Coast Australia (2013–2017): Season 1, Episode 8 - Coral Coast - full transcript

This has been Coast's
biggest expedition ever.

We've come to Australia.

A country so dramatically defined
by its ancient and diverse coastline.

With stories of a resourceful people
shaped by the tyranny of distance

and the extremes of climate
and scale.

There's been a rich
coastal culture here

for at least the last 50,000 years.

The true marvel of this coast

is its power to inspire
the imagination.

Any wonder that most Australians

choose to live along
their dazzling coastline



and revel in its infinite horizons.

I'm on the cusp
of West Australia's wild,

remote, and famously wind-ruled
coral coast.

It's a coastline that's blessed

with outrageously beautiful
natural wonders

but peel beneath
the picture-perfect façade,

and I'm told it also harbours
some very dark secrets.

Joining me
on this splendid adventure,

Dr. Xanthe Mallet investigates
the first European tragedy

on Australian soil in 1629.

So all of this was the mass grave.

3-billion-year old life
with Professor Tim Flannery.

These black rocks,
they're not just rocks.

They're some of the oldest
living things on our planet.



Dr. Emma Johnston,

up close
with a 60-million-year-old fish.

And I'm tracing the mystery
of a lost Australian battleship.

And why does no-one
get off of Sydney alive?

This is Coast Australia.

In this episode,

our journey runs
from Wedge Island in the south,

across to the
Houtman Abrolhos Islands,

up to Shark Bay, Carnarvon,
and the remote North West Cape.

Sixty kilometres off the coast
of Geraldton,

the Houtman Abrolhos
are a cluster of 122 islands.

Named after a 17th Century
Dutch explorer, Frederick de Houtman,

their featureless isolation
has deterred all

but a hardy community
of cray fishermen,

and the occasional yachting tourist.

Historically, though,
the Abrolhos are known

for a bizarre tale
of murder and madness.

- Jeff. Hello.
- Hi, Xanthe. Welcome.

Anthropologist
Dr. Xanthe Mallet

is starting out from Geraldton

to investigate a macabre tale
of three men and a bloodbath,

that took place 140 years

before Captain Cook first set eyes
on Australia.

400 years ago,

the spice trade
was the resources boom of the time.

The Dutch East India Company,

was the most wealthy and powerful
institution in the world.

Thanks to its control
of the legendary Spice Islands,

in modern day Indonesia.

In 1628, the Company's
newly-commissioned Batavia

set sail from Holland
to its eastern headquarters in Java.

By June 1629,

it was sailing off the coast
of Western Australia

when disaster struck.

The Batavia hit a reef
and was wrecked with 40 lives lost.

Another 280 made it to land,

mostly here,
on the Abrolhos's Beacon Island.

Enter our first character,
Commodore Francisco Pelsaert.

Having survived the loss of his ship,

Pelsaert now faces the grim reality
of a barren outcrop

with no fresh water
for his marooned charge

of soldiers, men, women and children.

He had to act quickly.

Cast off forward.
Let's have the jib up.

Okay, we've just got a gentle breeze.

With 48 desperate passengers

in a longboat exactly like this one,

Pelsaert heads out
in search of water,

or so he claims.

I'm with modern day
mariner, Jeff Brooks,

a Geraldton local and guardian
of this historical replica.

You know the story
of Pelsaert as well as anybody.

What do you think his thoughts were
as he rowed off, you know,

into the distance
leaving all of those people?

On that island?

There's a lot written about it.

They were saving their skins.
They were.

- Do you think?
- Absolutely.

If you're going sailing
to the mainland to look for water

which is what they were doing,
why would you take 48 people.

The boat was already overloaded.

Be that as it may,

they make an epic
1700-kilometre journey to Java

in terrible conditions.

They were at sea
for quite a long time.

Yeah, 30 days roughly.

That's a long time to be here,
isn't it?

Yes, not a lot of privacy.
Not a lot of comfort,

a lot of salt water boils,
and the boat would have leaked,

because all boats
at that time leaked.

But that was nothing
compared to what was happening

back on the islands.

With no water and little food,

the second man in this story,
Jeronimus Cornelisz,

steps up
and begins a reign of terror.

I've come to Beacon Island
to piece together a gruesome jigsaw

with the help of Jeremy Green,
a leading Maritime Archaeologist

who pioneered excavations
of the Batavia wreck,

and has been studying its history
for 40 years.

Jeronimus Cornelisz,

who is the really baddie,
baddie person in this whole story,

came late off the vessel.

And he was then
the most senior person.

