Environment: The inland
The following clips have teachers’ notes related to this topic:
The little town of Katherine from the television program Australian Walkabout (PG)
Charles and Elsa Chauvel have come through the dry outback to camp on a riverbed just outside the little town of Katherine. Elsa gives the viewer a tour through voice-over commenting on shots of the town.
Uluru from the documentary The Changing Face of Australia (G)
Scenic shots of Uluru as the voice-over speaks of the ‘geological timescale of the continent and its growth and ageing’. Then, we see Uluru weather a storm. As rains cascade down over the rock, the voice-over describes ‘the elements that have shaped the Australian arc over billions of years’. As water trickles down the rock, it washes pathways and rivulets…
Cleaning up the land from the short film Desert Tracks (PG)
An elder speaks about the effects of tourism, and the responsibility of cleaning up the land.
Of droughts and flooding rains from the television program Four Corners – We'll All Be Rooned (G)
Reporter Jim Downes stands in the middle of a sea of sand. It’s the Castlereagh River in drought; a drought that’s killing the wheat belt of NSW. It’s a story so often repeated throughout Australia.
A town is dying from the television program Four Corners – We'll All Be Rooned (G)
A lingering and lyrical moment of a town in decay where the real tragedy is the complete lack of a future on the land for Coonamble’s young people.
Dulkaninna Station from the documentary Last Mail from Birdsville: The Story of Tom Kruse (G)
George Bell of the Dulkaninna Station and his family have relied on the mailman for over a century. Mail was first delivered by camel, then Kruse delivered it by truck and now it comes by light aircraft. Bell and Kruse are interviewed.
A master of camouflage from the television program Nature of Australia – The Sunburnt Country (G)
The landscape of arid central Australia is scoured and the plateaus worn down to gibber desert. It’s impossible to imagine that any living thing could survive in this environment but the shingleback lizard manages well because it can survive without regular food and water.
The dead heart from the television program Nature of Australia – The Sunburnt Country (G)
The great expanse of salt that is Lake Eyre sits 15 metres below sea level with temperatures that can soar to 60 degrees Celsius. For the most part, the Lake Eyre dragons – and the ants they feed on – are the only creatures to thrive in this searing heat.
