Travels With Agatha Christie And Sir David Suchet S01 E02
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00:00In 1922, an emerging young novelist wrote a short story for a magazine. That novelist
00:18was Agatha Christie. And the short story is thought to be her first to appear in print.
00:27I'm reading a very early written short story by Agatha Christie called The Wife of the
00:33Canite. There's no murder mystery to solve, there's no detectives, there's no Miss Marple
00:41or Hercule Poirot. This is a revenge story and it's rather bloody. I think I'm reading
00:47a young author trying to find out what type of writer she's going to be. And what is also
00:53fascinating to me is that this short story is published not in England, but in Australia.
01:06Before Agatha Christie was famous, she travelled the world with her husband Archie. The couple
01:13were part of a special mission tasked with championing the upcoming British Empire exhibition.
01:22Held in London in 1924, the exhibition was designed to boost trade and strengthen the
01:28bonds between nations. Now, a century later, I'm following in Agatha's footsteps.
01:38I am David Suchet, and I played Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot for 25 years. Armed with my
01:47trusty camera, I'm recreating her incredible journey through Southern Africa, Australia,
01:59Canada and New Zealand.
02:05Welcome.
02:07And I'm even following her on holiday to Hawaii. I want to find out what was happening in these
02:14countries in the 1920s and learn about the legacy of empire.
02:20We want that which belongs to Africa to return back to Africa.
02:26I'll discover how this journey influenced Agatha's life and her writing.
02:31Oh, wow. This is a rave review. I wouldn't mind a review like this for some of my performances.
02:38And through seeing what she saw.
02:40That is extraordinary.
02:44I'll learn more about the woman whose work has played such a pivotal part in my own career.
02:51She embraced life for all it was worth. Wow, what a discovery.
03:11When Agatha Christie, her husband Archie, and the cantankerous leader of their empire
03:17mission, Major Ernest Belcher, arrived in Australia, Agatha had barely begun the literary
03:24journey that would make her the best-selling novelist of all time.
03:29Instead, in May 1922, she found herself in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.
03:49Founded as a British settlement in 1804, Hobart would become a notorious destination for convicts.
03:58I'm meeting local storyteller, Jess.
04:02Hello, Jess.
04:04Hey, David. Welcome to Hobart.
04:07Who can show me some remnants of this history.
04:14This is where the convicts that were sent here would have got off.
04:18That monument stands on the original site of the gallows.
04:21What, there?
04:22Yeah.
04:23So the first thing you see when you get off the ship is a little reminder that you need to behave.
04:28Quite a deterrent.
04:30You could say that. It was a fear-based society.
04:33Now, look, just behind that monument, I see H. Jones and Company.
04:38And I know that Agatha Christie and the delegation came here and visited that.
04:46That's a jam factory, isn't it?
04:48It was.
04:49Yes.
04:49And indeed, it was run by Henry Jones at one point in time.
04:53The delegation had come here to learn about the Tasmanian fruit industry
04:58and the modern techniques being employed at Henry Jones' factory.
05:04This photo is from the 1930s.
05:06So if you take a look through there.
05:08Just look through here?
05:09Yeah.
05:09Tell me, has much changed?
05:14Oh my goodness, it's exactly the same.
05:18Okay, there's a horse and cart there, but otherwise, no, it's almost identical.
05:23And what's interesting for me is that I'm looking at what Agatha Christie would have seen.
05:30Yes, exactly. It really hasn't changed.
05:32That's extraordinary.
05:33So I excel jams.
05:35Yeah.
05:36It was his personal motto.
05:38I excel at everything I do.
05:41Jam was produced at this factory until the 1970s.
05:46And when part of it was converted into a boutique hotel 20 years ago,
05:51the architects were careful to preserve its history.
05:57Meaning, I can see much of what Agatha saw.
06:03This is the beautiful staircase that was designed to both impress and intimidate.
06:08It's beautiful.
06:10It's gorgeous. It's Tasmanian blackwood.
06:12And when you come to see Henry Jones, you come through these doors.
06:17But as Agatha recorded in a beautifully witty and insightful letter,
06:22the factory's owner was somewhat elusive,
06:26which did not go down well with a certain member of the mission.
