Original subtitles

[ Dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

Suchet: In 1922,

an emerging young novelist wrote a short story for a magazine.

That novelist was Agatha Christie,

and the short story is thought to be her first

to appear in print.

I'm reading a very early written short story by Agatha Christie

called "The Wife of the Kenite."

There's no murder mystery to solve.

There's no detectives.

There's no Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot.

This is a revenge story. And it's rather bloody.

I think I'm reading a young author

trying to find out what type of writer she's going to be.

And what is also fascinating to me

is that this short story is published not in England,

but in Australia.

♪♪

Before Agatha Christie was famous,

she travelled the world with her husband Archie.

The couple were part of a special mission,

tasked with championing

the upcoming British Empire Exhibition.

Held in London in 1924,

the exhibition was designed to boost trade

and strengthen the bonds between nations.

Now, a century later,

I'm following in Agatha's footsteps.

I am David Suchet,

and I played Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot for 25 years.

Armed with my trusty camera,

I'm re-creating her incredible journey

through southern Africa...

Australia...

Canada...

and New Zealand.

-Welcome. -Thank you.

And I'm even following her on holiday to Hawaii.

I want to find out what was happening in these countries

in the 1920s

and learn about the legacy of empire.

We want that which belongs to Africa to return back to Africa.

I'll discover how this journey

influenced Agatha's life and her writing.

Oh, wow. This is a rave review.

I wouldn't mind a review like this

for some of my performances.

And through seeing what she saw...

That is extraordinary.

...I'll learn more about the woman

whose work has played such a pivotal part in my own career.

She embraced life for all it was worth.

Wow. What a discovery.

♪♪

When Agatha Christie, her husband, Archie,

and the cantankerous leader of their empire mission,

Major Ernest Belcher, arrived in Australia,

Agatha had barely begun

the literary journey that would make her

the best-selling novelist of all time.

♪♪

[ Seagulls crying ]

Instead, in May 1922,

she found herself in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.

♪♪

Founded as a British settlement in 1804,

Hobart would become a notorious destination for convicts.

I'm meeting local storyteller Jess.

Hello. Jess? -Hey, David.

Welcome to Hobart. -Thank you.

...who can show me some remnants of this history.

♪♪

This is where the convicts that were sent here

would have got off.

That monument stands on the original site of the gallows.

-Suchet: What, there? -Jess: Yeah.

So, the first thing you see when you get off the ship

is a little reminder that you need to behave.

Suchet: Well, that's quite a deterrent.

Yeah. You could say that.

It was a fear-based society. [ Laughs ]

Now, look. Just behind that monument,

I see H. Jones & Company.

And I know that Agatha Christie and the delegation came here

and visited that --

That's a jam factory, isn't it?

-It was. -Yes.

And indeed it was run by Henry Jones

at one point in time.

Suchet: The delegation had come here

to learn about the Tasmanian fruit industry

and the modern techniques being employed

at Henry Jones' factory.

This photo is from the 1930s.

So if you take a look through there...

-Just look through here? -Yeah.

Tell me, has much changed?

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

Suchet: Oh, my goodness. It's --

[ Jess laughs ]

Suchet: It's exactly the same.

Okay, there's a horse and cart there.

But otherwise, no. It's almost identical.

And what's interesting for me

is that I'm looking at

what Agatha Christie would have seen.

Yes, exactly. It really hasn't changed.

It is. That's extraordinary.

So, IXL Jams --

-Suchet: Yeah? -It was his personal motto.

"I excel at everything I do." -Oh!

Jam was produced at this factory until the 1970s.

And when part of it was converted into a boutique hotel

20 years ago,

the architects were careful to preserve its history.

Meaning I can see much of what Agatha saw.

This is the beautiful staircase

that was designed to both impress and intimidate.

So -- -It's beautiful.

It's gorgeous. It's Tasmanian blackwood.