And he had been involved
in this fomenting mutiny

that was taking place
before they were wrecked.

What was the mutineers' plan?

I think what they were concerned
that the food would run out,

so they wanted to reduce
the number of people.

What happened in the beginning
is they had a lot of sick people,

and people who were weak
and not able to do anything.

They were killed and buried
rather quickly and clandestinely.

They then had another problem,

the mutineers,
is they had a group of soldiers.

And the soldiers were extremely
well organised,

they were well armed,
and they, for the mutineers,

they were a real nightmare
because, you know,

they were not likely to be able
to overpower them.

The biggest challenge
for the mutineers was their leader,

a young, determined soldier
named Wiebbe Hayes.

Our third, and final character.

With covert killings underway,

somehow, Cornelisz

manages to disarm and dispatch
Wiebbe Hayes and his soldiers

to West Wallabi Island,
ostensibly to look for water.

Was the hope that they
would actually die over there?

Yes, that was the general idea.

After that happened they then started
to openly kill people.

So people who didn't
behave themselves were killed.

In a grisly bout
of medieval Hunger Games,

throats are slit, skulls bashed in.

One hundred and fifteen people,
brutally murdered

by Cornelisz and his mutineers.

In 1994, Jeremy started excavating,
and uncovered graves.

Previous graves were found
and then we found this mass grave.

There was a pit, which I suppose...

Well, you can see
from that thing there.

This hole, here, would have been
about three metres in diameter.

Right. So, all of this

- was the mass graves, but...
- Yeah.

- ...the bodies are not here now.
- No.

This is typical
of the mass graves that you see

in Kosovo, et cetera, the kind of...

Just all the bodies
thrown in together.

This speaks very much
to that clandestine,

kind of covert burial,
lack of respect

- and probably foul play.
- Yes, exactly.

A survivor
of this orgy of rape and murder

swims over to West Wallabi Island
to alert the soldiers.

I've come to West Wallabi

with an Abrolhos local,
known as Spags,

who's going to show me
a remarkable historical site.

This is the area
where Wiebbe Hayes,

the soldier, set up his camp.

One of the survivors
from over on the other island

managed to get over here
and warn Wiebbe Hayes

what had happened.

So that's when he started
fortifying things,

so that if they were attacked
they had a chance of surviving.

- And were they attacked?
- Yes, apparently they were. Yeah.

This is an extraordinary structure,

built one and a half centuries

before the British
established a colony in Australia.

Well, it was built in 1629,
so, yeah.

It's the oldest
European building in Australia.

Wiebbe came here to find water,

- did they find any?
- Yes

Which is lucky really
otherwise they were in trouble.

Cornelisz and his gang
then launched several attacks

on Wiebbe Hayes
and his loyalist soldiers.

Just then,
what should appear over the horizon

but a rescue ship!
Having made it to Java,

Pelsaert was ordered
to return to the Abrolhos

to rescue the survivors and cargo.

Pelsaert had arrived
in the rescue vessel, the Sardam,

and appeared on the scene,
right when the battle's taking place.

And so they obviously
all looked round

"My God, Pelsaert's here,"

or "the rescue vessel's here,"
"Let's go!"

And the mutineers
wanted to capture the rescue vessel

and Wiebbe Hayes wanted
to warn Pelsaert

what had happened.

It was a desperate boat race.

Wiebbe Hayes got there first
and the story goes on from there.

If Wiebbe Hayes
hadn't have got there first

we would have had another story.

So he's the real hero of the story.

Absolutely. About the only one
in the whole story.

Gang leader Cornelisz
was executed

on the Abrolhos by hanging.

Pelsaert returned to Java,
but his reputation was damaged

for abandoning his ship,
its cargo and his passengers,

and within a year,
had died of natural causes.

As for Wiebbe Hayes,

the Dutch East India Company
sent him back to Amsterdam

a wealthy man, an officer
and standard-bearer for the army.

So this story isn't really
about a shipwreck.

It's the classic tale
of good versus evil,

of a hero versus a villain,

and it culminated in a boat race,

the outcome of which decided the fate
of 140 people,

whether they lived or died

and whether this story
was ever going to be told.

Old tales, tall and true

along the Coral Coast
of Western Australia.

Coming to wild places like this,

makes me wonder,
what kind of people are drawn

to such an isolated setting?

And does this strip
of beach and ocean,

function as much as a test of mettle
as a playground?

Novelist and long-time
local Tim Winton

has written that West Coasters
live in the teeth of the wind

and that's a sentiment
that will chime with coastal dwellers

in many different parts of the world.

