Original subtitles

I was 19 years old when I first saw Australia.

My dad had just died.

And I was running away from my old life.

What I found in Australia changed me.

And I can remember saying,

"This is me. I've escaped. This is my life."

Today, Australia is so much more

than just another travel destination to me.

My wife is Australian...

Thank you, Ricky. Scrumptious.

Scrumptious, hey?

..and this country has become my second home.

Love it to bits.

So after a lifetime of food journeys,

I'm finally retracing some of that first trip.

Ow!

I want to discover how Australia and its food is changing.

This goat curry is really special.

After exploring Sydney and the coast,

I'm travelling west into the outback...

Great.

This is Daffi. Yeah, she's one of my favourites.

..and I'm bringing my inspiration home to create new recipes.

I have used extra virgin olive oil here.

I really want the flavour to come through.

I suspect it's going to be another journey of a lifetime.

I'm leaving the coast behind and travelling into the open plains

and enormous skies that, for me,

are the first signs that I'm heading inland.

I've never been to this part of New South Wales before...

..but I did go inland during my first teenage adventure

and it left a strong impression on me.

The thing I remember most was the vastness of everything,

coming from a small island like Britain

and faced with these enormous distances.

I'm 400km inland,

heading west to the town of Moree.

This is some of Australia's best farming land,

with fertile black soil

above one of the world's largest freshwater reservoirs.

But it's the remoteness out here that most intrigues me.

There are just 72 people for every 100 square kilometres.

I'm curious to find out

if this isolation makes people more traditional

when it comes to food and farming

or if it makes it easier to pioneer change.

I've reached Moree, the largest town on these plains.

I am here for the biggest event of the year, the Annual Moree Show.

Generations of locals have grown up with this gathering

for more than 150 years.

Like the county shows I'm used to in Britain,

it's a chance for people to show off their prized animals, machinery,

produce, cooking and farming skills.

It's still quite early, so it's not particularly busy,

but I must say I really like a county show.

It's just you meet so many interesting people.

My name's Rick.

- G'day, Rick. - I love the dog. What kind of dog is it?

Australian kelpie.

You can have really good conversations.

I suppose it's cos I was born and bought up on a farm,

I still have a great affinity with cattle, with sheep,

with chickens - you name it.

So, as I meet locals at this first stop,

I want to find out if celebrating tradition

is actually the main event here,

or if the show looks to the future of farming.

If I'm not mistaken, that's a Hereford.

We used to have them on our farm.

First up, I'm meeting Moree's chief cattle steward, Lisa Whibley.

- Good morning, Rick. - Very nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you in Moree. - Well, it's very nice to be here.

I'm just familiar with shows back in the old country,

but I don't know whether they go into all this...

Well, these are your English breeds.

This is a Red Poll, which is...

- Red Poll. - ..which is a heritage English breed.

Oh, is it? OK.

So, yeah, it's actually dual purpose,

so you can eat the meat and milk it.

Red Poll cattle are known for their rich red coats

and natural hornless, or polled, heads.

This is Daffi.

- Daffi? - Daffi, Daffodil.

- Ah. - And she's one of... Yeah, she's one of my favourites.

HE LAUGHS

Lisa is getting Daffi ready to compete in the showring shortly,

and she's pulling out all the stops.

We start off three months out, three to four months out, from a show.

- Yeah. - And we feed them,

um, a high-protein special mix to get as much fat on them as possible.

- Yeah. - Then you sort of go through...

..get them quiet enough to come to a show,

and then on the day, like today,

usually they'll hit the wash bay first.

Then after the wash bay, they will blow-dry and then they'll clip

and put some hairspray in just to make them

look that little bit more special.

Did you say hairspray?

COW MOOS

- Skin and hair conditioner. - Wow.

So what you'll do is...spray...

..and...then...

..brush it.

You can see the difference in the hair.

- Yeah. - Coat coming up now.

Smells nice too.

I know. They do.

I wonder if she feels better with that nice scent.

COW MOOS

- With the blow dry... - Yeah. - ..it removes the dead skin cells.

Yeah.

It also removes the hair to make them look fatter because,

you know, fat's flavour.

Yeah.

So we want our cattle, being beef, prime beef cattle,

to look as fat and juicy as possible.

What do you love about the show?

- My favourite thing is the kids. - Yeah.

Watching the kids learn, watching them have fun in the showring.

The kids are our next generations of farmers,

so if we don't keep them interested, we won't have more farmers.

So, you know, my biggest drive is for the kids

and to let them have a great day out in the showring.

It seems Lisa is all about keeping Moree's farming heritage alive,

and with Daffi all dolled up, it's showtime.

So this morning we're starting with the Red Polls.

There are only two cows in the Red Poll field

because Red Polls have become a rare breed in Australia.

There's the first one.

The judge is looking for signs of a good breeder.

It looks like our judge has made her decision.

And she's done it!

First place goes to Daffi...