And when you come to see Henry Jones,

you're coming through these doors.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

Suchet: But as Agatha recorded

in a beautiful witty and insightful letter,

the factory's owner was somewhat elusive,

which did not go down well with a certain member of the mission.

Henry Jones was not here

to show the leader of the delegation, Major Belcher,

around the jam factory.

And Belcher was furious.

Agatha Christie writes in her letters back home

that "Pompous egos like Belcher

don't go down well in Australia."

Oh. I'd say that's about right.

[ Both laugh ]

So, we'll come upstairs and have a look.

-Right. Yes. -Jess: You reckon?

I love the staircase.

It's a bit squeaky in its old age, don't you think?

[ Laughs ] -Suchet: Well, we all do.

[ Both laugh ]

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

The oldest parts of this building date from 1823

and, like many structures at that time,

were built with convict labour.

♪♪

So, this wall is a very important wall.

Well, they needed to bind the mortar.

And traditionally in England, you use horsehair.

Horses are very thin on the ground here in the early 1800s,

so we used a bit of possum fur,

but we also used the hair from the convict women.

And that's some of this here you can see in the wall.

-Suchet: Oh, you're kidding me. -Yeah.

That's real hair from a convict?

-Jess: Yeah. -I don't believe it.

Ooh. That leaves me quite cold. -[ Laughs ]

It really does.

[ Soft music plays ]

And this isn't this building's only relic of the past.

When the hotel first opened in 2004,

some other unnerving remnants emerged.

Jess: On opening night, reception starts getting

panicked phone calls from this room.

And there's blood dripping down through the floorboards

onto their fresh, linen sheets.

So reception comes up here very quickly.

Upon further investigation,

it turns out that the red splotches are in fact jam.

We're above the jam factory floor here.

120 years of jam steam going up into the rafters,

and someone turns the heating on.

-Oh, dear. -And it all comes dripping back out.

So, this here is our biggest river of jam in the hotel.

What an amazing story. Sounds like an Agatha Christie.

[ Laughs ] It does rather, doesn't it?

"Rivers of Jam." Great title for a book.

[ Jess laughs ]

♪♪

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

Suchet: Following a series of appointments in Hobart,

Agatha and the empire delegation left the city

and journeyed into the island's remote interior.

♪♪

Here, they would see a very different side to Tasmania.

We're driving into the middle of the island.

And it's so empty.

There are hardly any cars on the road,

and certainly very few people.

Another thing I'm noticing

is that there are more and more power lines.

♪♪

Agatha in her letters

goes into some wonderful descriptions of the trees.

And she writes,

"If there were nymphs in the woods,

they would never be caught."

And that shows a wonderful imagination

and says a lot about the way that Agatha Christie thinks.

[ Dramatic music plays ]

But the delegation hadn't travelled here

just to admire the scenery.

♪♪

They were on their way to see an ambitious hydroelectric scheme

that had opened to great fanfare a few years earlier.

♪♪

The centrepiece of this grand project

was the magnificent Waddamana Power Station.

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

What a location this is.

It's so remote.

And I'm looking at what Agatha Christie saw.

♪♪

I really feel that I'm back in time with her now.

It's very exciting.

♪♪

When Agatha came here,

Waddamana would have been a hive of activity,

with lots of work going on to boost capacity.

♪♪

Hello, Ian. -Ian: Hello David.

Welcome to Waddamana. -Suchet: Thank you very much.

Ian: Come on in and I'll show you around.

Lovely. Thank you.

♪♪

The power station stopped generating electricity in 1964

but has been meticulously preserved as a museum.

♪♪

Ian: So, David, this is the turbine-hall floor.

And how does it work?

Well, the water came from the Great Lake.

It was called the Great Lake Scheme.

And so they were building the dam,

which raised the level of the Great Lake by about 10 feet.

And, then, that would come down the side, down the hill,

into each of these two turbines down here.

Suchet: So the water would go into those?

-Ian: Yeah. Yep. -Suchet: Turn that.

