the $1,000.
03:11Yeah, absolutely.
03:12Start thinking about the need
03:13they might have for the service one day maybe.
03:16Exactly.
03:24So this is the most remote pub in the whole country,
03:29is that right?
03:29It is. Yes.
03:30So how did you end up here?
03:31Well, my family come from the high country in Victoria.
03:35I was working with horses and I broke my neck
03:37so I could no longer work with horses.
03:38Oh, gosh.
03:39I'm sorry about that.
03:39And one day...
03:40Oh, it happens.
03:41One day my parents came to my place and said,
03:43we bought a pub.
03:43And they were cattle farmers.
03:45Did not expect them to say a pub at all.
03:48And then they told me where they bought a pub.
03:52I won't tell you what my answer was, but it was...
03:55Yeah, I was in shock.
03:56And the plan was never for me to come up,
03:58but they came up, took over in 2015.
04:01By August, they needed me.
04:03So I came up and within...
04:05Took me about six weeks before I got...
04:07Before I understood it.
04:09And then I think I got what's called red sand fever.
04:12Oh, I've heard about this.
04:13Oh, it's true.
04:14It's like you get the dust, it gets under your skin,
04:16it gets in your veins and you never want to leave.
04:18Exactly.
04:19Yeah?
04:19It's like when you come on the red dust,
04:21it's like a warm hug.
04:22Oh, I love that.
04:24So being here at the pub, being as remote as you are,
04:28what does the day-to-day look like for you?
04:30I tell you, there is an adventure here every single day.
04:33Not always a welcome one, but always an adventure.
04:36So it is never boring.
04:42Perhaps the most important hotel staff member
04:46for outback travellers like me
04:48is 21-year-old jack-of-all-trades, James.
04:54When vehicles get stuck,
04:56it's up to people like James to recover them
04:59in this enormous ex-military vehicle called a Unimog.
05:05Today he's got a call-out for a vehicle broken down
05:0870 kilometres away in the Simpson Desert.
05:13So we're off to do a recovery.
05:16How many of these are you doing lately?
05:18Oh, well, last year I reckon I did less than five.
05:22Yeah.
05:23And this year I've lost count.
05:25What do you reckon it is?
05:27Why are people getting stuck?
05:30I can't tell you honestly.
05:32There's so many factors.
05:34It could be down to the driver,
05:35they're just abusing their vehicles too much,
05:37or vehicle reliability,
05:39they're not getting their vehicles checked up
05:41before coming out here.
05:42Yeah.
05:43I mean, right now, you know,
05:44you can see how harsh these roads are.
05:47It takes a toll on every vehicle out here.
05:50So how long have you been out here for?
05:52I'd say collectively a year now.
05:54Yeah?
05:55So two seasons.
05:55I was just travelling through last year
05:57and ended up landing a job and haven't left since.
06:01So where'd you come here from?
06:03I'm from Tassie.
06:04Yeah?
06:05Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:05That's a bit of a weather shift for you.
06:06It's a little bit of a polar opposite, isn't it?
06:09No, I was just...
06:11Ever since I turned 17,
06:12I just started travelling around Australia, pretty much.
06:14I'm hearing from a lot of people
06:16that once you get the red dust in your veins,
06:18it's hard to leave.
06:18Yeah, I fell in love with it.
06:20I fell in love with it pretty quick, eh?
06:22Yeah?
06:24What do you reckon it is?
06:26I think it's because it's just so different
06:27to everything else in Australia,
06:29especially for me coming from Tassie,
06:30where it's very green, very lush,
06:33lots of trees, to this, where it's just...
06:36There's nothing.
06:37Yeah, this looks like the surface of Mars or something.
06:39There's about a trillion rocks, you know?
06:41That's pretty awesome.
06:43The stranded vehicle is stuck
06:46at a popular four-ball-drive campsite
06:48at Dalhousie Springs
06:50in the Wichara National Park.
06:59So, what have you done to it? What's happened?
