The Kimberley - Season 1 Episode 1
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00:00This little bubba is only a few days old.
00:29She doesn't know it yet, but she's been born into one of the wildest places on earth.
00:54For now, she's stuck in this nest, and she's very hungry.
00:59But one day, she'll grow up into a fearsome white-bellied sea eagle, and she'll soar over
01:15an ancient land full of incredible stories.
02:33I come from the oldest culture on earth, an oral culture, a culture of storytelling.
02:44And this is a story about the landscape we call home.
02:48My name is Mark. I'm a musician, actor, and storyteller, and I grew up on my mother's
03:05country in the north of Western Australia, a place called the Kimberleys.
03:09It's a nation-sized tropical wilderness spanning over 400,000 square kilometers.
03:19A land defined by its extremes,
03:25a wild climate, harsh terrain, and remarkable biodiversity.
03:35And these unique conditions have created a hot spot full of species found nowhere else on earth.
03:43Following their wild lives through six intense tropical seasons,
03:47I'm going to tell you the story of a year in one of earth's last great tropical wildlands.
03:58From monsoonal abundance to drought, fire, and flood, every season presents new challenges.
04:08And new opportunities for all who call this place home.
04:16This is a place of incredible biodiversity and cultural heritage.
04:21It's a place unlike anywhere else on earth.
04:37Our country has many moods.
04:44And life here is driven by cycles of extreme change.
04:52Many First Nations peoples of the Kimberley chart the course of a year in six distinct seasons,
04:59each defined by what we observe in the natural world.
05:03Right now, it's hot and dry.
05:08It's the season my people call l'Alen.
05:13There's been no rain for six months, and the vast savannah plains are parched.
05:22It's a tough time of year.
05:23And for many, the most precious resource of all is what we call willa, water.
05:39Thirsty creatures from hundreds of kilometers gather around the last remaining water.
05:45At first light, hundreds of agile wallabies make their way down to the river's edge.
06:03Mum and Baba had a great time in the wild.
06:07Mum and Baba had it easy when the plains were full of green grass,
06:12but the dry season will test them.
06:20If mum doesn't get water, joey doesn't get milk.
06:26But the riverbank's a dangerous place.
06:29Predators are watching.
06:31They have bubbers of their own to feed, and mum knows it.
06:36She's been here before.
06:39There's eyes in the sky, and there's something in the water.
06:47An ancient predator, honed by 200 million years,
06:51the saltwater crocodile, the largest and most aggressive reptile on earth.
06:59Anyone who wants to know why there are so many predators,
07:03they always have to take a look at the water.
07:06The saltwater crocodile is the largest and most aggressive predator on earth.
07:12Anyone who wants a drink, drinks from his river.
07:40But for the wallabies, the sweet promise of fresh water is irresistible.
08:09Wallabies are masters of stealth, and they can hold their breath for over an hour.
08:35Mum doesn't waste any time, and even little Joey is on the lookout.
08:56It's the croc you can't see that you should be worried about.
09:02When they strike, it's with lightning speed.
09:20It's the croc you can't see that you should be worried about.
09:47The mob scatters in all directions.
10:08It's hard to find your way up the cliffs in a panic.
10:09It's the croc you can't see that you should be worried about.
10:10It's the croc you can't see that you should be worried about.
10:39One slip, and it can all be over.
11:01None of his mob can help him now.
11:05This young fella is on his own.
11:35It's a miraculous escape, but he's not out of the woods yet.
12:01Sensing an opportunity, the sea eagle moves in.
12:08An exhausted animal is an easy target.
12:13These raptors are powerful predators.
12:29But this one may have a different plan.
12:45He drives the wallaby back into the water so the croc can make the kill.
12:58Life is tough in the Kimberley, and not everyone survives the dry season.
13:25But for our land's most fearsome predator, the season of liling is the season of plenty.
13:36In Ninganaculture, the crocodile is a revealed spirit of the riverways.
13:42It plays a vital role in the ecosystem and symbolizes the raw power of nature.
14:04Crocs are messy feeders, and it isn't long before the eagle gets his reward.
14:32The long, dry season is a test for all who live up here.