Like a water mill.

Yeah. Basically, yeah.

Yeah, like a water mill. Spin that shaft,

and then that would then create -- spin the magnets.

And then that would then create that electromagnetic field,

which creates electricity.

This is huge.

How did all this machinery get here?

By horse-drawn bogie carriages on a wooden railway.

Suchet: That's unbelievable.

Ian: Over 10 years of construction, basically, yeah.

25,000 tons of material were brought in here.

-Suchet: Unbelievable. -Ian: Yeah, massive. Absolutely.

And those first two turbines

were what was powering Hobart in 1916.

-Suchet: Yes. -Ian: Now, when Agatha was here,

we actually were buildings number three, four, and five.

Suchet: How noisy would it have been?

Well, if you know the jet engine,

the noise a jet engine would make...

-Yes. -...all nine of those up and running

would be the sound of a jet engine.

Suchet: In Britain in the 1920s,

electricity was still expensive, and the industry was fragmented.

So the delegation must have been fascinated

by this new technology.

Ian: So, come on in, David. This is the engineer's office.

And this is how Agatha would have been here

on 5 May, when she visited. -Suchet: Really?

Ian: Yes, absolutely.

This is the engineer's logbook

that we took stats every half an hour

of every machine that we had down here.

And these, this red line here in particular,

is of interest of the power load that Hobart was using.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 power trips

on that particular -- or power outages.

-Five power cuts in one day. -Ian: In one day. Yeah.

So we really are

at the pioneering stage of hydroelectricity.

Absolutely, yeah.

And presumably, the whole of Tasmania

would have been incredibly proud.

With the introduction of electricity

into Tasmania with hydro,

it brought us from childhood to adolescence, basically.

-Really? -Yeah, yeah.

And we just grew and grew. -Wow.

Constructing this power station in such an inaccessible place

was no mean feat.

A village had to be established.

And Ian's wife, Maureen, was born here.

[ Dramatic music plays ]

Well, I hasten to add I wasn't here in the early days, David.

-No. -I've looked up the history of it.

Being here in the early days was not easy.

The privation was pretty significant.

They gave you a canvas tent, a straw mattress.

You had to buy your own shovel,

and you had to catch your own food.

And what were the conditions like

when Agatha would have been here, for example?

Well, they were much better.

There were houses,

and there were workers that were living here

and families that were living here.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

♪♪

I mean, she came on the empire mission

for the Great Exhibition.

So this must have been a very important point

in its development.

I think it's a significant marker.

And that's why it's now a national engineering monument,

because of what it actually contributed

beyond just Waddamana and a power line to Hobart.

It was the first example

where you could actually generate power from one place

and transmit it significant distances.

[ Film reel clicking ]

♪♪

It's one of the first places in the world

that they could actually have

industrial, commercial, and domestic power.

It changed the landscape, 'cause people had paid work.

There were industries now that employed people.

And I think that, that whole notion of what started here,

has expanded across our state.

We're 100% renewable.

Standing here, you'll see the old pipelines coming down.

And up on that hill, you'll see the wind turbines.

-Suchet: The next generation. -Maureen: The next generation.

So, our government talks about Tasmania

as the battery of the nation.

We here at Waddamana say

Waddamana was the first cell of that battery.

I like that, too.

So, if you wanted a good battery,

you had to have a good start. And this is it.

What a significance. -It is.

-And what a legacy. And, I mean,

Agatha would have come here because it was so unique.

We just say to ourselves often, "Waddamana -- what a place."

Because actually, it has been a place that's transformed lives.

Waddamana -- what a place.

Maureen: Yes. [ Laughs ]

[ Dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

Suchet: This power station showed Agatha a modern Tasmania.

But when she returned to Hobart,

she was able to indulge one of her own interests

and explore the island's history.

♪♪

She visited the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery,

where some of what was on show in 1922

is still on display today,

including depictions of the earliest days

of the penal colony.