06:31Henry Jones was not here to show the leader of the delegation,
06:35Major Belcher, around the jam factory.
06:39And Belcher was furious.
06:42Agatha Christie writes in her letters back home that
06:46the pompous egos like Belcher don't go down well in Australia.
06:51Oh, I'd say that's about right.
06:54So we'll come upstairs and have a look.
06:56Right.
06:56Don't you reckon?
06:57Yes.
06:58I love the staircase.
07:00It's a bit squeaky in its old age, don't you think?
07:03Well, we all do.
07:07The oldest parts of this building date from 1823.
07:12And like many structures of that time, were built with convict labour.
07:19So this wall is a very important wall.
07:22Well, they needed to bind the mortar.
07:24And traditionally in England, you use horse hair.
07:27Horses are very thin on the ground here in the early 1800s.
07:30So we used a bit of possum fur,
07:32but we also used the hair from the convict women.
07:35And that's some of this here you can see in the wall.
07:37Oh, you're kidding me.
07:39Yeah.
07:40That's real hair from a convict?
07:43Yeah.
07:45I don't believe it.
07:48Oh, that leaves me quite cold.
07:50It really does.
07:54And this isn't this building's only relic of the past.
07:58When the hotel first opened in 2004, some other unnerving remnants emerged.
08:06On opening night, reception starts getting panicked phone calls
08:09from this room.
08:10And there's blood dripping down through the floorboards
08:12onto their fresh linen sheets.
08:15So reception comes up here very quickly.
08:18Upon further investigation, it turns out that the red splotches
08:22are in fact jam.
08:25We're above the jam factory floor here.
08:28120 years of jam steam going up into the rafters,
08:31and someone turns the heating on.
08:33Oh, I know.
08:34And the oil comes dripping back out.
08:37So this here is our biggest river of jam in the hotel.
08:41What an amazing story.
08:42Sounds like an Agatha Christie.
08:44It does rather, doesn't it?
08:46Rivers of Jam.
08:47Great title for a book.
08:56Following a series of appointments in Hobart,
08:59Agatha and the Empire delegation left the city
09:03and journeyed into the island's remote interior.
09:08Here, they would see a very different side to Tasmania.
09:14We're driving into the middle of the island.
09:21And it's so empty.
09:23There are hardly any cars on the road and certainly very few people.
09:28Another thing I'm noticing
09:30is that there are more and more power lines.
09:36Agatha, in her letters,
09:38goes into some wonderful descriptions of the trees
09:42and she writes,
09:45if there were nymphs in the woods, they would never be caught.
09:51And that shows a wonderful imagination
09:55and says a lot about the way that Agatha Christie thinks.
10:02But the delegation hadn't travelled here just to admire the scenery.
10:10They were on their way to see an ambitious hydroelectric scheme
10:15that had opened to great fanfare a few years earlier.
10:25The centrepiece of this grand project
10:28was the magnificent Wadhamanna power station.
10:42What a location this is.
10:45It's so remote and I'm looking at what Agatha Christie saw.
10:50I really feel that I'm back in time with her now.
10:54It's very exciting.
10:59When Agatha came here,
11:01Wadhamanna would have been a hive of activity
11:04with lots of work going on to boost capacity.
11:13Hello, Ian.
11:14Hello, David. Welcome to Wadhamanna.
11:16Thank you very much.
11:17Come on in and I'll show you around.
11:22The power station stopped generating electricity in 1964
11:27but has been meticulously preserved as a museum.
11:34So, David, this is the turbine hall floor.
11:37And how does it work?
11:39Well, the water came from the Great Lake.
11:41It was called the Great Lake Scheme
11:43and so they were building the dam
11:45which raised the level of the Great Lake
11:47by about ten feet
11:49and then that would come down the side,
11:51down the hill, into each of these two turbines down here.
11:54So the water would go into those, turn that?
11:57Yep.
11:58Like a watermill?
11:59Yeah, basically, yeah.
12:00Yeah, like a watermill.
12:01Spin that shaft and then that would then create...
12:04spin the magnets and that would then create
12:06that electromagnetic field which creates electricity.
12:09This is huge.
12:11How did all this machinery get here?
12:13By horse-drawn bogie carriages.
12:16By horse-drawn bogie carriages on a wooden railway.