But maybe there's more to it
than that,

because you can detect in his words
just the hint of a challenge.

It's a proud declaration
of humankind's ability

to adapt to
and to overcome unruly weather.

Welcome to Wedge Island.

Well, not so much an island
as the tip of an isolated peninsula.

A shack community 3 hours south
of Geraldton

and happily far away
from everywhere else.

The locals first arrived as squatters
on crown land in the '30s.

During World War II,

government policy
was to move everyone off this coast,

in case of invasion,

and the shacks were used
for target practice.

Soon after,
the fishermen and farmers returned

to slap together their fishing
and holiday shacks

out of whatever was to hand,
in the best do-it-yourself tradition.

For example, Noddy White
and his 40-year-old pad.

- My humble abode.
- I love it.

- This is the first half.
- This suits me.

- Just this room. Just this room.
- Right, so this is the first bit?

Fantastic. And like you say,
you had to bring all this stuff.

Yes. Everything on trailers
over sand track.

Back then, off the highway,
it was a hard couple of hours drive

over 36 kilometres
of very rough tracks.

Now, it's 10 minutes
on a sealed road.

It's all recycled or second-hand

when it came here 40 years ago.

And some of this tin on there
would be over 100 years old.

No. Look at the electrics!

- Yes, we've got a few of those.
- Yeah.

The community, here...

I suppose to come into it
you'd have to be the sort of person

who can muck in
and get on with people.

There's always been
that togetherness,

you know, like, community.
And kids look after other kids.

You're never worried
about your kids up here.

You know, it's...
I want to be carried out of here.

I'll spend the rest of my days here.

There's room for all sorts here

on what is still crown land.

With no running water,
no mains electricity, no shops,

it's self-sufficient. Off the grid.

Maybe an expression of Australia's
anti-authority egalitarian spirit.

Hello.

- Hey, Neil. How are you, mate?
- Hey, Neil.

The scatter of 350 shacks

squat behind
another endless windswept beach.

Great for surfing,

although some locals
earn their living here, too,

such as cray fisherman Steven Dawe.

- How are you doing, Steven?
- G'day, mate.

- Any luck?
- Not that good.

- Not that good.
- Nah.

It's the worst we've done
for a while.

Really?

But still, there's probably 2,500
dollars' worth of crayfish there

- believe it or not.
- Really? What is it about crays?

Is that just the best thing
to go for here?

We've been into it for years,

my old man was a fisherman
and my uncle's a fisherman and--

And it's always the crayfish,
that's the thing to go for?

Yeah, well,
they're worth a lot of money.

The most valuable fish on the coast
just about.

This place, Wedge,
is your livelihood?

It is.

Where I'd be without it,
I don't know.

You guys have done that before,
haven't you?

While Steve and son
head off to market,

back in the community,
well, not much is happening.

Except for Steve's wife Helen,

who's busy
with a rather unique hobby.

What you doing, Helen?

Hello, just tanning
some skins. Fish skins?

- Fish skins?
- Yeah.

So, I've just taken them
out of the bath...

- What kind of skin is that?
- This was a dhufish.

- Right.
- So, that's one side of it.

It's weird.

- It's like rubber.
- Yeah, it feels a bit like rubber,

- very strong.
- Very strange, yeah.

- And it's a big--
- So you can--

- Come off a big animal.
- Yeah.

So what do you have to do to that
before it's usable?

I have to take all the scales off
and I do that by hand.

Just flicking them off,
which is a bit messy.

What can you make
fish leather into?

I've used it
to make a dress, once.

Really?

I had, like, black suede,
and it had leather panels

- down the side of it.
- Yeah.

Handbags, wallets.

So, I use the floor
because it's old jarrah.

- It nails in well.
- Okay.

Otherwise, I'd have to have
a wooden frame.

So, this is easy.

And whose shack is this
that we're nailing fish skins onto?

This is our shack, but this
is where our daughter sleeps.

What do you think it is
about this place?

I think probably to me it's very....

It's like a romantic freedom.

We enjoy
the best things in life, I think.

Like the best food,
the freshest food.

But at the same time,
life's really simple.

Retreating from the heat
of the land

or the noise of the city,

the shack-dwellers of Wedge Island,

have adapted to this magnificently
untamed strip of coast

with a loving hand
and a light footprint.

Red Bluff is a remote part
of the Coral Coast

130 kilometres north of Carnarvon.

Bizarrely, it was here
that 57 German seamen turned up

in a crowded lifeboat in 1941.

Throwing their weapons in the water,

they claimed they were responsible
for what is still

Australia's worst naval disaster.