Looking at this picture of guard dogs

across the narrowest part of the peninsula,

to stop convicts escaping,

I can only imagine what it was like

for convicts to be brought all the way from England...

[ Soft music plays ]

...some for major crimes,

but, also, minor crimes, like stealing bread.

But as more people arrived from overseas,

Tasmania's indigenous population were driven from their lands

and almost wiped out.

♪♪

By the time of Agatha's visit,

they were treated as little more than museum pieces.

♪♪

The displays even included the skeleton

of a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, named Truganini,

who had died in 1876.

♪♪

Today, these remains are no longer in the museum,

thanks to the hard work of campaigners

from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community.

Theresa: Hello. Ya pulingina.

Now, you must be Zoe. -I'm Zoe.

-Hello. How do you do? -So nice to meet you.

-And you must be Theresa. -I certainly am.

-What a pleasure. -Pleased to meet you.

♪♪

Suchet: Dr. Zoe Rimmer and Theresa Sainty

are going to show me where Truganini now rests.

♪♪

They're taking me downriver,

to a place that is highly significant in their culture.

♪♪

The Derwent Estuary is home

to many rare and beautiful plants and animals.

[ Seabirds crying ]

♪♪

But its shores are also the site of an old penal settlement

where Tasmanian Aboriginal people were incarcerated.

♪♪

Welcome to Putalina, also known as Oyster Cove.

Theresa: While it looks beautiful today,

it wasn't such a nice place for our people

back, you know, in the 1800s, in 1847,

when our people were transported here...

including Truganini.

Well, she was said to be the last

Tasmanian Aboriginal person

and represented the extinction of our people.

As the last survivor of those 47 people

that were brought here to Putalina,

Truganini was really well-aware

of the treatment of her people after death.

There was a lot of collection, digging up of graves,

collection of human remains,

sending them to museums overseas.

And sadly, two years later,

she was dug up by the Royal Society.

-She was? -Zoe: Yeah.

♪♪

I can't believe that human beings would do that.

And what happened then?

So, her remains were on display at the museum

from about 1907 to 1947.

Suchet: Why did they say that Truganini

was the last Tasmanian Aboriginal,

when it's obvious that she wasn't?

Zoe: Well, it was convenient.

By that point, there was the thinking

that Tasmanian Aboriginal people were so primitive

that we were doomed to extinction anyway.

And calling Truganini the last

was really about alleviating that colonial guilt.

By the early 1970s,

the Tasmanian Aboriginal community really started

to campaign for both recognition of identity.

But, also, part of that campaign was for the repatriation

of Truganini's remains to the community

so she could be given a proper ceremonial farewell.

Her remains were cremated

and brought out here into the channel and scattered.

[ Dramatic music plays ]

This area is Truganini's traditional homelands.

-Is it? -So she's -- you know,

it's a beautiful and significant place now.

It really is.

♪♪

Following the return of Truganini,

the community really took on that fight,

to have all of our ancestors

returned from museums around the globe.

Suchet: Today, the Tasmanian Aboriginal community

are working with the museum to curate displays,

which is helping them rediscover their culture and language.

And can you now speak the original language?

I can speak our revived language.

So it's not exactly the same

as what language spoken before invasion

and throughout the colonisation. -No.

But all languages change.

How do I say, "Thank you very much"?

Both: Nayri nina-tu.

So, to you both, I nayri nina-tu.

Nayri nina-tu to you, too.

[ Laughter ]

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

Suchet: After their tour of Tasmania,

Agatha and the delegation

swapped island life for the mainland...

♪♪

...and the hustle and bustle of the big city.

♪♪

Here, in Melbourne,

a whirlwind of appointments and activities awaited them.

♪♪

One of these was a dinner at the Grand Hotel,

now called the Windsor,

where, according to the newspapers,

Major Belcher flattered his hosts with a rousing speech.

This is Ernest Belcher,

the leader of the British delegation.