12:19That's unbelievable.
12:20Over ten years of construction, basically, yeah.
12:2325,000 tonnes of material were brought in here.
12:27Unbelievable.
12:28Yeah, massive.
12:29Absolutely.
12:30And those first two turbines
12:32were what was powering Hobart in 1916.
12:34Yes.
12:35Now, when Agatha was here,
12:36we actually were buildings number three, four and five.
12:40How noisy would it have been?
12:42Well, if you...
12:43You know the jet engine,
12:44the amount of noise a jet engine would make?
12:46Yes.
12:47All nine of those up and running would be the sound of a jet engine.
12:51In Britain in the 1920s,
12:53electricity was still expensive and the industry was fragmented.
12:58So the delegation must have been fascinated by this new technology.
13:03Come on in, David.
13:04This is the engineer's office.
13:06And this is how Agatha would have been here
13:08on the 5th of May when she visited.
13:10Really?
13:11Yes, absolutely.
13:12This is the engineer's logbook
13:14that we took stats every half an hour
13:16of every machine that we had down here.
13:18And this red line here in particular
13:20is of interest of the power load that Hobart was using.
13:24One, two, three, four, five power trips on that particular load.
13:30Five power cuts in one day.
13:32In one day, yeah.
13:34So we really are at the pioneering stage of hydroelectricity.
13:38Absolutely, yeah.
13:40Presumably, the whole of Tasmania would have been incredibly proud.
13:44With the introduction of electricity into Tasmania with hydro,
13:47it brought us from childhood to adolescence, basically.
13:50Really?
13:51Yeah.
13:52And we just grew and grew.
13:54Wow.
13:55Constructing this power station in such an inaccessible place
13:59was no mean feat.
14:02A village had to be established,
14:04and Ian's wife Maureen was born here.
14:08Well, I hasten to add I wasn't here in the early days, David.
14:11No.
14:12And I've looked up the history of it.
14:14Being here in the early days was not easy.
14:16The privation was pretty significant.
14:19They gave you a canvas tent, a straw mattress.
14:23You had to buy your own shovel and you had to catch your own food.
14:27And what were the conditions like
14:29when Agatha would have been here, for example?
14:31Well, they were much better.
14:33There were houses and there were workers that were living here
14:37and families that were living here.
14:42I mean, she came on the Empire mission for the Great Exhibition,
14:46so this must have been a very important point in its development.
14:51I think it's a significant marker,
14:54and that's why it's now a National Engineering Monument.
14:57Because of what it actually contributed,
15:00beyond just Wadamana and a power line to Hobart,
15:06it was the first example
15:08where you could actually generate power from one place
15:13and transmit it significant distances.
15:20It was one of the first places in the world
15:22that they could actually have industrial, commercial and domestic power.
15:27It changed the landscape because people had paid work.
15:30There were industries now that employed people,
15:33and I think that, that whole notion of what started here
15:38has expanded across our state.
15:41We're 100% renewable.
15:43When you're standing here, you'll see the old pipelines coming down,
15:47and up on that hill, you'll see the wind turbines.
15:50The next generation.
15:52Next generation.
15:53So our government talks about Tasmania as the battery of the nation.
15:56We here at Wadamana say Wadamana was the first cell of that battery.
16:00I like that too.
16:01So if you wanted a good battery, you had to have a good start,
16:04and this is it.
16:05What a significance, and what a legacy.
16:08I mean, Agatha would have come here because it was so unique.
16:12We just say to ourselves often, Wadamana, what a place,
16:15because actually it has been a place that's transformed lives.
16:19Wadamana, what a place.
16:21What a place.
16:27This power station showed Agatha a modern Tasmania.
16:31But when she returned to Hobart,
16:33she was able to indulge one of her own interests
16:36and explore the island's history.
16:42She visited the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery,
16:46where some of what was on show in 1922
16:49is still on display today,
16:51including depictions of the earliest days of the penal colony.
16:58Looking at this picture of guard dogs
17:01across the narrowest part of the peninsula
17:04to stop convicts escaping,
17:07I can only imagine what it was like
17:10for convicts to be brought all the way from England.
17:15Some for major crimes, but also minor crimes, like stealing bread.