I'm here to examine the mystery

that's shrouded those events
ever since.

1941, and Europe is consumed by war

on the ground, in the air and at sea.

In Australia, in February,

HMAS Sydney had returned a hero

after an illustrious campaign
in the Mediterranean.

Here's a story
of heroes' homecoming

after months
in the European war zone.

HMAS Sydney with her crew complete.

But in all the actions
which she fought,

not a single casualty was sudden.

The Sydney and her 645 sailors

were now to be deployed
on the seemingly safer mission

of convoy-escort and home patrol.

But already, in Australian waters,

there were suspected Nazi raiders.

German war vessels

pretending to be harmless
merchant ships.

The HSK Kormoran,
under Captain Theodor Detmers,

had been in the Indian Ocean
for months,

armed and in disguise.

On the afternoon
of 19th November,

100 nautical miles
off the Western Australian coast,

the Sydney's Captain, Joseph Burnett

sighted what appeared to be
a merchant ship.

I'm gonna meet Wes Olson,
a train driver by day

and one of the great writers
and researchers on the subject,

so I can find out exactly
what happened out there at sea

that evening of November 1941.

- Hi, Wes.
- Hi, Neil.

How you doing?

I see you've come fully armed.
So, which is which?

Well, this model
represents HMAS Sydney.

Her main role is trade protection.

To protect merchant shipping
plying these waters.

Protecting this coastline.

And this model
represents HSK Kormoran.

Kormoran's job
is to sink those merchant ships.

She's loaded with mines,
and well-armed.

But nothing like Sydney.

- She's a warship.
- Yes.

Sydney carries eight six-inch guns
mounted in the four turrets.

Kormoran's broadside
is only four 5.9-inch guns.

So, one here, one in the hold there,

another one in the hold there,
another one under this flap there.

Right, so they're in disguise.
They're--

Before the battle,
those flaps are down.

If you turn the ship over,

- the other side.
- Right.

That's how
she would have appeared to Sydney

before the Germans declared identity.

To all intents and purposes,

she looks like
a harmless merchant ship.

- But she's anything but.
- That's right.

Then, Sydney's Captain Burnett

signals the Kormoran
to identity itself.

The German ship turns away
and claims to be a merchant ship.

With no guns in sight
on the Kormoran,

Burnett is left guessing.

According to his shipping plot,

there shouldn't be any ship
in the area,

so he has to be extremely suspicious.

It appears to be a bogus ship

claiming the identity
of another ship.

It can only be two things.

A raider,
or possibly the raider's supply ship.

But Detmers
had an ace up his sleeve.

He would have known that Burnett
had to identify his vessel.

If he'd tipped his hand
by opening fire,

even at extreme range
or moderate range,

he's telling Burnett,
the enemy ship, what he is, a raider.

But he didn't do that.
He kept his nerve...

Burnett is under instruction
from Britain

to board raider or supply vessels,
so he continues to move in closer.

A fatal error of judgment.

The Kormoran is no match
for the Sydney.

Detmers knows one way or another
that he has already lost his ship.

It's life and death
for the Kormoran.

They've got 360 contact mines
on board.

Another 30 magnetic mines.

Just one shell in there,

even if it's six-inch, four-inch,
doesn't matter.

One shell and it's goodbye.

He waited until Sydney
got to such a position

that he could use all his weapons
to maximum advantage.

Do you think Burnett assumed
that the Kormoran either would not

or simply could not open fire?

We would have to assume that.

Finally, the Kormoran
raises her Nazi flag

and fires on Sydney
with everything she's got.

Critically the first hits
are on Sydney's bridge.

The director control tower,
it's the nerve centre.

Control of the gunnery.
So, everything's lost

in those first few seconds
of the battle.

Captain Burnett
and his senior officers are killed.

Are we talking minutes

before the Sydney
is so badly damaged?

We're looking
at three to four minutes.

Devastated though Sydney is,

she has nonetheless
done enough damage to Kormoran

to finish her as well?

She got in some hits,
some critical hits.

Caused a fire,
so that effectively stopped Kormoran,

but she did not get that lucky hit.
She didn't get the mines.

Detmers' tactics had won.

So, he first of all
out-thought Burnett,

- and then he out-gunned him.
- That's right.

As the Kormoran sinks,

the Germans take to the lifeboats,
and most survive.

But the Sydney goes down
with all 645 sailors lost.

And why does no-one get off
of Sydney alive?

I mean, there's lifeboats...

The upper decks have been swept
with shellfire, cannon-fire...

Most of those boats
have been damaged in the battle.