"With regard to butter,

I can say quite honestly

that I've only tasted one quality in Australia,

and that is the best."

I think he got a round of applause after that.

And towards the end of the speech, he said,

"In throwing yourselves heart and soul

into the complete cooperation of Australia

in this great undertaking,

you're not only helping yourselves,

but you're also helping the empire."

[ Soft music plays ]

♪♪

As for me, I'm here for afternoon tea

with a man said to be

Australia's biggest Agatha Christie fan.

♪♪

So, Scott, thank you very much for being with me.

And have you collected items that relate to Agatha?

So many items.

-Have you? -Yes.

This here is my most treasured possession.

And that is Agatha Christie's favourite brooch.

I was there in the auction house,

but two other people were bidding against me.

I just kept putting my hand up,

and the hammer came down,

and the auction house erupted in applause.

And I just thought, "Oh, no. What have I done?"

Well, I think you've done something extraordinary,

and I'm thrilled to bits to be able to see it,

let alone to touch it.

Do you have any special knowledge of her time here,

when she came in 1922, on her British Empire mission?

Here we have Agatha Christie's second book,

"The Secret Adversary."

And it is...

signed.

Oh, I say.

This was published in 1922,

so just before they left England.

And it's made out to Max Coleman.

Suchet: Have you managed to find out anything

about this elusive Max Coleman?

Well, I may have.

This is the passenger list for the TSS Aeneas...

-Yes. -...on that trip from South Africa to Australia.

And right at the very top here,

we have a Mr. MGD Coleman.

Oh!

I wonder.

I wonder if that's the same.

I like to think it is.

Well, they must have been together.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have signed it.

And what is interesting to me

is that she was accompanying her husband,

and she was sort of a wife following.

But in actual fact,

she was becoming somebody in her own right,

somebody that the public was beginning to recognise

that here was a real talent.

And there -- there's a passenger,

carrying one of her books already.

So...

-It is amazing. -It is amazing.

And from then, of course, she just -- it was an explosion.

In fact, by the time Agatha arrived in Australia,

the local press were beginning to pay attention, too.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

The state library in Victoria

is the oldest public library in Australia

and holds a fascinating collection of articles

written at the time of the delegation's visit.

Oh, right. So, this is "The Secret Adversary"

in the newspaper The Age, Saturday, March 25, 1922.

And...yeah. It's a review.

"Here are the proper ingredients of a detective story --

intrigue, murder, and desperate undertakings.

And it ends in the final dramatic touch

to the interest of a well-told tale."

That's a rave.

I wouldn't mind a rave review like that

for some of my performances.

And now a profile

with a very good photograph.

"Policewomen are no longer a novelty.

The sight of a woman lawyer excites no comment.

But a woman writer of detective stories

is still somewhat of a pioneer."

Well, she's right at the beginning, isn't she?

She goes on to reveal that,

"I'd never written a book,

and my sister dared me to write a detective novel

in which the reader could not spot the murderer,

though having access to the same clues as the detective."

'The Mysterious Affair at Styles'

is the result of that bet."

She's obviously beginning to think...

of herself as a professional writer,

because she mentions here,

"'I don't think I shall ever write poetry again.

Detective stories pay so much better,'

she confessed with a frankness

which makes her particularly charming."

I do know in researching Agatha Christie

that there came a point where she became very reclusive.

She was not a fan of the press at all.

She hated giving interviews.

But here, it's a lovely,

open, warm conversation with a journalist,

very unlike, as I say,

the Agatha Christie that I came to know much later.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

This young Agatha strikes me

as confident, carefree, and curious --

qualities that would have equipped her well

for the ongoing rigours of the empire mission,

an itinerary that included a tour

of the local timber industry.

In the 1920s,

a busy network of sawmills, trains,

and bush trams were harvesting timber from the forests

to the east of Melbourne.

♪♪

Today, the Puffing Billy Railways

is the last surviving remnant of that network.

