Back Roads on ABC and ABC iview S11E1 – Heather Ewart heads to the South Australian outback to check out two mining towns that are chalk and cheese – Roxby Downs and its unruly cousin, Andamooka. These towns are just 30 kilometres apart but seem worlds away from each other.
Andamooka is a frontier opal mining town that evolved with barely any rules or regulations, but tons of character. It carries an unmistakable whiff of the Wild West. Heather meets local identity “Cal the Stoner”, who moved from Melbourne to Andamooka to devote himself to his art. Cal’s stone sculpture “The Andamooka Tiger” was years in the making and is now on the tourist trail. Heather’s mind boggles at Cal’s tales of playing heavy rock to birds in his garden and she winds up at an impromptu party in his psychedelic bar.
Nearby Roxby Downs was only built in the 1980s to service BHP’s vast Olympic Dam mine. On the surface, it’s a far neater and more orderly town, but Heather soon finds that the locals here also take pride in being different and making their own fun. Mine worker and artist Monte Clements makes elaborate costumes and invites Heather to model for a photo.
The results are otherworldly!
Production credit:
Executive Producer: Brigid Donovan. Series Producer: Louise Turley.
Back Roads on ABC and ABC iview – Tuesday 12 November, 2024 at 8.00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
Back Roads on ABC and ABC iview S11E1