14:37But there are signs on the horizon that things are about to change.
14:46It starts with a distant rumble of thunder far out to sea.
14:50Then, dry lightning storms begin to roll across the land.
15:00Sparking destructive wildfires, and pushing life to its limits.
15:10Temperatures can push well into the high 40s.
15:13Humidity becomes unbearable.
15:18We call this season durable, the build-up to the wet.
15:22But it could be months before the rain comes.
15:31Over in my mother's country, at the mouth of the Mudawara River, the braided channels
15:36and estuaries of the Fitzroy floodplains have all but dried up.
15:42The remaining shallow pools offer welcome relief from the building heat and humidity.
15:49But us ninganamob are a little more careful than the wallabies when choosing where to
15:52swim.
15:53This is how I spent a lot of my younger years, jumping around in a lot of the little freshwater
16:01pools.
16:02Hey, did you get any kakaroo, or what?
16:05I'm feeling rocks.
16:06See if you can find one freshwater mussel.
16:07I grabbed one because I lost it, that's how I grabbed it.
16:13Well, that's a good story.
16:16But I want to see the mussel.
16:17I'm going to get hungry otherwise.
16:25So there's six seasons in the Ningina calendar, and they're less tied to the time of year
16:31and more so what's happening on country itself.
16:35We're in durable now, which is just coming out of the dry season and into the build-up
16:39for the wet.
16:41And this is kind of the Kimberley at its most unforgiving.
16:44It's dry, and it's really thirsty, and all the animals are really, you know, they've
16:50lost a lot of weight.
16:51And these rain clouds that are starting to build, they can be building for weeks and
16:56weeks, but it's just, it's all really muggy and really hot.
17:00And that's when a lot of arguments start breaking out, a lot of fights going on.
17:04And I think everyone's waiting for that release, for the sky to open up, you know, and for
17:09the rivers to run again.
17:27This little dragon is Gulamana, the frill-necked lizard, a skilled climber, and an expert of
17:40camouflage.
17:47Gulamana knows his country well.
17:50He knows that when the rains begin to fall, the insects will emerge in their millions,
17:56and that'll give his young ones a good start in life.
18:01But he can't make kids on his own, and if he's hoping to pass on his colourful personality,
18:07he'll need to find a lady dragon.
18:15But he's not the only lizard looking for love.
18:18In the kingdom of Gulamana, there's fierce competition.
18:48Ah, cut it out, you two.
19:15With his wagging rights intact, Gulamana has proven his frills aren't just for show.
19:23And a nearby onlooker likes what she sees.
19:28All that's left to do now is, well, you know.
19:45As the season of durable reaches its peak, the power of the sky is ridden in lightning.
20:10Gulamana can read country too.
20:17They know the rains are almost here, and when they arrive, there'll be plenty of food for
20:24their little ones.
20:27How clever of them to have chosen this moment to lay their eggs.
20:35Two months after mating, our soon-to-be mama dragon looks for somewhere safe,
20:41away from the gaze of predators.
20:52She's chosen a spot near lots of tasty insects and digs a hole in the soft soil.
21:11She won't be here to raise them when they hatch, which is why she takes great care in
21:16making her nest.
21:23She leaves behind ten perfect little eggs.
21:30If it's a good place, the right temperature, the right humidity, safe from fire and flood,
21:38then in a couple of months, her young ones will arrive into a completely different world.
21:51A green world, perfect for newborn dragons.
22:05On the brink of the wet season, what were once isolated electrical storms converge on
22:12the horizon, forming a mountainous cloud bank that roars with thunder.
22:36The long promise of rain is finally answered by the season of willigra.
22:51It's the moment country has been waiting for.
23:00The rain quenches the thirst of all our little creatures.
23:07Some animals have developed extraordinary adaptations to survive the long dry.
23:15Burrowing frogs like the Kimberley Spadefoot have been hiding below the surface in sandsoaks.
23:27When the rain seeps into the soil, they dig their way back to the surface and fill the
23:33air with their distinctive song.
23:39It's a song you'll hear nowhere else on Earth.
23:58The essential rain can last for days on end.