17:21But as more people arrived from overseas,
17:24Tasmania's indigenous population
17:27were driven from their lands and almost wiped out.
17:35By the time of Agatha's visit,
17:37they were treated as little more than museum pieces.
17:41The displays even included
17:43the skeleton of a Tasmanian aboriginal woman
17:47named Traganini, who had died in 1876.
17:56Today, these remains are no longer in the museum
18:00thanks to the hard work of campaigners
18:03from the Tasmanian aboriginal community.
18:06Now, you must be Zoe.
18:08I'm Zoe.
18:09Hello, how do you do?
18:10So nice to meet you.
18:11And you must be Teresa.
18:12I certainly am.
18:13What a pleasure.
18:14Pleased to meet you.
18:17Dr Zoe Rimmer and Teresa Sinti
18:20are going to show me where Traganini now rests.
18:26They're taking me downriver
18:28to find the remains of a Tasmanian aboriginal woman
18:32They're taking me downriver
18:34to a place that is highly significant in their culture.
18:45The Derwent Estuary
18:47is home to many rare and beautiful plants and animals.
18:58But its shores are also the site
19:00of an old penal settlement
19:02where Tasmanian aboriginal people were incarcerated.
19:12Welcome to Pudalina, also known as Oyster Cove.
19:18While it looks beautiful today,
19:20it wasn't such a nice place for our people
19:24back, you know, in the 1800s.
19:27In 1847, when our people were transported here,
19:31including Traganini,
19:33she was said to be the last Tasmanian aboriginal person
19:40and represented the extinction of our people.
19:45As the last survivor of those 47 people
19:48that were brought here to Pudalina,
19:50Traganini was really well aware of the treatment of her people
19:55after death.
19:56There was a lot of collection, digging up of graves,
19:59collection of human remains,
20:01sending them to museums overseas.
20:03And sadly, two years later,
20:05she was dug up by the Royal Society.
20:07She was?
20:08Yeah.
20:11I can't believe that human beings would do that.
20:17And what happened then?
20:20So, her remains were on display at the museum
20:24from about 1907 to 1947.
20:28Why did they say that Traganini
20:30was the last Tasmanian aboriginal
20:33when it's obvious that she wasn't?
20:36Well, it was convenient.
20:38By that point, there was the thinking
20:40that Tasmanian Aboriginal people were so primitive
20:43that we were doomed to extinction anyway.
20:45And calling Traganini the last
20:47was really about alleviating that colonial guilt.
20:51By the early 1970s,
20:52the Tasmanian Aboriginal community
20:54really started to campaign
20:56for both recognition of identity,
20:59but also part of that campaign
21:02was for the repatriation of Traganini's remains
21:05to the community
21:06so she could be given a proper ceremonial farewell.
21:09Her remains were cremated
21:11and brought out here into the Channel and scattered.
21:17This area is Traganini's traditional homelands.
21:21Is it?
21:22So, she's, you know,
21:23it's a beautiful and significant place now.
21:26It really is.
21:30Following the return of Traganini,
21:32the community really took on that fight
21:35to have all of our ancestors
21:37returned from museums around the globe.
21:40Today, the Tasmanian Aboriginal community
21:43are working with the museum to curate displays,
21:46which is helping them rediscover their culture and language.
21:51And can you now speak the original language?
21:55I can speak our revived language,
21:57so it's not exactly the same
21:59as what language spoken before invasion
22:03and throughout the colonisation.
22:05No.
22:06But all languages change.
22:09How do I say thank you very much?
22:13Ngarininatu.
22:15So, to you both,
22:17I ngarininatu.
22:19Ngarininatu to you two.
22:26After their tour of Tasmania,
22:28Agatha and the delegation
22:30swapped island life for the mainland.
22:36And the hustle and bustle of the big city.
22:42Here in Melbourne,
22:43a whirlwind of appointments and activities awaited them.
22:49MUSIC
22:53One of these was a dinner at the Grand Hotel,
22:56now called the Windsor,
22:58where, according to the newspapers,
23:00Major Belcher flattered his hosts with a rousing speech.
23:06This is Ernest Belcher,
23:08the leader of the British delegation.
23:12With regard to butter,
23:14I can say quite honestly
23:16that I've only tasted one quality in Australia,
23:20and that is the best.