APPLAUSE

..with her bigger frame, bovine femininity,

and beautifully coiffed coat.

Congratulations, Lisa.

Thank you very much, Rick.

They're like kids - you're just proud if they get this far

and, you know, to get them to the show sometimes is an achievement.

Well done.

There are hundreds of competitions going on here

and Lisa's got her eye on another prize.

Tomorrow she'll be competing in the classic country art

of whip cracking,

so she's keen to squeeze in some practice.

They look a bit dangerous.

- Are they? - Um, no, they're not really at all.

Don't ask me to have a go.

It's actually a really good workout for your whole body

and your brain as well.

So if I keep whip-cracking, I won't get the fat tuck-shop lady arms,

and I also keep my brain thinking

cos one arm's doing one thing and one arm's doing the other.

Well, I thought that's what women did all the time, isn't it?

- You know. - Multitask. - Exactly.

That's it. Anyway, I'll do some little ones.

- Anyway, I'll leave you to it. - Yeah. OK.

Lisa's picked up the bullock whip,

traditionally used by stockman driving cattle through the bush.

WHIP CRACKING

Even her practice run draws a crowd.

I'm leaving Lisa to hone her skills

while I head to an event for which I'm eminently more qualified.

Hi, Rick. I'm Mel.

- I'm one of the judges of the cooking. - Oh, great.

I've agreed to help judge the finals of one of the cake shows.

Country show cooking is an institution.

So it's one of those things...you'll always find a fantastic fruit cake.

- There's bread as well. - Bread, yeah.

We've had a great showing of sourdough this year.

- Yeah. - Our decorated cupcakes,

and the kids always put in such a fantastic effort.

Oh, that's lovely.

And "sc-ons" or "sc-ohns"? Which...? What do you call them?

- Um, "scon". - Same with me.

And so many chocolate cakes this year in so many different varieties.

- Yes. Look at the chocolate cakes. - Yeah.

That's what I call million dollar shortbread.

- But you call it something like... - Caramel slice.

Caramel slice.

- I'm a bit of a sucker for a caramel slice. - It's pretty good.

But lamingtons we're going to do, aren't we?

We've had quite a bumper entry into the lamingtons this year.

So I have to confess I didn't start off as a great fan of lamingtons.

But it's a bit like, you know, Vegemite.

I'm now actually beginning to like them.

Yeah, they're a great little treat and perfect with a cuppa.

Well, let's go.

Lamingtons are a vanilla sponge cake cut into squares

and covered first in cocoa icing glaze

and then in desiccated coconut.

They were created here in Australia around 1900,

and by the time I came here in the '60s,

the lamington was a culinary institution,

found in almost every bakery, school canteen or cake stall

around the country.

You could say they're Australia's national cake

and today I'll decide the winner from Mel's shortlist.

- Just looking at them... - Yep.

..is there any spec for the way they look?

So I do aesthetically whittle it down a little bit first.

I'll look for four to five centimetres square.

- They can be a little rectangle. - OK. - Yeah.

The other thing is some... some are much darker than others.

Is there anything to be read into that, then?

I think that's probably down to your quality of cocoa.

It's actually not chocolate. It is cocoa in an icing.

- That's a common misconception. - Right.

With all that in mind, it's time to get tasting.

- Just take a slice. - I think so.

And for the finalists, the pressure is mounting.

- Sponge is good. Nice and light. - Mm. Nice and light. - Yeah.

- Farm eggs. It's nice and yellow. - Farm eggs too. - I think so.

Plus point. Ad the coconut's very nice.

If we were splitting hairs,

we really are probably looking for desiccated coconut.

It's shredded.

- Right. - They're all very uniform... - Yeah.

- ..so I do want to see equal lamingtons. - OK.

- Another good sponge. - Beautiful sponge. Yes.

- But this is definitely desiccated. - Yes.

Very good flavour in the sponge.

- Nice vanilla flavour. - Mm-hm.

- Slightly less flavour in the chocolate. - OK. - But...

- ..not bad. Not bad. - Yeah. OK.

Nice-looking sponge.

- That's a good one. - That's a good one? - Yeah. - OK.

I think I'd like to try that one too.

That's a very light sponge.

- They're really good. - They are.

Do you think you could pick our winner?

Ladies, come over.

- Hello. - Hello.

Difficult choice, I have to say, but there we go.

They were so great. Third place today was Georgi.

- Oh, wow. Thank you. - Congratulations. - Congratulations. - Thank you.

They're all lovely.

Our second place today was Kim.

- Well done, Kim. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Great.

Uh, Rick, would you like to do the honours?

Yes.

Our winner today was...

Rihannon.

Thank you so much.

I think the reason was it just was particularly...

The sponge was really nice - brilliant. Lovely flavour,

very moist and lovely dusting of desiccated coconut.

- Thank you. - Good job. - Well done.

Thank you.

I know farmers hope the Moree Show is keeping traditions alive

for the next generation,

and, wandering around, it seems to be working.