07:01The weld around the exhaust pipe,
07:03the manifold thing is broken
07:05and the exhaust just dropped down
07:06and it's blowing hot stuff onto electrics and stuff.
07:11Fun times.
07:12Yeah.
07:17Ooh!
07:23Perfect. That's good.
07:29So, what are you doing out here?
07:31I'm trying to get across the Simpson Desert.
07:33A few oldies sort of just do this sort of thing for fun.
07:36I retired. Well, I'm 75.
07:38I retired eight months ago.
07:40It was just a case of go and do it.
07:42Yeah.
07:42So, we go and do it.
07:43And you've got a good crew that you do it with then?
07:45I think it's just developed a group of people
07:48who like the same sort of thing.
07:50Yeah.
07:51Getting out. Just getting out, sitting around the campfire,
07:53sitting around chewing the fat and doing five ads for the bugger all.
07:56Can't be beat.
07:57Can't be beat.
08:01You come out here often?
08:03Well, this is my fifth attempt.
08:05Fifth?
08:05What happened on the other, the other four times?
08:08COVID.
08:10Um, floods.
08:11Yeah.
08:13Illness.
08:14And now it's the car.
08:15There's a spirit out there who doesn't want me to see it.
08:18Maybe.
08:18Yeah, I think there's something telling you.
08:20You probably shouldn't be out here, mate.
08:21Yeah.
08:23No.
08:28See you later, guys.
08:35It's not cheap, recovering vehicles.
08:39In extreme rescues, dragging a crippled car and its occupants
08:44out of the Simpson Desert can cost up to $10,000.
08:54I tell you what, it's a cracking day.
08:57It is a perler, isn't it?
08:59Perler.
09:00Shaney's parents, Sandra and Graham, are on final approach to Mount Dare.
09:05Well, it'll be good to get home, won't it?
09:08Yeah.
09:09You can't beat the lead sand.
09:17Sandra and Graham now live south of Adelaide,
09:20on the Fleurya Peninsula, having passed on the running of the hotel
09:24to Shaney and her brothers.
09:27They still come back to Mount Dare to help out,
09:30especially during the busy winter months.
09:34Outback pubs are like a small town under one roof,
09:38offering accommodation, meals, friendship, fuel, car repair,
09:43even emergency medical response.
09:46But I imagine owning one is not all chilled wine and desert sunsets.
09:55When we first heard that it was on the market,
09:58I just said, well, who would ever want to live at Mount Dare?
10:02Seriously.
10:04Turns out six weeks later we bought it.
10:07We just didn't feel like retiring.
10:09Yeah.
10:09Didn't know what we'd do.
10:10We actually thought we'd sell the farms and travel,
10:13go around the world, see all these beautiful places.
10:16And we ended up here.
10:19What do you reckon the biggest challenges of being out here is?
10:22Well, it's the distance.
10:25Everything is more difficult because of the distance.
10:28Getting our supplies in, just getting here,
10:30you know, at various times of the year,
10:32whether rain comes or the roads are bad,
10:35it's just difficult to simply get in here.
10:37If you're running a business,
10:38it just happens to be pretty remote.
10:41Do you reckon there's a certain type of person
10:43that's attracted to living in the outback?
10:46Oh, yeah.
10:47Absolutely.
10:48What are they like?
10:49Us.
10:52To live out here,
10:54hey, you've got to not mind the remoteness,
10:56and you've got to be adaptable and flexible.
11:06The unique challenges of working in the hotel's kitchen
11:09attracts people from all over the world.
11:13So, I'm doing a bit of everything.
11:14For the last few weeks, I've been the cook as well,
11:16so I'm pretty much only sticking to that role now.
11:21Nick is from Belgium and is exploring Australia on a bicycle.
11:27With this bike, I did so far pretty much 14,000 kilometres in Australia.
11:3214,000?
11:34When I came here, I wasn't really expected,
11:37because my plan was to go all the way from Adelaide to Darwin,
11:41but I kind of run out of money.