23:23I think he got a round of applause after that.
23:26And towards the end of the speech, he said,
23:29in throwing yourselves, heart and soul,
23:31into the complete cooperation of Australia
23:34in this great undertaking,
23:36you're not only helping yourselves,
23:39but you're also helping the Empire.
23:43MUSIC
23:47As for me, I'm here for afternoon tea
23:50with a man said to be
23:52Australia's biggest Agatha Christie fan.
23:59So, Scott, thank you very much for being with me.
24:03And have you collected items that relate to Agatha?
24:07So many items.
24:09Have you?
24:10Yes.
24:11This here is my most treasured possession.
24:17And that is Agatha Christie's favourite brooch.
24:22I was there in the auction house,
24:24but two other people were bidding against me.
24:27I just kept putting my hand up,
24:29and the hammer came down,
24:31and the auction house erupted in applause.
24:34And I just thought, oh, no, what have I done?
24:38Well, I think you've done something extraordinary,
24:41and I'm thrilled to bits to be able to see it,
24:44let alone to touch it.
24:46Do you have any special knowledge of her time here,
24:52when she came in 1922 on her British Empire mission?
24:57Here we have Agatha Christie's second book,
25:01The Secret Adversary,
25:03The Secret Adversary,
25:05and it is signed.
25:10Oh, I see.
25:12This was published in 1922, so just before they left England.
25:17And it's made out to Max Coleman.
25:22Have you managed to find out anything
25:24about this elusive Max Coleman?
25:27Well, I may have, but this is the passenger list
25:30for the TSS Aeneas... Yes.
25:33..on that trip from South Africa to Australia.
25:36And right at the very top here, we have a Mr MGD Coleman.
25:41Oh. I wonder.
25:44I wonder if that's the same.
25:46I like to think it is.
25:48Well, they must have been together,
25:50otherwise she wouldn't have signed it.
25:52And what is interesting to me
25:54is that she was accompanying her husband,
25:58and she was sort of a wife following.
26:01But in actual fact, she was becoming somebody in her own right,
26:07somebody that the public was beginning to recognise
26:12that here was a real talent.
26:15And there, there's a passenger carrying one of her books already.
26:20So... It is amazing.
26:22It is amazing.
26:24And from then, of course, she just... It was an explosion.
26:29In fact, by the time Agatha arrived in Australia,
26:33the local press were beginning to pay attention too.
26:40The State Library in Victoria
26:43is the oldest public library in Australia
26:46and holds a fascinating collection of articles
26:49written at the time of the delegation's visit.
26:54Oh, right, so this is The Secret Adversary
26:58in the newspaper The Age, Saturday, March 25th, 1922.
27:03And, yeah, it's a review.
27:06Here are the proper ingredients of a detective story.
27:10Intrigue, murder and desperate undertakings.
27:14And it ends in the final dramatic touch
27:17to the interest of a well-told tale.
27:21That's a rave.
27:23I wouldn't mind a rave review like that in some of my performances.
27:28And now a profile with a very good photograph.
27:35Policewomen are no longer a novelty.
27:38The sight of a woman lawyer excites no comment.
27:41But a woman writer of detective stories
27:44is still somewhat of a pioneer.
27:47Well, she's right at the beginning, isn't she?
27:50She goes on to reveal that
27:53I'd never written a book and my sister dared me
27:56to write a detective novel
27:58in which the reader could not spot the murderer,
28:01though having access to the same clues as the detective.
28:05The mysterious affair at Stiles is the result of that bet.
28:10She's obviously beginning to think
28:14of herself as a professional writer
28:17because she mentions here,
28:19I don't think I shall ever write poetry again.
28:22Detective stories pay so much better.
28:25She confessed with a frankness which makes her particularly charming.
28:30I do know in researching Agatha Christie
28:34that there came a point where she became very reclusive.
28:38She was not a fan of the press at all.
28:41She hated giving interviews.
28:43But here, it's a lovely, open, warm conversation with a journalist.
28:49Very unlike, as I say, the Agatha Christie that I came to know much later.
28:56This young Agatha strikes me as confident, carefree and curious.
29:04Qualities that would have equipped her well
29:07for the ongoing rigours of the Empire mission.