♪♪

[ Bell clanging ]

All aboard, all aboard!

Suchet: Mike is a stationmaster here...

All aboard!

Suchet: ...and has some stories to tell me about the writer

who made Hercule Poirot so globally famous.

-Can I get your autograph? -Yes. Of course you can.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

-Suchet: Hello. Mike. -Mike: Yeah.

Sir David, lovely to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you. -And welcome to Puffing Billy.

Please come up here and board our train.

-Thank you. -Come up here.

It's so good to have you with us.

It may not be the Orient Express,

but I'm told riding this train... -Mike: There we are.

Suchet: ...is an experience like no other.

You get the opportunity --

the unique opportunity to sit on the sills.

Because nowhere else in the world can you do that legally.

As we're moving along, you'll see knees out everywhere.

It's all been set up so that it's quite safe to do so.

And people absolutely love it.

[ Whistle blowing ]

[ Dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

Suchet: First opened in 1900s,

the Puffing Billy Railway spent over 50 years

serving local communities

before a major landslip forced its closure.

♪♪

However, in the 1960s,

a group of dedicated volunteers got it back on track,

and it's since grown to become Australia's

premier preserved railway.

♪♪

Mike, how long have you been a stationmaster?

I've been volunteering at Puffing Billy

for I think nine years. -Have you?

Mike: And...

But I've come through the ranks.

I started as a trainee.

I absolutely love it. -Yeah.

It's in my blood. I don't know why, but it is.

My father was a locomotive driver, steam trains early on.

And I think railways just form part of my genetic make-up.

Is this the sort of train that Agatha would have been on?

It would have been a much more rustic version of this train.

-Okay. -No passenger carriages.

In fact, she mentioned how,

sitting on boxes on the trucks --

'cause the trucks were being taken out to the mill.

Well, this photograph shows that.

And it's a wonderful image,

because it shows people travelling

the way they did then.

But the danger was that there's a steam locomotive there

which is fuelled by wood which throws out sparks.

And Agatha told the story

where, sitting on the train,

she had someone with her,

because that person had to help her

if she should start smouldering

in more than two places at the same time.

Suchet: [ Laughs ] Yeah.

So she didn't catch completely alight.

Suchet: That's extraordinary.

Mike: Now, whether she travelled on the timber

on this journey or not, I'm not sure.

But I'd like to think she did. -Suchet: Yes.

Mike: The more you read, the more you find

there was this side to her.

-Yes. -Mike: Which really fed into her writing, I think,

her imagination.

She was drawing from experience. -Yes.

And her sense of adventure. -Mike: Yes. That's right.

-And excitement. -Mike: Yes.

Now, when she visited sawmills, this was obviously part

of the Empire Exhibition. -That's right.

A lot of these trees you see here are,

they're either mountain grey gum or mountain-ash.

And they're quite famous for constructions timbers.

-Suchet: Are they? -Mike: Yeah.

She always says that, "I always notice vegetation

and trees before anything else." -Mike: Yes, yes.

She would have been thoroughly enjoying the journey,

even though she may have been smouldering.

But -- [ Both laugh ]

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

♪♪

What I've learnt is more about Agatha Christie herself,

which seems to reinforce an opinion I'm developing

of this young woman,

full of adventure, full of spirit, courageous,

and quite unlike a lot of women

of her class, of her background at the time.

She embraced life for all it was worth.

Wow. What a discovery.

♪♪

♪♪

Having discovered this new side to Agatha,

I'm beginning to think she channelled

her own adventurous spirit

into her novel "The Secret Adversary,"

which features not the older Poirot,

but two young sleuths

just returned from the First World War,

Tommy and Tuppence.

♪♪

Tommy, like Archie, had fought in the war,

whereas Tuppence had been a nurse, like Agatha.

This book would have really resonated

with readers at the end of World War I,

because Tommy and Tuppence are skint.

They've got no money at all.