I see people of all ages competing.

- Jensen Basil. Is that you? - Yeah, that's me. - Well done.

- Thank you. - And what type of chicken is it?

This is an Australian Game.

- Australian Game? - Yeah.

They are Australia's breed of chook, which is pretty cool.

It's a very lovely-looking chicken, actually.

I've never seen one with such long legs.

Um, well, back in their day they used to be a farm chook,

so they could drink out of, um, troughs and that.

- Yeah. - That's why they were so tall.

- Is that right? - Yeah.

And I mean, you do seem quite young to be breeding chickens.

- Yes. Yes. - Do you mind me asking, how old are you?

- 16. - Fantastic.

My family's been doing it for a long time.

- I was just brought up into it. - Yeah. - I love my chickens, yeah.

Well, um, congratulations.

Clearly, the Moree community is proud of its strong farming roots.

I've read that the town was founded as a pastoral station,

and by 1862 it had grown into a thriving rural hub

of about 7,000 people.

But it's not just farming that's put Moree in the spotlight

over the years, this town is also famous for its local swimming pool.

I'm very pleased about this. Actually, I love a swim

and having left the coast I thought there'd be nowhere to swim,

but, of course, virtually every town in Australia has a pool.

And 60 years ago, this pool thrust Moree into the national headlines.

Oh, this is really interesting.

1965. It's the year before I first came here.

Freedom Ride.

"In February 1965,

"a busload of university students

"with Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins as leader,

"set out to visit country towns in New South Wales

"to expose the unacceptable living conditions of Aboriginal people."

They were also determined

to end the widespread segregation of Aboriginal people.

They targeted Moree pool

because entry here was reserved for whites only.

"The Freedom Riders pressured the council to allow a group

"of local Aboriginal children to enter the baths.

"Angry scenes ensued.

"However, the mayor signed a motion to rescind the colour ban."

For the first time, First Nations children were free

to swim in Moree's pool.

This hard-fought victory helped ignite

a successful referendum

that recognised Aboriginal people as equal citizens.

It's wonderful to learn that this little town

was at the centre of such pioneering change across the whole country.

This is really lovely

and it's great to see the whole community using the pool.

From its history in the struggle for Aboriginal civil rights,

Moree is forging a new legacy as a research hub

for First Nations knowledge.

I'm leaving town and heading through the traditional lands

of the Gomeroi people.

My destination is a wetland known as Whittaker's Lagoon.

I'm meeting an agricultural pioneer,

a Gomeroi woman called Kerrie Saunders.

Kerrie is helping drive a community-led research project

with Sydney University

into native grasses as a mainstream food.

And I find that really interesting,

simply because the native grasses surely should be more adapted

to the climate and the soil in this country

than the introduced European species.

It seems, long before wheat was grown here,

these native grasses produced edible seeds

that the Gomeroi people harvested as grains.

- Good morning. Kerrie? - Yes. - I'm Rick.

- Hello, Rick. - I'm looking forward to talking to you about grass.

Welcome. Thank you for coming along.

These native grains,

they've been eaten by my old people for thousands of years.

They keep the soil healthy, they keep the biodiversity healthy,

um, and they also bring carbon down.

- Can we have a look at some of them? - Let's go.

- I wouldn't know one from the other, to be honest. - OK.

I have to say, coming from England,

- I mean, this landscape is just so special. - Yeah.

The...the native grasses... has been here for, you know,

since time began.

A lot of our native grasses, they've got long root systems

so they touch the moisture in the ground way down.

They have survived through droughts and floods.

The grasses are here. If you...

- Oh, they... Are they here? - Yeah.

So they're on both sides.

And there's a particular species Kerrie wants to show.

- The common name is called native miller. - Yeah.

But the Gamilaraay language, it's called goolie.

- What does goolie mean? - So, goolie means river grass.

River grass. They're just tiny seeds, aren't they?

Yeah. So the seeds might be small,

but you do get a lot of them.

Traditionally, they were gathered just for the seeds,

- so the whole plant stays. - Yeah.

And then you get the top part

that produces the seeds.

So how often would they seed in the year? Just once or...?

- No, you can get two or three harvests off the one plant. - Really?

- So... - Have to try... taste everything. - Yeah.

- Very tasty. - Yeah, they are. - A bit bitter.

But can you mill that, then?

Yes.

They can be milled into flour

and you can cook with it,

bake bread.

- I can show you. Show you... - Fab. - I can make something today.

As she harvests native millet,

Kerrie is reviving a 60,000-year-old food tradition...

..one that might be making a comeback

as a crop for the 21st century.

She's offered to make me

an unleavened bread with native millet and water.

It's traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire,

a bush method that's known in Australia as "damper",

and I'm eager to see how it works.

- That's the goolie grain, is it? - That's correct.

- It's sitting in the coolamon. - Coolamon?

- A coolamon is a dish... - Yeah. - ..made out of bark from the tree.

