Heather Ewart - Back Roads

Contents

For Fiona Reynolds,

who supported and believed in Back Roads

from the beginning.

by Heather Ewart

I GREW UP ONback roads, dirt ones, and so did everyone I knew. They were dry and dusty in summer, wet and boggy in winter and were the only way into or out of our sheep and wheat farm near Murchison in Victoria, close to the Goulburn River. Our large family has lived in these parts since the 1850s. Many of them have never seen any need to move, and those who have always want to come back.

A long, tree-lined gravel driveway led to our place, Murambie Downs, and I can still recall the excitement as a child when our dogs barking would signal a visitor was coming down the track. It might be a wandering swagman there were still a few around back then or a travelling salesman in his van packed with all the latest haberdashery and lollies for us kids. In September it would be the shearers, but more often than not it would be friends and neighbours dropping in for a meal or a cuppa. The kettle was always boiling on our kitchen stove and there was always time to share a yarn and a laugh or two.

I was exposed to characters aplenty... Decent, hardworking men and women whod had their fair share of good and bad times and personal tragedies on the land, but with a sense of humour as dry as the back roads they lived on to carry them through.

Years later, in early 2015, as our small team was formulating the idea of an ABC TV series on life in rural Australia, it struck me that those sorts of characters wouldnt be confined to my community of Murchison. Theyd have to be right around the country. And sure enough, they were.

The title Back Roads was born and we hit the road with our theme firmly in our minds: you never know who youll meet or what youll find when you travel the back roads. This was to be a show about the resilience of the bush, and seemingly ordinary country people doing some extraordinary things.

It didnt take long. Our first stop was the small town of Yackandandah on the edge of Victorias high country, where we met the unforgettable 12-year-old Moira Dale. As she shared scones shed baked for our afternoon tea with her mother and aunt, Moira calmly explained she had autism but that wasnt going to prevent her from being a good actor. In fact, her career was already off and running, launched in the local production Scaredy Cat, which went on to feature in the Melbourne Comedy Festival to great acclaim. Moira is still acting and has become a cherished friend. Thats what can happen on the back roads.

From the hills, to the outback, to the sea, we came across one inspiring story after another and many of the characters we remain in touch with. Its been one of the great joys of working on Back Roads.

And it doesnt take much for childhood memories to come flooding back either. Like the smell of hot bread fresh out of the oven at Kevin and Gail Sharps bakery at Birchip in the Mallee though their real claim to fame is their award-winning vanilla slices.

Like Craig Stinear or Oolie, as the locals call him in Ceduna, South Australia, whose job is to keep a watchful eye on the road across the Nullarbor and who has the same sort of droll tongue I used to hear around our farm kitchen table. I actually fell for his line that he was setting up in the middle of the highway for an international hopscotch competition.

Like Joan Sinclair near Corryong, in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, still riding horses in her 80s, and enjoying a camp oven roast with her mates around the fire, just as our family used to on weekend picnics.

Like Lyn the mobile hairdresser in North Queensland and her loyal friend and assistant, Fil, with whom I counted caravans and tall anthills to while away the hours between appointments on our long road trip a bit like playing I Spy in the car with my siblings in the old days.

Like the brave Gurjit Sondhu at Harrow, whose life was turned upside down when her husband, Tari, died soon after we met them, yet Gurjit is determined to stay put and keep their farm going, just as my mother did after my father died of a heart attack.

No matter which town we go to, the residents seem familiar to me because they have the same traits and way of expressing themselves as those people I grew up with on the back roads. They just get on with it, secure in the knowledge that this is the place where they belong.

When we began our journey, we didnt know if wed get past the first series. We hoped, but couldnt be sure, that viewers would come along with us. Yet they did, in droves. Somehow, weve hit a nerve out there. A way of life many city people may have thought was gone is still there. While filming, were now constantly approached by travellers telling us theyre on their own road trips visiting the towns weve featured. And the towns themselves have reported to us thats meant a boost to their economies, which is such an unexpected and welcome side effect. We hope in some small way weve helped bridge the gap between city and country.

For me, its been a privilege to showcase the best of country Australia. Ive spent most of my career as a political reporter and foreign correspondent and have now come full circle. Clearly the lure of the back roads is hard to shake, as youll discover in the pages of this book.

Heather Ewart

Location: 308 km north-east of Melbourne, Victoria.

Population: 1811

Aired: Yackandandah was the first town Back Roads visited when it first got the go-ahead for an initial eight-episode series in early 2015. It aired in mid-December 2015 and the towns folk festival has been booked out ever since.

And it goes like this... F-o-r-m bananas, form-form bananas.

And pe-e-el bananas, peel-peel bananas.

A POD OF A dozen or so kids in socked feet and colourful T-shirts and shorts is standing in a circle inside Yackandandah Public Hall. Their arms are flailing about in rhythm with their words as they create giant invisible bananas in the air and then exuberantly strip off the skins with long, fluid motions.

Piles of muddy football shoes lie abandoned in the doorway theyre mostly boys here today, and theyve just rushed over from practice.

The Banana Song is a favourite warm-up and has already proven its worth under the tutelage of chief fruit herder and drama teacher Brendan Hogan.

Thats just a funny little warm-up game to get the kids in the mood for being stupid, he explains.

Its 2015 and the Back Roads crew is here to film with the drama group, the Yackandandah Young Players. The kids have become something of a celebrity troupe among residents in their hometown of Yackandandah, a picturesque hamlet in the foothills of Victorias high country.

Just a few weeks ago they were performing their play Scaredy Cat to packed audiences in the Big Smoke, in the Spiegeltent at Melbournes International Comedy Festival.

That was our little ritual before we went on we used to sing that song and that would get us all geared up for the stage, Brendan says.

And... go bananas, go-go bananas.

The group starts dance-jogging on the spot.

One student is stomping around particularly enthusiastically. Moira Dale is 12, and was a hit on the Melbourne comedy circuit as a charming and funny French-horn-playing little trooper called Kowalski, a part written especially for her by Brendan. She doesnt know it, but shell also soon win the hearts of the