And we know that there was

terrific unemployment after the war.

Tommy, for example, in the book,

was unemployed for 10 months.

And there's a lovely quote from Tuppence

saying, "'Money, money, money.

I think about money morning, noon, and night.

I daresay it's mercenary of me, but there it is.'

'Same here,' agreed Tommy, with feeling.

'Well, I've thought over

every imaginable way of getting it, too,'

continued Tuppence.

'There are only three --

to be left it,

to marry it,

or to make it.'"

And of course that was a similar situation

with Archie and Agatha.

And, well, we all know that Agatha made money

by writing her novels.

And the rest is history.

I think in creating Tommy and Tuppence,

she was creating characters

that would have really, in their situation,

resonated with readers across the empire.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

More than 300,000 Australian troops served overseas

during the First World War,

and many of those who made it back were in need of work.

The government were eager to help returning servicemen

rebuild their lives,

and soldier settlements were established

throughout the country.

Australian newspapers reported

that the empire mission visited one such soldier settlement.

And to find out what they would have seen,

I've come to one that survives to this very day.

♪♪

Six hours north of Melbourne lies Red Cliffs,

a town that clearly takes pride in its past.

Before the war, this would have been scrubland.

But in 1920, returning soldiers were allocated farm plots here.

How do you do? Hi. -Diane: Hello there. Very well.

Suchet: And Matt?

-Matt: Oh, g'day. Hi. -Suchet: Hi.

Diane and Matt's ancestors

were some of the settlement's first inhabitants.

♪♪

My great grandfather was James Alonso Cook,

and he was a soldier settler.

He fought in Gallipoli

and in France and Belgium and Egypt.

It didn't really leave him in the best state afterwards.

He suffered from gas badly in France.

He decided that this area would be a good place

to start his life after the war.

And then in, yeah, December 1920,

he was very fortunate and was allocated a block.

My actual grandfather --

he was enlisted when he was 38 years old.

So he wasn't a young man when he came. -Suchet: No, he wasn't. No.

Initially, they lived in very, very basic means --

maybe tents --

and something that we would perhaps

refer to as a shanty.

[ Soft music plays ]

So, this is one of the early houses

in what's called Tent Town.

So, the one-room house like that would often have a family in it.

And you see the walls there are made

probably with hedge and sugar bags covered with plaster.

So dirt floors, all very basic construction.

Talking about this whole area just being scrubland,

how was it cleared?

So, yeah. So, fortunately, they got some help

from our good friend Big Lizzie over here.

Suchet: Oh. That's Big Lizzie?

Matt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yeah. So, she's a huge machine.

She's sometimes called the biggest tractor in the world.

She also had a trailer that went along behind her.

And I believe that trailer had its own blacksmith.

And the family did live on it.

Suchet: A family lived on it?

Diane: And I think they also had a cow that walked along, as well.

The cow might have actually been able to travel faster

than Big Lizzie herself. -Suchet: Yes.

So, I've got a lovely quote from Major Belcher,

the leader of the empire expedition here.

When interviewed by a local paper,

said, "He asked one soldier settler

how much experience he'd had with agriculture.

And the reply was,

'Just as much as you would know

by driving a tram down the Lambeth Road.'"

[ Both laughing ]

Diane: Originally, all the plantings were a sultana vine.

They all had to learn what to do,

and there was trial and error.

Because of poor irrigation,

a lot of those original plantings failed,

and they had to be replanted.

So there was a measure of heartbreak.

Quite a few of them did -- were able to make a go of it,

despite all the hardships they'd had in war.

And they managed to get through that and thrive.

But unfortunately, quite a number of them were unable to,

in some cases because they were injured,

or were otherwise damaged by the war.

[ Soft music plays ]

Suchet: While soldier settlement schemes elsewhere in Australia

often ended in failure,

Red Cliffs has continued to thrive.

This has turned into a very prosperous town.

