Lonely Planet: Natural Born Traveller
The Great
Divide
R4 DVD
Distributor
Beyond Home Entertainment
Web: http://www.beyondhomeentertainment.com.au
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
Steve Crombie has a dream to cross each of
the continents on his motorbike. In this series, he starts in his home country
of Australia. The series chronicles his trip from Mount Sterling in Victoria,
north along the Great Dividing Range to Helensvale in the far north of
Queensland where the Range peters out in the flat lands around the Gulf of
Carpentaria.
First, a brief geography lesson. The east
coast of Australia is dominated by the Great Dividing Range, a low range of
mountains that follows the east coast between ten and fifty miles inland, from
the cool alpine lands in the south to the dense rainforests of the north.
Although there are decent highways along the coast and even along much of the
Divide, Crombie, traveling on a motorbike, gets to travel to parts that most
tourists will never see. He also talks to many of the quirky locals that prefer
to live in the small mountain towns. He has about forty days to complete the
trip, because the “Wet”, the northern monsoonal wet season, will start about then
and the roads will become impassable.
One advantage of traveling by bike soon
becomes obvious – the scenery off the main roads is magnificent and unspoiled,
and the unnamed cinematographers have captured some of the most beautiful parts
of Australia.
Crombie interrupts his trip to talk to the
locals in many places. Rounding up cattle in the High Plains of Mt Koszciusko,
the highest part of the Divide, learning to ride a wild bull, capturing a three
metre snake, or canyoning in the Blue Mountains – experiences that most people
will never have. There are also the local “characters” as well. The hippies
from the commune town of Nimbin interview him on their local radio station – in
the nude. He meets a semi-retired manager of a boxing tent show – “I have a reputation
as dirty fighter – somebody hits me and I shit myself”. Crombie himself does
not seem to be a natural presenter, but he lets the people do most of the
talking. He also shows respect for the traditions of the Aboriginal tribes and
their culture, who feature prominently in the various episodes.
Perhaps it is this lack of professional
skill that makes the show look so natural. It is not just a tourist show, but a
closer look at the country. I quite enjoyed it, and my only criticism is that
at four half-hour episodes it was too short.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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