11:44Yep.
11:45When I got to that pub, they were looking for some stuff,
11:47and I just went like, yeah.
11:50So, what's it like working here?
11:52We are in a place that is so far away from anything, really.
11:58Yeah, really working here is really interesting,
11:59because, like, I'm from a country which is, like, very populated, very dense.
12:03Here, it's like, yeah, there's nothing around,
12:05so it's completely different,
12:07and when I tell my friends and family back in Europe,
12:09they say, like, oh, OK, yeah, there's pretty much nothing there, so...
12:17I still want to travel and enjoy the way that I travel
12:22while I'm still young.
12:29Inspired by Nick's adventurous spirit,
12:31I'm ready to take on the bins.
12:42One rule of remote travel is to avoid travelling alone.
12:47So, as I cross into the Northern Territory,
12:50I'm meeting up with some people
12:52who know every twist and turn and potential trap along this track.
13:12Hello.
13:13Hi. Hello.
13:14Ian Clarke.
13:15Nice to meet you.
13:16Welcome to the Territory.
13:17This is our Outback 4-Wall Drive Club.
13:19Thanks so much for having me.
13:22Alice Springs Outback 4-Wall Drive Club
13:25are going to convoy with me
13:26as I travel through one of the most remote sections of Bins Track.
13:33Keep your eyes peeled.
13:34Ooh, jeez.
13:36All right.
13:37Ian Clarke is the club's safety officer
13:40and is happy to pass on some off-road driving tips.
13:44What different kinds of terrain am I to expect on the Bins Track?
13:48Bulldust.
13:49And it can be the worst bulldust you'll find in Australia.
13:52So, what's bulldust?
13:54It's a very fine clay...
13:56Oh.
13:56When it breaks down, it's just like quicksand almost.
14:00The risk with it is it looks quite smooth.
14:05Yeah.
14:05But it's so soft, you sink in and it's full of holes.
14:09It's not nearly as bad as when I was out here, working out here.
14:13The bulldust would take you half an hour to get through.
14:16Oh, wow.
14:16And you'd have everything wound up.
14:19No air-conditioning.
14:20Gets into the mid-50s out here.
14:28How do you know all the land along the Bins Track so well?
14:31I used to do 2,000 kilometres a week, just keeping water up to the cattle on Andado Station.
14:37I'd be on the Bins Track for most of it.
14:40Wow.
14:41But also crossing sand dunes across the Gibber Plains and all that sort of stuff.
14:47You'd have to love country out here to spend that much time on it.
14:50It's a special place to me and to a lot of people.
14:56There is something about the desert, about this area, that it just clears the mind.
15:04I can be as stressed as I like into the red sand and it lifts.
15:14Are we going through bulldust?
15:16This is a bit of bulldust, yeah.
15:17Alright.
15:18Can you feel it?
15:18I can feel it.
15:19It feels sticky, almost.
15:21And rough.
15:25Okay, that's bulldust.
15:28That was a big hole there.
15:31Okay, just gentle momentum, gentle momentum.
15:34Alright, alright.
15:35You're right.
15:36Because if I stop suddenly and then try to start again, the wheels would start speeding.
15:39You're bitten, you're bogged.
15:40And that's why you four-wheel drive with a mate, right?
15:43So they can winch you out?
15:44Basically, yes.
15:47See?
15:47I got through bulldust, Dean.
15:49Do I get a high five for that or what?
15:53Do I get a high five for that or what?
15:56Oh, oh, oh.
15:57Um, yeah.
15:58Steady.
15:58Oh, oh, oh, oh.
16:00Oh, yay!
16:01There we go.
16:08I know it's dangerous, but it's a little bit fun to drive through.
16:14I like to think my new four-wheel driving skills have helped us make it to our overnight
16:20stop.
16:21A hundred kilometres north of Mount Dare and on the western edge of the Simpson Desert.