We owe all of that to our original soldier settlers,

'cause they were pioneering stock.

They really were. -Suchet: They really were, weren't they?

♪♪

I found that very moving.

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

♪♪

And I think for Archie and Agatha

to come to a soldier settlement

must have been a very personal experience.

There, like that. 1, 2, 3.

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

I think to witness a soldier settlement,

to see how the soldiers were being looked after,

and presumably with their families,

must have resonated on a very deep and personal level.

I think they were probably very moved,

and, also, very impressed.

♪♪

[ Dramatic music plays ]

The quest to find new things

to showcase at the Empire Exhibition

meant the delegation travelling

into the vast landscape of New South Wales.

♪♪

Their destination was the remote Yanga Station.

The homestead sits in Yanga National Park,

where Elizabeth is a curator.

Hello, Elizabeth. -Elizabeth: Oh, hello, David.

-Suchet: Hello. -Elizabeth: Lovely to meet you.

Very nice to meet you.

Why would the empire delegation come to Yanga?

What were they interested in?

I think that the main reason would have been --

one would have been the wool,

because it was a huge, you know, wool-producing property.

I was just having a look at this book,

the Yanga Paddock Book. -Suchet: Yes?

Elizabeth: And what I've discovered

is that there were 94,099 sheep

shorn the year that Agatha was here.

-94,000? -Elizabeth: Yes. And 99.

Went in for a haircut?

Elizabeth: Yes. And the station was enormous.

It was probably the largest freehold station

in the Southern Hemisphere. -Suchet: Really?

[ Soft music plays ]

But wool wasn't the only business at Yanga.

The owners were also at the forefront

of the Australian frozen-meat industry.

And the homestead benefitted from some of their innovations.

So, this is our refrigeration shed.

-My goodness! -Elizabeth: Yes.

I've never seen anything like this.

♪♪

This is where they made the ice.

And the gas travelled through the pipes,

and expanding and cooling as it went.

And, then, here is the brine tank,

and inside that was salty water.

And the freshwater was put into tins,

and then it was lowered into the brine tank,

and then it became frozen.

And then they pulled it out, it was ice.

And do you think Agatha Christie would have been surprised?

Yes. She probably would have been,

because in that year, it was brand-new.

It had just been installed that year that she came.

So I'm sure she would have probably drunk milk

and used butter that would have been stored here,

and maybe even some meat.

[ Whimsical music plays ]

Suchet: Nowadays, Yanga Homestead is run as a museum...

♪♪

...with very few changes since the time of Agatha's visit.

♪♪

So, David, this is the dining room.

So this is where she would have sat to have her dinner

and possibly her lunch with Archie and with Belcher

and with the station manager, Mr. Besley, and his wife.

♪♪

Suchet: Yanga must have given Archie and Belcher

plenty of food for thought,

as farming featured extensively

when the Australia Pavilion finally took shape

at the Empire Exhibition.

[ Film reel clicking ]

But there's evidence to suggest that during her time here,

Agatha was able to step away from the business of the empire

and into Yanga's idyllic gardens.

♪♪

Here's the photograph of her.

She's sitting in a deck chair...

just in front of an orange tree, like this one here.

And what's interesting to me

is that she seems very relaxed, very happy.

In fact, I wouldn't have minded taking this myself.

It's very well-composed.

I think it's a lovely environmental portrait.

Agatha and the delegation

continued to tour around Australia

for several more weeks.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

♪♪

But beautiful Yanga is where my journey ends.

♪♪

What a wonderful way to end my journey in Australia,

than sitting here where Agatha sat,

trying to mirror the same position.

And what I've learnt about her

at this stage in her career,

she was really developing a sense of self-confidence.

I think she had no idea at all when she left England,

that by the time she got to Australia,

she was going to get rave reviews for her second novel.

And it must have made her really think very seriously,

"Yeah, I'm going to become a writer."

And for me personally,

I wonder whether she was thinking of her next Poirot.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