- Yeah. - And I have threshed it,

so I've separated the seed from the husk

and now I'm going to rely on the wind.

- Yeah. - Um, and if it's not windy enough...

- You winnow it. - ..I winnow it. Yeah.

I know about... We had a winnowing machine on the farm

- I was bought...on, so I know... - OK. - ..it's just blowing the chaff off...

- ..off the grain. - Yeah, that's right.

SHE BLOWS

- So now that I've got the clean seed... - Yeah.

..they get grinded into flour.

- My old people been, um, harvesting and processing... - Yeah.

..the goolie into flour for thousands of years.

They would've just used grinding stones.

Once it turns into flour,

add water, make a paste

and then we can cook it near the fire.

Looking forward to it.

I think that this is right now to, um, add water.

I'll just stir it.

- Can you smell...? Smell it. - Yeah, I'd love to.

- Smells like sweet cake batter. - It does.

Now we are going to put the dough into the camp oven,

place it on the coals...

- Yeah. - ..and let it cook.

OK.

- So, did you grow up learning these techniques? - No.

When I was a small child, I used to run along the river,

run in the paddocks, run along the swamps.

Didn't know about this then.

When I started, you know,

learning about the native species that's grown around here,

then I realised that I'd been smelling goolie all my life.

Who did you learn it from, then?

Curiosity about being Aboriginal

and the oldest living culture in the world and...

What did we eat?

I went to my local, uh, TAFE

and then it led me into, you know, the University of Sydney,

finding out the scientific side or the value of how

these grains are so good for you.

When you think of people that lived here for 40,000, 50,000 years,

they probably knew a thing or two about what to eat

and how to stay healthy really.

Yeah, I...I think so too.

In fact, university research shows that goolie contains

significantly more fibre than wheat,

a major plus for one of the grains

that made First Nations people here the oldest bakers in the world.

And after 15 minutes on the coals, our damper is ready.

OK.

So, the damper is like a little kind of a flat cake...

- Yeah. - ..because it's all gluten-free. - Yeah.

- So it's not going to rise. - This is 100% goolie.

Kerrie's brought along some olive oil, saltbush

and purslane, or pigweed, seeds

to sprinkle on top for added flavour.

- Thank you. - Cheers.

Cheers.

I like it.

It's a lot lighter than I thought, and nutty.

Very nutty.

Well, you...you said it smelt of cake dough before

and I...I could tell that, but I can't taste it in there.

And I...I would like something like some honey with it, I think.

Honey would go really nice.

I've got a lot of friends who are gluten-intolerant and I think

this research into native grains is really important for all of us.

I just find it really interesting,

the way these ancient traditions are now being revived.

Moree's plains have seen a lot of change.

With the arrival of the British,

these grasslands became wheat and sheep country.

By the time I was travelling through Australia in the mid-'60s,

the Northwest Plains were on the cusp of another big shift,

the cotton boom.

New dams and irrigation spurred massive cotton planting,

lured by high returns and plentiful water.

But drought and tighter water allocation

soon challenged that promise.

One farmer did the maths

and took a bold leap in a completely new direction.

Well, I'm off to see Dick Estens, and, interestingly,

I've been driving on his property for about the last ten minutes.

He owns one of the biggest farms in Moree.

He used to grow cotton and he switched to citrus.

He now supplies the majority of fresh orange juice in Australia,

and a global orange juice shortage

has seen Dick continue

to expand his citrus empire.

I'm keen to know how he went from farming a traditional crop

to becoming a pioneer.

- Dick. - How are you going?

Nice to meet you.

Welcome to the Vitonga Farms.

Well, it's, um, quite big here, I've noticed already!

You've got a lot of planes.

Each one of these beauties earns its keep on the farm,

including six air tractors.

- Is this how you get around? - Absolutely.

This is my farm Ute.

This is your farm ute?

Others might know it as a Cessna 210

but Dick and his beloved farm ute

have clocked up plenty of flying hours together.

It takes me something like ten hours to go across Australia.

- And have you done that? - Yeah, I've done it a few times.

Fabulous.

Yeah, we're always in a hurry and the cops can't book us in it.

Dick, I want to talk about oranges.

So how come you've ended up with so many oranges?

Started here in 1980, growing cotton.

You know, cotton's been a really good crop for us

and it's been really good for the district.

But, you know, with the 1990s and the mining boom,

I was worried about the profitability of cotton

in the longer term.

So we spent years looking for an alternative crop.

And it boiled back to pecans or oranges.

Because of the high summer rainfalls and summer storms,

you don't want a soft-skin product that can take damage.

- Yeah. So we decided on oranges. - Fantastic.

You get a better look from the air. Hop in the farm ute.

Great. Which side do I get in, by the way?

- Do you want to fly it? - No.

- You hop in this side, then. - Oh, right. OK.

Ready to go?

We get airborne here, about 70 knots.

Now we're kicking sideways because of the wind.

And from up here, the size of his orange empire is staggering.