Back on the mainland,

the first people knew
of this terrible battle

was when five Germans lifeboats
were picked up at sea.

Two other lifeboats
reached this coast.

One at Red Bluff.

Three hundred and fifteen
Germans survived,

but theirs was the only account
of the battle.

The Australian government
was slow to announce the disaster

and refused to release details

of the German account
for another 16 years.

With no corroborative information,
there was a suspicion of deception...

that lingered for decades.

Conspiracy theories
and hoaxes flourished,

until 2008,

when both wrecks were discovered
and surveyed,

proving the original German story.

That's it. That's HMAS Sydney.

The wrecks lie off this coast,

80 nautical miles or so
in that direction,

and they're under two-and-a-half
kilometres of water.

No human being can dive so deep.

So the wreck site is inaccessible
to the loved ones of the lost men.

These haunting images tell
of Sydney's final moments.

While those aboard desperately fought
to save her,

her bow was hit by a torpedo
and broke off.

It was a catastrophic end.

Sydney now lies deep
on the ocean floor...

silent and alone with her ghosts.

At the western-most tip
of Shark Bay,

one island stretches out
with a curious history.

In 1616,
Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog

was the first European
to set foot in Western Australia.

He left an engraved pewter plate
on this island,

which now bears his name,

and then carried on north
to the Spice Islands.

80 years later,

Flemish Captain Willem de Vlamingh
passed by

and replaced the plate
with one of his own.

The French then annexed the island
in 1772,

marked by a couple of coins.

But for all that,

no Europeans took root
in Western Australia

until Major Edmund Lockyer
claimed it for the British in 1826.

Aboriginal history in Shark Bay
dates back 30,000 years,

but a unique life form has lived
in these waters continuously

for billions of years.

Palaeontologist
Professor Tim Flannery

investigates what makes
this World Heritage site

so very important to all of us.

It hardly ever rains,
and the summer heat can be extreme,

but Shark Bay is a site
of international historical

and ecological significance.

And it all boils down to salt.

This water's as warm as a bath.

And it's intolerably salty.

That makes it a hostile environment
for most living things,

but there's one thing
that thrives here.

These black rocks.
Well, they aren't really rocks.

They're some of the most primitive
living things on the planet.

They're called "stromatolites".

And, in effect,
they're living fossils.

I'm meeting Dave Holley,

who looks after
the Shark Bay Marine Park,

to learn more.

Well, they look a bit like a cross
between a cauliflower and a rock.

And if we have a look at one
you can see a dome

on a bit of a column, basically.
So they're quite unique-looking.

What actually creates them?

It's a really simple
life-form. It's called "archaea",

and it's been around
for billions of years.

Three-and-a-half
billion years, in fact.

Evolutionary life
began with colonies of bacteria,

like the ones
that created these stromatolites.

Basically, what happens is

this organism binds sediment
in the water and creates a mucus.

This mucus traps the sediment,

and a reaction occurs
with the super salty water

and it creates a limestone.

So, over time, it creates this layer
called a stromatolite.

And you can really see

- that algal layer there, now.
- Yeah.

- Trapping that sediment within it.
- Yes.

Binding it and creating those layers
which build up.

- Yeah.
- Over time.

So, for billions of years
these things dominated the planet,

and yet today we can only find them
in a couple of places.

So, what's so special
about Shark Bay?

Shark Bay in Hamlin Pool,
where we're standing now,

is critical because of that
super salty water.

A sill or barrier in the bay,

coupled with a hot, dry climate
and shallow waters,

mean that the evaporation rate
is very high.

The resulting hypersaline water
is twice as salty as the sea.

What happens is that
predators which would normally graze

upon the organisms
within the stromatolites,

can't stand that super salty water.

So that allows the stromatolites
to grow and develop.

For three-quarters
of the earth's history,

the only creatures

that were building reefs
in the world's oceans

were the stromatolites.

And as they built,
they produced a peculiar by-product.

One that we can all be thankful for.

See the bubbles coming off it?

- Is that oxygen?
- Yeah.

That's still slimy,
so it's alive.

Yep, yep.

Three billion years ago,

the earth's atmosphere
was about one percent oxygen.

So, not much.

And they produce oxygen.

So, the air we breathe today,

which is around about 20,
21 percent oxygen,

is as a result of these structures
pumping oxygen into the atmosphere

over many millions
and billions of years.

They're sort of the model,
aren't they?

That scientists use
when they think about searching

- for life on other planets.
- Absolutely.

I mean, you know,
if the conditions were right,

such as they were here
three billion years ago,

and we found structures like this,

then there'd be a good chance life,
at some point, would follow.