24:14The vital element that we call willa, or water, begins to feed its way through the veins and
24:22of the entire landscape.
24:28Bringing the Kimberley's largest river system roaring back to life.
24:41The Mudawara, or Fitzroy River, is one of the last great free-flowing river systems on Earth.
24:50It flows uninterrupted for over 700 kilometers through almost pristine deserts,
24:56savannas, and mountain ranges.
25:01The Mudawara has sustained First Nations people in the area for tens of thousands of years.
25:08And the return of the wet season is always a happy time for us.
25:37It's been too long since I had some roo-tail.
25:41So we're just upriver from a place called Willair Bridge on the mighty Mudawara, the Fitzroy River,
25:49and the Kimberley's.
25:51This is all my mother's country.
25:52This is all Nyinggina country.
25:54We're just out with some of the community today, cooking up some tails, having a little fish.
26:02We're going to throw the net soon, see if we can get some jeremba, some freshwater prawn.
26:11Kangaroos are one of my favorite meats.
26:13When I was as young as these little mob here, I was eating this.
26:17And the tail was always my favorite part, always my favorite bit.
26:22In there you might not get any.
26:33The Mudawara and Nyinggina people are one and the same.
26:38Every element of our lives is born from our relationship to this river.
26:49The spiritual connection that we have with our country, with the river, with the land, with all these things,
26:55it's important.
26:57It heals you.
26:58You can hear the birds tweaking.
27:00You can hear the sound of the river flowing and the calmness of it.
27:04Your body is meditating to all those things.
27:10Worry and anxiety and things like that, we all got built and all them things.
27:16Once you come up here and you sit down and have a feed, go fishing, maybe catch a barramundi if you're lucky,
27:25those things are really, really, really good.
27:29Good for the heart, good for the mind, good for the spirit.
27:37And you stop like that, see.
27:42We got no water for you.
27:46We all got to just appreciate what we got while we got it and make sure we hold on to what we have, not take it for granted.
27:54You know, we all share that guardianship, that custodianship for the river.
27:59River keeps us alive, we keep the river alive.
28:01That's the deal.
28:06There are many nations that make up the length of the Matawarra,
28:09and all of us have a cultural obligation to protect these waters for future generations.
28:17Despite suffering damage in the last 150 years from European farming,
28:21it's still one of the most pristine river systems on earth.
28:26In recent times, new threats have begun to emerge.
28:31The Kimberley is being targeted for mining, water extraction and fracking,
28:38presenting an imminent existential threat to the river and all life that depends on it.
28:45In response to these growing risks,
28:47First Nations leaders of the river have come together to form a coalition of hope
28:52called the Matawarra-Fitzroy River Council.
29:00Our goal is to preserve and advocate for the rights of the river itself.
29:05But in a place this big, that's easier said than done.
29:16Oh, absolutely spectacular.
29:27We're on our way up into the upper catchment of the Fitzroy River, the mighty Matawarra.
29:32One of the most remote places on earth.
29:36For several years now, I've worked for the Matawarra-Fitzroy River Council.
29:40I've been on a number of expeditions like this one to promote the natural values of the river.
29:44We can't protect the river if we don't understand how she works and what lives out here.
29:52I think when people describe the Kimberleys as some of the most awe-inspiring wilderness in the world,
29:59this is some of the stuff they're talking about.
30:08Oh, look at that.
30:30The team we've got on this expedition is made up of local ecologists
30:33and a couple of really experienced whitewater river guides.
30:37And that's going to help us build as complete a picture as possible of this incredible river system.
30:48Access is the biggest obstacle to conducting research in the Kimberley.
30:53There are very few roads in the region, and many are impassable during the wet.
30:59The rafts get us into places that even helicopters would struggle to land.
31:05But rafting a river like the Matawarra at high water levels has its challenges.
31:11Yeah, so this section of the river has a lot of freshwater crocodiles.
31:41They're pretty harmless, but you wouldn't do what we're doing with salties in the river, I'll tell you that.
31:53Yeah, it looks like we're coming up to this big one.
31:58That big rock in the middle is pretty dangerous.
32:01The water looks like it wants to pull you straight into it.