When Dick first started replacing cotton with oranges,

many of his fellow farmers thought he was mad,

and, in fact, for many years he lost money.

You plant your tree,

then you go two years pulling your oranges off the trees,

cos you literally want them to grow.

Third year, it's like two tonne a hectare,

four tonne to five tonne a hectare,

to 12, to 25, to 32.

Then you get 45 plus.

Generally, you want to break even around six years.

So that's eight and a half years after you order your first tree.

So we took a few hits.

It's taken 20 years, but his gamble is certainly paying off.

And when I look back at my life, it's always been about challenges.

I think I love a challenge.

I really enjoyed that.

That was really exhilarating.

It's almost THE part of Australian outback life -

is flying around in planes.

It's what they all do.

So now I've seen the whole farm from the air,

I'd really like to now get in amongst it.

Well, I have to say,

I don't think I've ever seen more oranges on a tree in my life.

Can we try one or two?

- Let's try a few. - OK.

We'll get some nice-coloured oranges.

One... I think that one up there. Can you...?

- Yeah, that'd be good. - Can I give you a leg up?

No, you're taller than me. You can have a go.

Let's get ourselves an orange.

Get this one over here.

What...what's the difference between a Valencia and a navel orange then?

Well, the navel at the bottom of the orange here

- have a big round navel. - Oh, yeah. Yeah. I see.

- Sort of a bit like a Christmas cake. - Yeah.

These don't have a navel

but this is a bit smaller, this one.

But it should be pretty good eating.

Looks good.

They're not too bad.

They're brilliant.

They've got a lovely round flavour.

Lots of acidity.

Lots of sweetness.

Delicious.

I tried the orange. Can I try the juice?

Absolutely.

With pulp.

With pulp - great.

That's really good.

It's got a really deep flavour.

It's really fully flavoured, I'd say.

- Excellent. - And it's sweet, but not too sweet.

It's real orange juice.

It is. And on that note...

- Cheers. - Good health there, Dick.

Good health.

I just loved talking to him cos,

in a way, I feel the same way as him.

He sort of didn't start out

meaning to be a massive orange grower but he is.

He's somebody who's prepared to take risks.

And in Dick's case,

those were big risks

in the early days.

And finally he hit gold - in oranges.

Dick's oranges have inspired me

to update one of my favourite desserts -

an orange, almond and olive oil cake.

Having visited Dick Estens' orange orchards,

I now know that navel oranges are better for making a sweet.

How'd you tell a navel orange?

Well, I now know that it is because it has a little navel on the bottom.

I have to say that I thought it was something to do with a navy,

but how wrong I was!

But the importance about these particular oranges

for this recipe is you need two oranges

each weighing about 200g,

and I'm going to now boil them.

Boiling the oranges gives a richer flavour

than if I just use the juice and zest.

I'm going to simmer them for 20 to 30 minutes

until the peel is tender so I can puree the whole fruit.

So they should be done by now.

It's about half an hour cooking.

They are. Knife through butter!

So I'm just going to take these off the heat

and let them cool down enough to handle them.

So, these are nice and cool now.

Just cutting off the ends like that.

Now I'm just going to cut them in half to check for seeds,

but being a navel orange it's unlikely that I will find any.

So I'm just going to put these in the food processor...

..and blend them until smooth.

Good.

Now, to make up the mix.

Four eggs.

160g of caster sugar

and the zest of one lemon.

The lemon just adds a bit more, um, citrus hint,

I suppose, to the orange cake.

I often put a bit of lemon juice in with an orange drink, really.

It just gives it a bit of a lift.

There we go.

Now I'm just going to beat all that together.

I'm not looking for any sort of voluminousness here.

It's not one of those cakes with...

It's not like a genoise or a sponge.

But I do want to amalgamate the, um...the egg yolks thoroughly.

And now the all-important olive oil.

And I have used extra virgin olive oil here.

I really want the flavour to come through.

Right, now the paste.

Smells gorgeous, that.

Stir that in a little bit.

Now a little bit of baking powder, which is very important,

because we haven't got a lot of natural volume there.

This will give the cake plenty of aeration.

And now the almond.

And this is why it's a flourless cake -

because the almond is adding the structure to it.

Just going to fold that in now.

And that is it.

Ready to put that into my cake tin.

So, in goes the batter, I suppose you'd call it.

And I'm using a spring-form cake tin.

It's nonstick but I have just put some baking paper in the bottom -

sort of belt-and-braces-wise.

And I should have added that I've set my oven to 180 convection.

That would be 160 fan.

And that's going to go in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

Traditionally, this cake is served quite plain,

but I'm giving it a delicious country twist with vanilla icing.

That looks great.

I'm just going to leave that to cool down while I get on with the icing.

I'm going to make a pouring icing.

Now, that means that it'll run nicely over the edge of the cake.

So first of all some melted butter.

Just going to stir that into...

This is just icing sugar, nothing but icing sugar.