Incredible to think

what a little more salt in the water
can do...

We're on the Coral Coast
of Western Australia.

900 kilometres north of Perth,

the town of Carnarvon was founded
in 1883

as the supply centre
for the Gascoyne region's

growing wool trade.

But the success
of inland pastoral stations

and the survival of communities
along this coast

was severely threatened
by extreme isolation, and huge tides.

So I'm off to find out how the locals

set about tackling this serious
coastal obstacle.

The solution was simple, but grand.

A one-mile jetty

that goes so far out to sea,
ships could berth.

Seven years in the building,

the Carnarvon Jetty
was completed in 1897

and it was an instant hit.

Heavily-laden, horse-drawn wagons

travelled up and down the length
of the jetty

to meet the waiting ships.

For a while,
they were even in the habit

of hoisting sails on the wagons
to catch the wind

and make the journey even quicker.

And then finally,
railway technology arrived,

the tracks and locomotives
to pull the wagons full of cargo.

But getting the cargo to the jetty
was another challenge

that inspired an ingenious solution.

Cameleers, mainly from Pakistan,

were the first to organize
a commercial transport system

from the sheep stations to the jetty.

Because horse and oxen
were completely unsuited

to the heat and to the terrain.
But the camels lapped it up.

Carnarvon quickly became
Australia's third biggest wool port.

By the 1920s, motorized vehicles

had replaced the Gascoyne's
camel teams,

with little trace of it
left in the town now.

But today,
it's a jaunty little tourist train

that runs the one-mile dash.

Encapsulating the jetty's stretch
of history

is lawyer, entrepreneur,
and local councillor Lex Fullerton.

Was the jetty good to your family?

Absolutely.

Legend has it
that my uncle, Burton Fitzpatrick,

had his wool going out
one way off to London,

but the return journey
brought the greatest bounty of all,

single malt Scotch whiskey.

And legend has it that he had a bath

on his veranda at Dory creek
some 100 miles east of here,

and he filled it
with single malt Scotch whiskey

- and bathed in it.
- Bathed in it.

Road transportation
killed off the jetty in 1984,

but history may repeat itself.

What I'm looking forward to
is Carnarvon continuing its place

in the maritime map

in the construction of the new jetty,
which was promised in 1946.

So, you're still holding out
for that hope.

When the new jetty is constructed,

it will put Carnarvon
back in its rightful place

of being the port for the Gascoyne.

Heading north,
the arid Cape Range National Park,

is a spectacularly-coloured vista

of rugged limestone ridges,
plateaus and canyons

that roll into the Indian Ocean.

But not all is as it seems,

as Marine Ecologist,
Dr. Emma Johnston discovers

in Yardie Creek Gorge.

Right over the dunes, here,
is the Ningaloo Marine Park,

and at my feet, a coral skeleton,

evidence of an ancient coral reef

that grew here
some 100,000 years ago.

Cape Range gorges,
like Yardie Creek,

were formed 20 million years ago
by layers of ancient marine life.

And across the sand bar,

in its more familiar
underwater setting,

is a living reef.

The magnificent Ningaloo Marine Park.

A fringing reef, which differs
from the Great Barrier Reef

in that it hugs the shoreline,

meaning you can actually
walk out to it.

The largest fringing reef
in Australia

grows right here,
literally within arm's reach.

See those dark patches in the water?
That's the growing reef.

And it stretches from here
nearly 300 kilometres to the south.

The Leeuwin Current,

a wide ribbon of warm water
from the north,

allows the coral to flourish
at Ningaloo.

And the Range's low rainfall
means little run-off

to cloud the crystal-clear water.

It's a wonderland
of tropical reef fish

and a particular giant of the ocean

that's nearly as old
as some of this coral seascape.

A fish with an ancestry
that dates back 60 million years,

which I have to travel out
a little further to see.

I'm hoping to get up close
and personal

with the largest fish in the world.

Not just the largest fish,
the largest shark,

and I'm really excited.
I've never done this before.

- Hello.
- Hi, Emma. Welcome.

- Hey, how you doing?
- Good, thank you.

I'm joining
fellow marine biologist

Dr. Mark Meekan,

who's been studying
the mysterious whale shark

for more than a decade.

- Hey, Mark.
- Hey, Em.

- How are you doing?
- Good thanks.

- Good to see you.
- Yeah, good to see you.

Whale sharks are probably

one of the better-known sharks
in the ocean,

but in fact, we know very little
about them, really.

We have no real idea
where these things are going.