16:26This is Old Andado Station, a now abandoned homestead along the track where camping is
16:34still permitted.
16:37Oh, where's that one go?
16:42It's good to be able to slow down and celebrate this stunning desert landscape.
16:49Cheers!
16:50Tomorrow, I want to find out more about Old Andado Station and the stories that it holds.
17:05Old Andado Homestead was last occupied by a true outback pioneer, Molly Clark.
17:14Wow.
17:15So these are the outhouses behind us.
17:17OK.
17:18Meathouse, blacksmith.
17:20Why is it hanging up?
17:21Everything's here as though it was as Molly left it.
17:26It's amazing it's still standing when you really think about it, when you see so many ruins
17:30in this country to think that this is still standing from 1927.
17:38I met her a few times, just sort of in passing.
17:42What did she strike you as?
17:43What kind of person?
17:45Oh, you know, tough.
17:48She was a bit of a battle axe, but she faced a lot.
17:51She went through a lot.
17:52And she did it tough.
17:53And she lived here until the early 2000s.
18:10Molly and her husband, Malcolm Clark, once ran the original Andado cattle station.
18:17Tragically, Molly lost both her husband and eldest son to accidents in the 1970s, followed
18:25by her entire cattle stock, destroyed due to a disease outbreak.
18:31Forced to sell the property, she insisted on retaining the old homestead to live in.
18:38This really is just a time capsule, isn't it?
18:41It's amazing.
18:43Molly passed away in care, aged 89.
18:47And the house has been retained exactly as she left it, cared for by a small group of volunteers.
18:54It's kind of incredible to see someone's life just memorialised and preserved like this.
19:04I kind of get the feeling that Molly might still be here.
19:14Our travels now take us further into the Simpson Desert.
19:19A landscape characterised by massive parallel sand dunes.
19:25Just off the bins track, we come across the Mack Clark Reserve, so named after Molly's husband, Malcolm.
19:33Mack had the foresight to fence off sections of Andado Station to protect what are known as one of Australia's
19:41rarest trees.
19:42The acacia puce, or wadi wood.
19:52These Dr Seuss-looking trees surely must be survival experts.
19:58Out here, the average annual rainfall is only 150 millimetres.
20:06These isolated trees at Malcolm's Reserve and Molly's pioneering life at Old Andado, both demonstrate an impressive way to survive
20:17out in these harsh desert conditions.
20:21What a legacy they've both left along the bins.
20:35Oh, no way!
20:38Look at that!
20:41Bin's track has snared its latest victim, and it's one of the Four Wheel Drive Club's vehicles.
20:49So we get through the bulldust.
20:52Puncture.
20:53Full blowout.
20:54You cannot guarantee what's going to happen on the bins, I reckon.
20:58You've just got to be prepared.
21:01I'm guessing you guys have got this under control.
21:03You don't need a hand.
21:05Yeah!
21:08There we go.
21:10Crisis averted.
21:11Sorry.
21:12Get to hit the track again.
21:16With over 400 kilometres remaining until the Harts Range races, I need to say goodbye to the club and keep
21:23travelling.
21:24My next stop on the bins track, Ginger Porter.
21:31The community of Ginger Porter, also known as Santa Teresa, was originally established as a Catholic mission in the early
21:391950s.
21:41The missionaries forced the Aboriginal people to abandon their language and belief systems and fully adopt the Catholic religion.
21:51The mission closed in the late 1970s, but I'm keen to explore if the Catholic faith still remains central to
22:00life out here.
22:04But first, it looks like I've lucked in.
22:07The school athletics carnival is in full swing.
22:24Ginger Porter's school aims to prepare students to thrive in both the broader Australian society and their traditional world.
22:35Each week, a class led by Carmel Ryan teaches the children the local world.
22:40All Arunda language.
22:46Nearby the school is a much quieter part of the community.
22:52This is the spirituality centre.
22:55Here, women hand paint crosses and send them out to parishioners across the world, including the Vatican.