See, I will just add a little bit of vanilla now,

about a teaspoon of vanilla essence.

And now I'm just going to stir this all in

and then decide how much milk to add.

I don't want to add too much.

And as soon as I start adding milk, it will go enormously

quickly into a liquid.

So we'll start with about a teaspoon.

And then I'm just going to work teaspoon at a time

till I've got my pouring consistency.

It will take another.

So that's five.

Yeah, I'd be tempted to leave it at that.

Of course, if you go any longer,

it'll just run off the side of the cake but it'll still look nice

because you'll see the orange coming through the icing.

So, that looks very nice.

All ready to go with the icing.

And I hope this is the right consistency.

You never quite know.

I'm just judging it.

I'd like to pour it all over there but I don't want to go mad.

That's all I want to do.

I just think it looks nicer

when it's sort of not covering everything.

So, this is the bit I love - afternoon tea.

A nice piece of orange and almond cake with olive oil.

It's lovely.

The thing that most pleases me is the icing,

because normally I use water to make my icing,

but this time I've used milk and it's creamier and more luscious.

There's something lovely about a long drive that sets your mind free.

I'm heading five hours west towards the town of Bourke

because it's the gateway to the outback,

which is where I want to end up.

When I was 19, I headed into the outback for the first time.

I did odd-jobs and met some real characters working in an abattoir,

and later maintaining railway lines in very isolated places.

I was trying to grow up.

I came from a very close family, very protective of each other.

Finding myself in this strange, wide-open country,

it was quite unusual for me.

But also I had this tremendous sense of freedom.

Much as I love the beaches and coast,

it's this landscape that really speaks to me.

Just stopped off for a cuppa of, uh, British tea, as it happens!

Should be billy tea, but British tea's all right.

Uh, I'm a great fan of Australian poetry, actually,

particularly of poetry of the outback,

and I found this poem which I particularly like -

the famous My Country by Dorothea Mackellar.

"I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains,

"Of ragged mountain ranges, Of drought and flooding rains."

FLIES BUZZ

Excuse me.

It's called the "country salute".

There's too many flies!

HE COUGHS

Got one up my nose then.

How does that ruin a poem!

"I love her far horizons,

"I love her jewel-sea,

"Her beauty and her terror -

"The wide brown land for me!"

I mean, what she's saying is... She's a 19-year-old in the UK

and she's homesick, and she's comparing the sort of orderliness

and the greenness of England with her lovely sunburnt country.

I do think remoteness can be a great driver of inspiration

and I do believe that landscape has an enormous effect on us.

My route to Bourke is taking me past the Barwon River

and one of the oldest human-made structures in the world.

The Brewarrina fish traps were built by the Ngemba people

tens of thousands of years ago.

Their stone walls were designed to channel fish into ponds,

where they could easily be speared.

Cleverly, they were built to work in low water

AND after the rain when the rivers ran high, as they are now.

We arrived last night in Bourke

and I was expecting just a few houses and maybe a bar,

a couple of shops, and lots of dust.

It's not like it at all.

It seems there are dusty dry years

and then there are years of flooding rains, like this one,

when the land turns green.

And as I've just learned, water has played a big role

in this town's history.

Last night, I was in the pub, right -

and this is exactly how it happened - and I said,

"What's this pub called?" It was a nice pub.

And they said, "It's called the Port of Bourke."

And I thought, "Well, this is some sort of joke."

I mean, there's no port in Borke.

It's in the middle of... middle of Australia!

But in the 1800s,

all the wool from all the sheep farming around here

was transported from Bourke,

down the Murray-Darling river system,

and this was where everything was loaded.

So right where I'm standing now

is the old port of Bourke.

From 1862, Bourke thrived for 50 years as a bustling frontier town.

At its peak, its population was two to three times what it is today.

But by the early 1900s, fortunes here had started to change.

Global wool prices tanked

and road trains began taking over from this inland port.

I love places like Bourke.

It just speaks of the sort of fragility of isolation.

I'm fascinated to find out how this impacts people,

especially those living "beyond the back of Bourke".

It's a phrase that's synonymous with the most remote parts of Australia.

Out here, there are just six people

for every hundred square kilometres of country.

This is the outback I remember -

everything red,

and the vegetation very sort of... very sparse and scrubby.

Generations ago,

this part of the country rode high on the sheep's back.

I'm curious to see how these pastoral families are faring today.

So I'm driving another 70km west to see for myself.

I've been invited to stay at Rose Isle Station,

a sheep station at the back of Bourke.

Rose Isle is a family-owned grazing property

run by farmers Garry and Samantha Mooring.

Welcome. Welcome to Rose Isle. I'm Samantha.

- I'm Rick. - Pleased to meet you.

Well, it's really stunning.

I'm loving all this red country.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

But it's all about sheep.

How many sheep are you running?

Um, in a really good season, we might run 8,000, but at the moment

probably 4,000 or 5,000.

- And how big? - 60,000 acres. - Crikey.