29:11An itinerary that included a tour of the local timber industry.
29:18In the 1920s, a busy network of sawmills, trains and bush trams
29:24were harvesting timber from the forests to the east of Melbourne.
29:31Today, the Puffing Billy Railway
29:34is the last surviving remnant of that network.
29:41BELL RINGS
29:44All aboard! All aboard!
29:47Mike is a station master here.
29:49All aboard!
29:50And has some stories to tell me about the writer
29:53who made Hercule Poirot so globally famous.
29:56May I get your autograph?
29:57Yes, of course you can.
29:58Thank you so much. Thank you.
30:01Hello. Mike.
30:03Sir David. Lovely to meet you.
30:05Lovely to meet you.
30:06And welcome to Puffing Billy.
30:07Please come up here and board our train.
30:10Welcome up here.
30:11So good to have you with us.
30:14It may not be the Orient Express,
30:16but I'm told riding this train is an experience like no other.
30:22You get the opportunity, the unique opportunity,
30:25to sit on the sills,
30:26because nowhere else in the world can you do that legally.
30:29As we're moving along, you'll see knees out everywhere.
30:33It's all been set up so that it's quite safe to do so
30:36and people absolutely love it.
30:48First opened in 1900,
30:50the Puffing Billy Railway spent over 50 years
30:53serving local communities
30:55before a major landslip forced its closure.
31:02However, in the 1960s,
31:04a group of dedicated volunteers got it back on track
31:08and it's since grown to become Australia's premier preserve railway.
31:16Mike, how long have you been a stationmaster?
31:18I've been volunteering at Puffing Billy for, I think, nine years.
31:23Have you?
31:24But I've come through the ranks.
31:26I started as a trainee.
31:28I absolutely love it.
31:30It's in my blood.
31:31I don't know why, but it is.
31:34My father was a locomotive driver,
31:37steam trains early on,
31:39and I think railways just formed part of my genetic make-up.
31:45Is this the sort of train that Agatha would have been on?
31:49It would have been a much more rustic version of this train.
31:53No passenger carriages.
31:54And she mentioned how sitting on boxes on the trucks,
31:58because the trucks were being taken out to the mill.
32:01This photograph shows that, and it's a wonderful image
32:04because it shows people travelling the way they did then.
32:08But the danger was that there's a steam locomotive there
32:12which is filled by wood, which throws out sparks.
32:16And Agatha told the story where, sitting on the train,
32:21she had someone with her
32:23because that person had to help her
32:26if she should start smouldering in more than two places at the same time.
32:30Yes.
32:31So she didn't catch completely alive.
32:34That's extraordinary.
32:36Now, whether she travelled on the timber on this journey or not,
32:41I'm not sure, but I'd like to think she did.
32:43Yes.
32:44The more you read, the more you find there was a side to her.
32:47Yes.
32:48Which really fed into her writing, I think.
32:50Her imagination.
32:51Yes.
32:52She was drawing from experience.
32:53And her sense of adventure.
32:54Yes, that's right.
32:55And excitement.
32:56Yes.
32:57Now, when she visited Sawmill,
32:58that was obviously part of the Empire exhibition.
33:00That's right.
33:01A lot of these trees you see here,
33:03they're either mountain grey gum or mountain ash,
33:06and they're quite famous for construction timbers.
33:09Are they?
33:10Yes.
33:11She always says that,
33:13I always notice vegetation and trees before anything else.
33:19She would have been thoroughly enjoying the journey,
33:23even though she may have been smouldering.
33:37What I've learnt is more about Agatha Christie herself,
33:41which seems to reinforce an opinion I'm developing
33:45of this young woman, full of adventure, full of spirit, courageous.
33:52And quite unlike a lot of women of her class,
33:56of her background at the time,
33:58she embraced life for all it was worth.
34:03Well, what a discovery.
34:17Having discovered this new side to Agatha,
34:20I'm beginning to think she channeled her own adventurous spirit
34:24into her novel, The Secret Adversary,
34:27which features not the older Poirot,
34:30but two young sleuths just returned from the First World War,
34:35Tommy and Tuppence.
34:40Tommy, like Archie, had fought in the war,
34:44whereas Tuppence had been a nurse like Agatha.