23:03I wonder how painting these crosses allows the women to connect their Catholic faith with their cultural knowledge.
23:13Hi.
23:15Hello.
23:16How are you?
23:17Good, thank you.
23:19Community artist and elder Claire Young spends most mornings here.
23:25It's always nice to come here, meet up with the ladies, take up with the gossip and all that.
23:33Gossip while you paint?
23:35Yeah.
23:36It's good.
23:38Crosses has always been a part of our community.
23:41It's part of our faith.
23:42And do it in our own style, you know, in dot paintings.
23:47Yeah.
23:47So it's a way for you to celebrate your faith.
23:51Celebrate our faith and express how we feel, you know, on our crosses.
23:55Yeah.
23:56We're trying to build ourselves up to depend on ourselves.
24:00Yeah.
24:01This is a part of that.
24:02Yes.
24:03Yeah.
24:04People all around the world buy these.
24:06Mm-hmm.
24:07It's pretty special.
24:08Yes.
24:14The original Santa Teresa mission included a school and dormitories for Aboriginal children.
24:22Aiming to assimilate Aboriginal people into Australia's then predominantly Anglo-Saxon society.
24:30Now look for all of you.
24:32Many of the children had been forcibly separated from their families.
24:45So tell me about this building.
24:47This was a building where the nuns were looking after the girls from the community.
24:54This used to be a dormitory.
24:56Wow.
24:57For the young, young girls.
25:00Is it difficult to keep faith with the Catholic Church when it did do wrong back then?
25:10Well, we learned to accept it, you know.
25:12We couldn't get anything back.
25:14Nobody came back.
25:16It was done.
25:17Is making art in this place part of healing from that?
25:23Part of painting and telling people our stories.
25:29And our faith made us strong.
25:33Made us build our lives back up after what happened to our parents and our aunties and our grandparents.
25:40Yeah.
25:41Yeah.
25:41Mm-hmm.
25:42Yeah.
25:44But we had to move forward, you know.
25:46We couldn't look back.
25:47We had to keep going.
25:48Yeah.
25:49To be more stronger and better, I think.
25:51Yeah.
25:52And we're still doing it.
25:57Mm-hmm.
25:59Mm-hmm.
25:59Mm-hmm.
25:59Mm-hmm.
25:59Good.
26:00Good.
26:00I know you've got a little bit of tears in your eyes.
26:03I can see it.
26:04Yeah.
26:05Yeah.
26:05My grandfather and his brother were stolen.
26:08So I...
26:09Yeah.
26:11When you talk about it, you can have tears in your eyes, you know, because it's still there.
26:14Yeah.
26:15In your heart.
26:16Yeah.
26:17It will never fully be healed, you know.
26:22You'll still always have that little piece in your heart about your aunties and your grandparents.
26:29It'll always be there.
26:31And when you talk about it, it opens the door, you know.
26:34Yeah.
26:34But I hope, you know, maybe in the future, but still going, we'll get stronger and stronger
26:41and better and better understanding.
26:45Yeah.
26:46Mm-hmm.
26:48Only time will tell.
26:54Thank you, too, for listening.
26:56Always.
26:57It's important.
26:59Yes.
27:00What began as a road trip through Central Australia has become a surprisingly emotional
27:06journey for me, marked by shared culture and grief.
27:12At the start of my adventure, the desert was described as like getting under your skin,
27:18getting into your veins.
27:21Halfway through my journey along the bins, I think I now appreciate what that warm hug of
27:27the red sand fever really means.
27:40Next time, the bins track takes me deep into the East McDonnell Ranges.
27:48Out here, you can really appreciate the beauty of the red centre.
27:53I've learnt to expect the unexpected.
27:56Happy days!
27:57Have a look at that!
27:59Amazing!
28:00So, you've only ridden a horse like ten times and you get out there and do this?
28:04Yeah.
28:04And I finally make it to the thrilling Hearts Range races.
28:12The End
28:13The End
28:13You
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