Which isn't that big for out here.

It's 11 acres to one sheep.

It's unbelievable, compared with, you know, back home.

Yeah, it is. Yes, where you are 11 sheep to half an acre!

And how is sheep farming? Is it prosperous, successful?

No, no. Wool isn't very prosperous.

Why?

Everything has gone up except the price of wool.

So a bale of wool you might get $1,200 for.

Yeah.

And it costs $500 just to shear that wool to put it in the bale

and another 500 to run it for the year.

So you are getting $200.

Yeah, for a bale of wool.

But you might take 80 fleeces to make a bale.

So we've diversified, so we have sheep that are not only wool,

they're also... You can get a lamb, a fat lamb, out of them as well

but you can still get a 19-micron wool off them.

So presumably the demand for wool is still there.

What about the demand for lamb?

It is declining. It's expensive.

It's expensive to produce and it's very expensive

to buy at the butcher, and we have a lot more people

who don't eat meat at all and their children have never tasted meat.

Uh, when I was young in... as a late teenager,

I spent some time out near Alice Springs.

We used to have mutton chops for breakfast with gravy.

- Yes, delicious. - Delicious. I agree.

Samantha has invited me to join her

rounding up the rest of the sheep she needs in this yard.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Interestingly, the first flock of sheep in Australia

arrived on the first fleet in 1788,

destined to be eaten as mutton.

Mutton refers to sheep meat that is two years or older,

whereas lamb is younger.

- The secret is to give them time... - Yeah. - ..to turn.

Don't push them and push them.

DOG BARKS

The dogs will work in the middle, so he'll push them along.

Good boy, Cole.

Cole, here, right.

Come on, Cole.

DOG BARKS

Walk up.

DOG BARKS

SHE WHISTLES

- Well done. - Thank you.

Thank you for your help.

Well, I didn't help.

My accommodation at Rose Isle is in one of the small shearers' huts

on the station,

and I've offered to earn my keep by cooking dinner for my hosts

while I'm here.

I've always thought of roast lamb as Australia's national dish,

but I'll defer

to my trusty old A-Z Of Australian Facts, Myths & Legends.

"Until the arrival of immigrants from Southern Europe in the 1950s

"and the subsequent waves of migrants from Asia

"and the Middle East,

"Australian cuisine was notable for its very British awfulness."

Hang on!

"The quintessential Australian meal, particularly in the 19th century,

"was a piece of mutton, which had to be cooked for hours and hours

"so it was tender enough to consume with two vegetables,

"which were usually potatoes, peas and pumpkin."

I think that's three, actually.

When I arrived in the '60s, most people were eating lamb.

But tastes have changed again

and today chicken and beef are more popular.

Still, in honour of my hosts, I'm serving lamb tonight.

So I'm going to roast a couple of racks of lamb

and I'm going to serve it up with some carrots, some glazed carrots,

with a little bit of star anise and olive oil,

and I'm going to cook the lamb in this oven.

It is actually an old steam engine

that used to drive the pumps in olden times.

It's beautiful, it's chunky

and, most importantly, it came from Birmingham.

There we go.

So, the first thing to do is to colour up my lamb.

So I've got two racks of lamb,

and actually a rack of lamb is one side of the loin of lamb.

These have been French trimmed,

which just means this part of the fat and the meat has been taken off

just to make them look attractive.

But I'm just going to season these racks of lamb first of all.

I do like to put quite a lot of salt on my lamb.

Now, to colour my racks of lamb

before they go into the oven.

So, in they go like that.

And just because it's a sort of habit of mine,

I always like to put a bit of rosemary with my lamb.

It's almost... The flavour does come through in the gravy a little bit,

but I just love the smell of rosemary when I'm roasting lamb.

So, unfortunately, because I haven't got a boiling top,

in other words a burner,

this will take a while,

but it's a lovely afternoon,

we've got plenty of time

and so I'm going to take plenty of time.

So, interestingly I've got some really nice fresh carrots here.

When I was thinking about cooking beyond Bourke,

the back of Bourke, I think, "Well, they won't have decent carrots,"

but they have! They're really nice.

So I'm just going to cut them like that and leave the tops on,

because I really like carrot tops.

They look nice and actually they taste nice.

The other thing I'm going to do when I finish off the dish is just

serve a bit of a carrot top as what we call garnish in the trade.

So I've already got a roasting dish in this magnificent oven.

But what a lovely roasting dish that is!

It's an antique.

I don't know where it came from but I crave one myself.

So, this is just very simple.

Roasted carrots.

So in there I'm going to put some olive oil.

A copious amount of salt

and a couple of star anises.

I just like the flavour of star anise with carrots.

Uh, it doesn't taste like sort of Indian spices.

It's just got this very nice aniseedy flavour

and it works with the sweetness of carrots.

And a fair bit of sugar.

I just find that sweet carrots, slightly salty as well,

it's very much to my taste.

So now to stop them burning,

I'm going to add some water...