We haven't closed
the migration loop yet.

So, we're gonna head over there.
What are we gonna do when we find it?

Well, we're gonna jump in the water

and the first thing, hopefully,
you're gonna do is take a photo.

Okay, what do I need
to take a photograph of?

Well, you're gonna take a photo
of the spot and stripe patterns

just behind the gills
and just forward of the dorsal.

Now, we've looked at those
over the years and we can show

that they're individual
to each animal.

So, effectively,
we can tell who's who.

They've got a fingerprint
on the outside

and I can just take a shot... Okay.

- Exactly.
- All right.

And we keep a library of those,
we compare those fingerprints later,

and we can see
if we've seen that shark before.

Do you see many of them come back?

About 25 percent of them
come back every year.

Ningaloo isn't the only place

that whale sharks
gather around the Indian Ocean.

In fact, there's aggregations
in the Maldives,

in the Seychelles,
in Mozambique, in India,

parts of Oman. Places like that.

With a whale shark spotted,

we jump in and head to our position.

And then...

out of the blue, a shadow looms.

My first sight of a whale shark,
with its retinue of remora fish,

moving languidly through its domain.

It's an incredible animal,

about eight metres long,
mouth open to feed on plankton.

There are strict rules
about how close

tourists can get to whale sharks.

As a scientist,

Mark has a special permit
to approach the shark as required.

I take some photos,

and Mark moves in
to take a skin sample.

You know, here at Ningaloo,
we treat these sharks very well

but they go into the waters
of Southeast Asia

where people see them
in a completely different light.

They don't see them
as an Eco-Tourism resource,

they see them as a meal.

So, the whale sharks
are hunted for food?

Absolutely.
In fact, they're called tofu fish.

Because they cook up

at about the consistency of tofu
believe or not.

The other thing they do with them
is they use their fins

for advertising, if you like.

They hang them outside of restaurants
as hoardings

to show that they're actually
selling shark fin soup.

And then, an incredible sight.

I watch as Mark moves right up
to the fish

and scrapes off parasitic copepods
from its lips

and catches them in his net.

Copepods are little crustacea

that attach to the shark
and chew into its skin.

The shark has no way
of ridding itself

of the painful irritants.

Mark's action is so welcome,

that the shark effectively,
stops dead

to have its lips brushed clean.

And then follows us
for more brushing.

If you had a microscope,

you could see
the little pointy, sharp legs

that basically hang, cling
to the surface of the shark.

And their mouth parts
basically chew away at the skin

and create a little bloody sore.

You'll get this sort of
irritated patch of skin on the shark,

and so it's really no surprise

that when you actually
start taking them off,

the shark likes it.

Mark takes
one final look underneath,

and we say goodbye.

Skin samples, electronic tags
and photo identification

will improve our knowledge
of whale shark movements

so that we can engage
the relevant governments

around the world
with the long term aim

of protecting this mysterious giant
of the ocean.

While whale sharks
wander the world's oceans,

some other senior nomads
prefer more terrestrial adventures.

We've been coming here for 22 years.

When autumn leaves turn gold

in the southern half of Australia,

caravans are dusted off,
fishing rods are loaded up

and so begins
the annual pilgrimage north

for some senior adventurers.

Brendan Moar drops in

on Australia's peripatetic
Grey Nomads

basking in the Coral Coast's
winter sun.

You know, a funny thing
about the Australian coastline,

no matter how remote
or how isolated it is,

there is something you can count on.

There will always be
a caravan park there.

Yes, even out here,

on the tip of the North West Cape
near the town of Exmouth,

which itself
is 1,200 kilometres north of Perth

and 3,000 kilometres from Darwin.

Where the desert crashes
into the sea,

tucked below the
Vlamingh Head lighthouse,

is the ultimate escape
from the big smoke

to the red dust.

Natasha Tate
and her husband run the place.

So, who was rolling up
in 1984 and staying here?

Well, I think that's when
our little secret started to get out,

that this was a magical piece
of the coastline

that people could come and hide on
for a few months of the year

and get away from it all.

So, we've had a few grey nomads
that started then

that are still coming today.

We're John and Leslie

and we've been coming here
about nine years, since I retired.

I'll say who we are,
where we're from.

You can say why you come here.

I'm John. My wife Dorothy,

and we've been coming up here
since 1998.

- My name's Chris.
- I'm Bill.

We've been coming here for 22 years.

- And we come from Perth.
- Perth.

- Every year.
- Every year.

We're that isolated

that we don't get any TV,
we don't get any telephone,

internet services,
or even mobile services.