34:50This book would have really resonated with readers
34:55at the end of World War I,
34:57because Tommy and Tuppence are skint, they've got no money at all,
35:02and we know that there was terrific unemployment after the war.
35:05Tommy, for example, in the book, was unemployed for ten months.
35:09And there's a lovely quote from Tuppence saying,
35:11Money, money, money, I think about money morning, noon and night.
35:14I dare say it's mercenary of me, but there it is.
35:18Same here, agreed Tommy with feeling.
35:21Well, I've thought over every imaginable way of getting it too,
35:25continued Tuppence.
35:27There are only three.
35:29To be left it, to marry it, or to make it.
35:34And, of course, that was a similar situation with Archie and Agatha.
35:39And, well, we all know that Agatha made money by writing her novels,
35:45and the rest is history.
35:49I think in creating Tommy and Tuppence,
35:54she was creating characters that would have really, in their situation,
35:59resonated with readers across the empire.
36:05More than 300,000 Australian troops served overseas
36:09during the First World War.
36:13And many of those who made it back were in need of work.
36:18The government were eager to help returning servicemen rebuild their lives.
36:23And soldier settlements were established throughout the country.
36:29Australian newspapers reported
36:31that the Empire Mission visited one such soldier settlement.
36:37And to find out what they would have seen,
36:39I've come to one that survives to this very day.
36:44Six hours north of Melbourne lies Redcliffs,
36:48a town that clearly takes pride in its past.
36:54Before the war, this would have been scrubland.
36:57But in 1920, returning soldiers were allocated farm plots here.
37:05Hello there. Very well.
37:07Hi. I'm Matt.
37:09G'day. Hi.
37:11Hi.
37:13Diane and Matt's ancestors
37:16were some of the settlement's first inhabitants.
37:21My great-grandfather was James Alonzo Cook,
37:25and he was a soldier settler.
37:28He fought in Gallipoli and in France and Belgium and Egypt.
37:32Didn't really leave him in the best state afterwards.
37:35He suffered from gas badly in France.
37:38He decided that this area would be a good place
37:41to start his life after the war.
37:43And then in December 1920,
37:46he was very fortunate and was allocated a block.
37:50My actual grandfather, he was enlisted when he was 38 years old,
37:55so he wasn't a young man when he came.
37:58Initially, they lived in very, very basic means,
38:01maybe tents and something that we would perhaps refer to as a shanty.
38:08Ah, so this is one of the early houses in what's called Tent Town.
38:12So the one-room house like that would often have a family in it.
38:16You see the walls there are made probably with Hessian sugar bags
38:19covered with plaster.
38:21So dirt floors, all very basic construction.
38:26Talking about this whole area just being scrubland, how was it cleared?
38:30So, yes, fortunately they got some help
38:32from our good friend Big Lizzy over here.
38:35Oh, that's Big Lizzy.
38:37Yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:38So, yeah, so she's a huge machine.
38:40She's sometimes called the biggest tractor in the world.
38:43She also had a trailer that went along behind her
38:46and I believe that trailer had its own blacksmith.
38:49And the family did live on it.
38:51A family lived on it.
38:53And I think they also had a cow that walked along as well.
38:56The cow might have actually been able to travel faster
38:59than Big Lizzy herself.
39:01Yes.
39:02So I've got a lovely quote from Major Belcher,
39:05the leader of the Empire expedition here.
39:08When interviewed by a local paper, said he asked one soldier settler
39:14how much experience he'd had with agriculture.
39:18And the reply was,
39:20just as much as you would know by driving a tram down the Lambeth Road.
39:27Originally all the plantings were a sultana vine.
39:30They all had to learn what to do
39:34and there was trial and error because of poor irrigation.
39:38A lot of those original plantings failed and they had to be replanted.
39:42So there was a measure of heartbreak.
39:45Quite a few of them were able to make a go of it
39:48despite all the hardships they'd had in war
39:50and they'd managed to get through that and thrive.
39:53But unfortunately quite a number of them were unable to,
39:57in some cases because they were injured
39:59or were otherwise damaged by the war.
40:03While soldier settlement schemes elsewhere in Australia often ended in failure,
40:08Redcliffs has continued to thrive.
40:12This has turned into a very prosperous town.