32:04You get pinned against something like that, it's going to be a really bad day.
32:10I hope this isn't a sign of what's to come downstream tomorrow.
32:12It could be a bit of a hard slog if this is what we've got further in.
32:22The Kimberley guards her secrets well, especially in the wet season.
32:30Throughout the season of Willagra, heavy rains fill ephemeral wetlands and waterholes.
32:38The sudden and abundant combination of water, heat and sunshine triggers a surge of life.
32:51Migratory wetland birds like brolgas, whistling ducks and magpie geese fly in from all over northern Australia.
33:00Many come to feast on the tubers of wetland plants. Others come for the fish.
33:31It's the perfect time to raise young ones.
33:41In the height of the monsoon, baby saltwater crocodiles begin to emerge into the world.
34:00But these little fellas have a long way to go before they're king of the river.
34:10Good thing mum sticks around to keep a watchful eye on them.
34:25The little ones will feed on insects and small fish.
34:31If they can figure out how to catch them.
34:38Life is tough when you're tiny. Only about 1% of crocodiles survive into adulthood.
34:45Right now, our hatchling is the perfect snack size for larger predators.
34:51If he wants to be king one day, he'll have to lay low for a little while.
35:01Back on the river, we are now travelling through some of the oldest rocks on earth.
35:09And this ancient geology hides incredible biodiversity.
35:17The river is the largest river in the world.
35:22And this ancient geology hides incredible biodiversity.
35:29The rugged terrain has kept many of these animals safe from the modern world.
35:34But it's also made them hard to study.
35:38We're going to set up camp here at the Tsavo and explore some of the side creeks this evening.
35:44And see what animals our ecologist Ian Ball can find.
35:52Trips like this provide us with opportunities to explore places that may have never been surveyed by western scientists.
36:01The Kimberley is home to hundreds of plant and animal species that are found nowhere else on earth.
36:08And new species are discovered all the time.
36:15But during the day, the temperatures out here can become unbearable.
36:22So it's no wonder many animals choose the nightlife.
36:33So maybe just here on the border before this, over here.
36:38And even though you can't see as much at night, what you hear is a completely new world.
36:45Documenting these sounds helps us to understand what lives here.
36:50There's so many frogs.
36:53And it can feel like they're right under your feet.
36:56And you look and you just can't see them anywhere.
37:01Ecologist Ian Ball has been working in the Kimberley for many years.
37:06It's my happy place for sure, being out in the bush here and out in the wet.
37:10I've been doing it since I was a little kid and I love it.
37:13If you walk out into a wetland like this here now and hear so many different species of frog calling.
37:18It's a sure sign of a healthy functioning ecosystem.
37:22Each species of frog has its own call and its own sound.
37:29So you can identify, you don't have to go and actually find and see the frog.
37:32You can just hear and listen to the biodiversity and know what sort of species live there.
37:37How many frog species do you think are in this wetland at the moment?
37:42Probably 10 or 12 calling tonight.
37:46Ian reckons there are around 40 species of frog that we know of in the Kimberley.
37:51And a quarter of those are found nowhere else on earth.
38:02It's certainly a pretty special thing to come to really remote places like this.
38:06And you can hear these amazing choruses and sounds.
38:10It's just as noisy as a city, you know, but it's the sounds of nature. It's magic.
38:18The audio recordings help us document the biodiversity of this region.
38:24But for me, the sounds of country have also been a big part of my journey as a musician.
38:31I think there are tones and harmonics and textures in nature and in the wilderness
38:37that are really unique.
38:39And as a sound designer, I draw a lot of inspiration from spending time on country.
38:44No location is ever the same.
38:47To hear the world as you walk through it is one thing,
38:51but then to hear it through magnified microphones,
38:55I think I can hear like a hundred frogs in my ears right now.
38:59It's pretty incredible.
39:08That sounds like one of those laughing frogs, eh?
39:16He's laughing at me.
39:18He's like, what are you doing in the swamp?
39:25I've been listening to country for a very long time.
39:28I think a part of that listening, the reason behind it,
39:32is because I care about this country.
39:35Because I love it very much.
39:37And because I feel a deep amount of appreciation that it exists
39:43in the complexity and depth and richness that it does.