Power comes
17 kilometres down the road

from Exmouth.
With just five inches of rain a year,

all water has to be pumped
from the artesian basin below,

desalinated, and filtered clean
of iron and calcium.

Grey Nomads have been in my life

for as long as I can remember.

I've been bought up
on caravan parks, obviously,

so from when I was two years old,
you know,

you'd still find grey nomads around
that would remember me

in a nappy.
Unfortunately.

Such as the park's
veteran guests,

Norm and Jean Beauchamp,
from Busselton south of Perth.

Knock, knock. Anyone home?

Yeah, come in
if you're good looking.

Well, I am.

They've been coming here
for 30 years.

- How do you do?
- Man, you guys have got

the life of Riley, here, haven't you?

Yeah, well, somebody's gotta do it,
haven't they?

We were going to Darwin.

And we come to the crossroads.

"Either come back here
or go to Darwin."

I said to Jean,
"Do you really want to go to Darwin?"

She said, "No, I don't."
I said, "Good."

- Go back to Exmouth.
- We came back here.

And done some more fishing.

That's the first time we'd seen...

They were catching queenies,
because there was a lot of baitfish.

And it's the first time

we had seen big fish
caught off the beach.

So, that's what brought us here.

Just over the dunes
from the caravan park,

the beach stretches forever.

But Norm and Jean
have their secret spots.

- Yeah.
- I take it

- I go in the middle?
- Yeah.

Yeah?

So, without saying a word,
they know exactly what to do.

Where their spot is
and I'm just following in behind.

Through the wide part
of their legs.

Right through the...
So, you're ready to go with that one.

- Yeah, I'm ready to go.
- Reckon you can cast out?

It's been a while.
It's been a while.

A lot to learn.

Norm began working
as a teenager in the mining industry,

then a shearer,
and finally as a shire foreman.

Jean was a private secretary
for a mining CEO.

They have four children
and have been married for 60 years.

After just 10 minutes,

Norm hooks
a stunning fish of the day.

- This is a Bluebone.
- It's a Bluebone?

Yeah.

Gosh, it's a beautiful fish.

Well done.

It's just a little bit of paradise
that we enjoy

for six months of the year.

Fishing, relaxed atmosphere
and good friends.

Yes. Right.

Knock, knock.
the fish is going in?

Yes, right now.

This is a great little set up,
isn't it?

- Does us.
- Could you have imagined,

when you visited here
for the first time,

that you'd still be coming here
in 30 years' time?

No, we never thought
about getting old.

You just live the good life
every day.

It's that kind of place

where even time takes a break
and age is relative.

We still don't think we're old.

We'll say, "Who is that old person?"
We forget that we are.

You know, after spending
a day with the grey nomads,

I think I'm starting to get it.

Retirement, plus the open road,
plus this coast...

Well, it all adds up to a good life.

150 kilometres
south of Cape Range,

near the middle of Ningaloo Reef,
Coral Bay

is a blissfully peaceful stopover
along the wilder reaches

of this isolated coastline.

Now, I'm a stranger
in a strange land.

You might have noticed.

So, I can hardly come
all the way to Coral Bay

without having a wee nosey
at the coral.

But I'll admit
to a reticence about my venturing

beyond the golden sand,
into the crystal waters.

It's obvious, really. The wildlife.

A power-walking Perentie
sharing the beach is all right,

but beneath the waves,

the natives can be
a little more unfriendly.

- Hi.
- How are you going?

I'm just wondering,
is there anything out there

with big teeth?

No, no big teeth out there,
I'm afraid.

Look, the biggest species of shark
don't come in here.

You're saying the S-word.

I know, but they're not dangerous.
They're like big puppy dogs.

- Just like puppy dogs?
- Just like puppy dogs.

- I'll hold that thought.
- You'll be fine.

- You have fun.
- Bye.

So, this
is what I've been missing.

Australia at its wonderland best.

A kaleidoscope of reef fish,
coral, turtles

and who knows what lurking
in the blue beyond.

The Coral Coast is quite literally

the western frontier
of this continent.

And it's that sense of remoteness

that's the attraction for the people
who seek this area out.

And also, about the sheer scale
of the place.

You feel as if you can't
even scratch the surface,

because every corner you go round,
every bay you enter

seems to offer something
more fascinating,

more spectacular, more immense.

It's been a truly stunning
and memorable adventure,

yet I feel we've only just begun
to experience

this distinctive island nation.
To meet its people,

discover their history and stories

about living along a vast, ancient
and diverse coastline.

How they've shaped each other
into this great southern land...

called Australia.