..and those will all cook down to a nice shiny glaze.

So, back into the oven.

I'm going to leave that in the oven now till the water's all boiled away

and the carrots will be cooked.

Now, back to the racks of lamb.

It could still do with a bit more browning

but I'm noticing the skin is beginning to catch

on the bottom of the roasting tin

and that will flavour the gravy very nicely.

So that will take a little bit longer but I'm in no hurry.

I like cooking like this.

I mean, here's one of the great things about Australia -

you get plenty of mild afternoons like this, lots of sunshine.

Why wouldn't you want to cook outdoors?

Time to check the lamb.

That's much better. Much better.

So, into the oven.

Carrots are looking good.

I need a hot oven, about 200 degrees Celsius,

and I'll roast the lamb for 12 to 15 minutes,

as I like my lamb quite pink.

Well, one of the things about using an oven like this is

you don't know your oven.

Back home I know what the oven... how it works and how long I've got,

but this is really, really pumping out the heat now.

Being out here reminds me of a poem by bush poet William Ogilvie.

"Where the mulga paddocks are wild and wide,

"That's where the pick of the stockman ride,

"At the Back o' Bourke.

"That's where the skies are brightest blue,

"That's where the heaviest work's to do,

"That's where the wildest floods have birth

"At the Back o' Bourke.

"Where poor men lend and the rich ones borrow,

"It's the bitterest land of sweat and sorrow,

"But if I were free I'd be off tomorrow

"Out at the Back o' Bourke."

The carrots are ready, so I'll cover them with foil,

and I think the lamb is too, but best to check.

So, that is quite firm now.

So I think that would be like medium rare.

But here's another tip - take a small knife

and put it into the side like that.

Take it out and test it on your bottom lip.

If it feels warm, as this does, you know that it's medium rare really.

If it feels hot, it's medium to well done.

So now all I'm going to do is just rest the racks like this.

And this is so important.

You want to rest meat - I mean, like a rack of lamb -

for probably 10, 15 minutes,

and the reason for doing that

is it relaxes all the tissues in the meat,

and the juice, which is sort of

forced out towards the surface, returns.

So they're ready to be sliced in about 15 minutes.

Now I'm just going to make the gravy.

There's quite a lot of oil left in there and lamb fat,

so I'm just pouring most of that off.

Now open the little barbecue.

Get that heated up.

And the first thing I'm going to put in there

is a little bit of flour to thicken the gravy up a little bit.

Good strong red wine.

And also...some redcurrant jelly.

The reason for that is to give a little bit of sweetness

to the gravy to offset the sourness of the wine.

Now some stock,

about 300ml of stock.

And the last thing I'm going to do is put some soy sauce in

and that just gives it a bit of colour.

So about teaspoon of soy sauce.

Just stir that in,

and finally, to make it nice and glisten-y and rich,

some butter.

Just going to taste.

And what I'm looking for is the right amounts of seasoning in there.

At the moment, it's just not quite deep enough,

so I'll achieve that by reducing it more,

but I just want to put a tiny bit more salt in there as well.

The gravy's coming down nicely.

I'm just going to make a little salad now.

And I mean a little salad.

And there's no big deal about a salad like this.

It's the freshness and just adding the ingredients at the last minute.

There is some olive oil, and just a tiny little bit of vinegar.

So, just a bit of salt, perhaps a little bit of sugar as well.

And that's my salad.

And now to slice the lamb.

So here we go.

Garry and Samantha have joined me at the shearers' cottage.

Hope it's still piping hot.

Roast lamb with carrots and a leafy salad.

- That's great lamb. - It's beautiful. - It's local.

Beautiful Australian lamb. Lovely.

Very tender and lots of flavour.

And I must say, cooking it in that oven,

the fat is really nice and crisp, isn't it?

- It's almost smoky. - Yeah. Almost smoky.

What you've done to the carrots is made them beautiful and sweet.

And the tails on them, I haven't had before,

but it adds a little bit of fibre and that to the...

Fibre, Garry, yeah.

That lamb is just why we breed lambs in Australia.

It's... There's nothing like it,

cooked like it was now - I mean, the old oven.

It's absolutely beautiful.

I'd love an oven like yours,

but, you know, they don't come that way any more.

THEY LAUGH

When we were discussing about making this series,

it was people like Garry and Sam

and Dick Estens and Kerrie Saunders that I was really wanting to meet.

I mean, there's something about their resilience

and their connection and love of the land

and actually the timeless splendour of the land itself.

Join me next time as I head south...

Beautiful.

..to the once-dry plains of the Riverina...

- Amazing, eh? - It's so nice.

It might be messy.

Maybe I am on the way to becoming a proper Aussie after all.

..now the nation's food bowl.

Quite a lot bigger than I remember in the '60s.

They do look prehistoric, a bit like sort of dinosaurs, really.

Hey, just stop it!

Whoa! Would you get off my belt?!

HE LAUGHS