40:15We owe all of that to our original soldier settlers
40:19because they were pioneering stock.
40:21They really were.
40:22They really were, weren't they?
40:25I found that very moving.
40:34And I think that for Archie and Agatha
40:38to come to a soldier settlement
40:40must have been a very personal experience.
40:43There, like that. One, two, three.
40:46I think to witness a soldier settlement,
40:48to see how the soldiers were being looked after
40:52and presumably with their families
40:55must have resonated on a very deep and personal level.
41:00I think they were probably very moved and also very impressed.
41:08The Redcliffs are a very special place.
41:11The quest to find new things to showcase at the Empire Exhibition
41:15meant the delegation travelling into the vast landscape
41:19of New South Wales.
41:25Their destination was the remote Yangon,
41:29home to many of the world's largest and most prosperous colonies.
41:35The Redcliffs are a place of great interest
41:38and their destination was the remote Yanga Station.
41:44The homestead sits in Yanga National Park,
41:47where Elizabeth is a curator.
41:51Hello, Elizabeth. Oh, hello, David.
41:53Hello. Lovely to meet you.
41:55Very nice to meet you.
41:58Why would the Empire delegation come to Yanga?
42:03What were they interested in?
42:05I think that the main reason would have been,
42:08one would have been the wool
42:11because it was a huge, you know, wool-producing property.
42:16I was just having a look at this book, the Yanga Paddock book.
42:20Yes.
42:21And what I've discovered is that there were 94,000 and 99 sheep,
42:26Shaun, the year that Agatha was here.
42:2994,000?
42:32Yes.
42:33Waiting for a haircut.
42:35Yes, and the station was enormous.
42:37It was probably the largest freehold station in the Southern Hemisphere.
42:41Really?
42:44But wool wasn't the only business at Yanga.
42:47The owners were also at the forefront of the Australian frozen meat industry
42:53and the homestead benefited from some of their innovations.
42:58So, this is our refrigeration shed.
43:01My goodness.
43:03Yes.
43:04I've never seen anything like this.
43:10This is where they made the ice
43:12and the gas travelled through the pipes and expanding and cooling as it went.
43:17And then here is the brine tank
43:20and inside that was salty water
43:23and the fresh water was put into tins
43:26and then it was lowered into the brine tank
43:28and then it became frozen and then they pulled it out.
43:32It was ice.
43:33And do you think Agatha Christie would have been surprised?
43:35Yes, she probably would have been because in that year it was brand new.
43:39It had just been installed that year that she came.
43:42So, I'm sure she would have probably drunk milk
43:45and used butter that would have been stored here
43:48and maybe even some meat.
43:52Nowadays, Yanker Homestead is run as a museum
43:58with very few changes since the time of Agatha's visit.
44:07So, David, this is the dining room.
44:10So, this is where she would have sat to have her dinner
44:14and possibly her lunch
44:16with Archie and with Belcher
44:20and with station manager, Mr Besley, and his wife.
44:28Yanker must have given Archie and Belcher plenty of food for thought
44:32as farming featured extensively when the Australia Pavilion
44:36finally took shape at the Empire Exhibition.
44:43But there's evidence to suggest that during her time here
44:47Agatha was able to step away from the business of the Empire
44:52and into Yanker's idyllic gardens.
44:58Here's the photograph of her.
45:00She's sitting in a deck chair
45:03just in front of an orange tree like this one here.
45:08What's interesting to me is that she seems very relaxed and very happy.
45:13In fact, I wouldn't have mind taking this myself.
45:16It's very well composed.
45:18I think it's a lovely environmental portrait.
45:23Agatha and the delegation continue to tour around Australia
45:27for several more weeks.
45:33But beautiful Yanker is where my journey ends.
45:46What a wonderful way to end my journey in Australia
45:50than sitting here where Agatha sat
45:54trying to mirror the same position.
45:57And what I've learnt about her at this stage in her career
46:02she was really developing a sense of self-confidence.
46:06I think she had no idea at all when she left England
46:09that by the time she got to Australia
46:11she was going to get rave reviews for her second novel.
46:15And it must have made her really think very seriously.
46:21Yeah, I'm going to become a writer.
46:24And for me personally, I wonder whether she was thinking of her next portrait.