39:47But I've also grown up in a culture that doesn't just listen to country,
39:50it speaks to country.
39:52And I've tried to share some of the language of that conversation through music.
40:06Well, you can see it in the dark now
40:16It comes in waves in your heart now
40:21So open your love, my love
40:36The Matawarra winds its way through extremely remote country.
40:42Expeditions out here can last weeks.
40:48And heavy rains can turn it into one of the largest volume rivers on earth.
40:56It commands respect.
40:59The Matawarra winds its way through extremely remote country.
41:03Expeditions out here can last weeks.
41:06And heavy rains can turn it into one of the largest volume rivers on earth.
41:13It commands respect.
41:29The Matawarra winds its way through extremely remote country.
41:39The risk of drowning in white water like this is real.
41:43And as the river levels rise, the power of these standing waves grows.
41:59The Matawarra winds its way through extremely remote country.
42:03And heavy rains can turn it into one of the largest volume rivers on earth.
42:08It commands respect.
42:11The Matawarra winds its way through extremely remote country.
42:15And as the river levels rise, the power of these standing waves grows.
42:20And as the river levels rise, the power of these standing waves grows.
42:25And as the river levels rise, the power of these standing waves grows.
42:38That was a bit of carnage.
42:40I think the Matawarra's keeping us humble,
42:44which makes sense considering we're doing it in inflatable pack rafts.
42:48It's a lot of water, man. It's a lot of water.
42:56The wet season comes in waves on country.
43:00These huge monsoonal troughs drench the landscape
43:05and are followed by steamy conditions perfect for insects.
43:10That means there's loads of food for our soon-to-hatch frill-neck lizards.
43:19Mama Gulamana built her nest with love,
43:22and her eggs have remained safe and undisturbed.
43:27The warmth and humidity of Willagurra
43:30has created the perfect conditions for the little ones to grow.
43:34It's been 80 days, and the first baby lizard is beginning to break free.
43:53You can't rush millions of years of evolution.
43:57The hatching process can take days.
44:22But within an hour of leaving the egg,
44:25the Baba Gulamanas can run, hunt,
44:28and even practice the cheeky frills they got from Dad.
44:47These little Babas will join thousands of other little ones
44:51born in the season of Willagurra.
44:58It's their first day in the Kimberley,
45:01and their story is just beginning.
45:22At this time of year, the heat and humidity is gruelling,
45:27so there's nowhere I'd rather be than floating down the Marawara.
45:36Camping here tonight.
45:38This place looks all right, eh?
45:40This looks all right for a campsite.
45:42Got a beautiful water feature in the back.
45:46Definitely starting to feel the physical wear and tear
45:50of travelling along the length of this massive river system.
46:02The longer I spend out here,
46:05the more I feel like I'm in the middle of the ocean.
46:10The longer I spend out here,
46:13the more and more my Lian feels at peace.
46:16Lian is a Nyinggina word for spirit and listening and intuition.
46:26As a Nyinggina person, we say Yumarawarra,
46:29which translates as I belong to the river,
46:33but the river doesn't belong to me.
46:35And that's what I've been raised to be.
46:38That's what I've been raised to recognise.
46:41We see the river system as a literal ancestral entity.
46:46It's the cause of countless generations of life
46:50for all of our families.
46:52Our legal system and our art systems,
46:55our stories and our songs,
46:58our medicine and our food is tied to the river.
47:03It has been that way for as long as we could remember.
47:07Also, I can't fathom the generations behind me
47:11through my mother's family that begin and return to the river,
47:16but that's what I think of whenever I'm out here.
47:20The deep-time story of the First Nations people of this country.
47:38Next time, we explore the Kimberley's wild coastline,
47:46where tidal currents rage around isolated islands
47:50full of biological treasures.
47:56And the wet season gives way to the stunning season of Bagan.
48:02Coming up next, discover how a barren world
48:05became a cradle of life.
48:07David Attenborough takes you deep into the ancient secrets
48:10of the Galapagos.
48:12David Attenborough takes you deep into the ancient secrets
48:15of the Galapagos.
48:42Who am I most honored?