Coast Australia (2013)
Coast Australia follows renowned Scottish archaeologist and historian Neil Oliver on his very first trip to Australia, as he and a diverse group of co-hosts gather stories about our spectacular coastline: the history, the people, the archaeology, the geography and the marine life, investigating interesting and little known facts along the way. Oliver’s co-hosts, all experts in their field, are journalist and Australian arts and culture specialist Miriam Corowa, environmentalist Professor Tim Flannery, marine scientist Dr Emma Johnston, anthropologist Dr Xanthe Mallett and television presenter and landscape architect Brendan Moar.
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Episode 1 - Victoria
Release Date: 2015-04-02 -
Episode 2 - South Australia
Release Date: 2015-04-09Neil takes to the air on an RAAF training mission to seek and destroy submarine invaders. Palaeontologist and explorer Professor Tim Flannery has a close encounter with history as he uncovers an unlikely meeting between two French and English navigators at Encounter Bay. Landscape architect Brendan Moar visits the moody Coorong to remember the ground-breaking Australian film Storm Boy. Neil investigates the quest to preserve Adelaide's mother-ship, freshly saved from Scottish ruin. Marine ecologist Professor Emma Johnston dives deep into the stunning underwater caverns of the Limestone Coast. In Robe, historian Dr Alice Garner gets a taste of how Victoria's gold rush was the making of this coastal town across the border, and Neil examines new archaeological evidence of a wild fur trade that sprung up on remote Kangaroo Island, and its lasting impact on the endangered sea lions of Seal Bay.
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Episode 3 - Northern NSW
Release Date: 2015-04-16Neil Oliver unearths the surprisingly dirty history of much-loved Byron Bay. Professor Tim Flannery uncovers the world's longest recorded unbroken raft journey. Neil investigates a war that the authorities were determined to cover up at great personal cost.
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Episode 4 - South WA
Release Date: 2015-04-23Neil Oliver travels from Perth to Augusta. He begins in the rigging of the Duyfken, a replica 16th Century Dutch ship, the first known European vessel to visit Australia.
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Episode 5 - Torres Strait
Release Date: 2015-04-30Neil travels to Horn Island in Australia's extreme north to uncover the role of Australia's only indigenous battalion, a Second World War fighting force of Torres Strait Islanders. On Possession Island Tim Flannery stands where James Cook finally claimed Australia for Great Britain, and discovers the riches that he missed.
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Episode 6 - Norfolk Island
Release Date: 2015-05-07On this lush-green island, 1500kms from the mainland. Neil Oliver wanders amidst penal ruins, as he discovers the legacies of two historic figures; an audacious convict, and the second a reforming commandant.
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Episode 7 - Southern NSW
Release Date: 2015-05-14Neil Oliver discovers the fatal engineering errors behind Cape St George Lighthouse that cursed Wreck Bay for four decades. In Callala Bay, Tim Flannery uncovers the life-saving properties of seaweeds.
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Episode 8 - Pilbara
Release Date: 2015-05-21Neil Oliver boards an iron ore carrier to discover only a tiny margin of error allowed in docking and loading these enormous vessels.