Yeah, g’day. We’re gonna follow in the footsteps of Les Hiddins here as he makes his way through the Australian historical continent of adventures with Stories of Survival.

Now the first thing you gotta know is Les is a top bloke. He’s got a good head for knowledge of the outback and even though he’s not the most eloquent fella you’ve ever met, he still gets his point across. Here he’s managed to track the course of eight different exploration parties and their bloody ripper (and some not so bloody ripper) methods of approach and survival. From the outset he journeys across the West Australian Coast pursuing a top adventurer by the name of Kingsford-Smith. After this brief success, he goes south to deepest Tasmania to follow the prison break of Alexander Pierce who turned into a cannibal and ate all his mates that broke out with him. Bloody nasty fella, that.

Then Les takes us with him as he follows John McDouall Stuart and the first successful crossing of the Australian continent from south to north. Bloody ripper yarn that. After that Les pursues a few odd facts and mysteries in the Australian desert and a rumoured Dutch settlement in Central Australia (and this one sorta ties in with the previous episode).

Then, here comes the tricky part; we have to change discs. After a brief struggle with hunger and thirst, I managed this with the help of some friendly Aborigines who came to my aid. Bloody ripper blokes they were too. Still in Central Australia Les goes into the legend of Lasseter’s Reef before investigating Leichardt and his final mysterious disappearance. Then we’re nearly home in following some blokes named Burke and Wills and their ill-fated expedition and a final trip into the wilds of the Cape York Penninsula to follow the journey of Kennedy and his expedition.

All up, that’s a monster expedition and a few bloody ripper tales along the way too. It’s easy for us to sit back and scoff at the early explorers and dumb white guys who went into the bush with wagons of rum and sugar, so that’s what we’ll do. Bloody dummies. Shoulda learnt some bush tucker skills and maybe they wouldna carked it miles from bloody anywhere. Eight ripper yarns all up over two discs, making this expedition a bloody near four-hour trip. Bewdy. Just the thing for a hot Australian summer.

The focus here’s on a TV show for the ABC, so you know it’s gonna be a ripper. Shot on hand held cameras in and around the middle of bloody nowhere, the camera work is pretty bloody good and the transfer comes across all right too. The colour is nice and even, although sometimes the Australian sun does a bit of a bloody job on the picture, washing away some colours in white glare or distorted colours. There’s some grainy moments too, like your undies are fulla sand, but here’s a tip for that: Go without. You’ll feel a lot freer under the Aussie sun and you won’t have to worry about chaffing. Bewdy!

Occasional episodes of stock footage from old docos or old movies show up like welcome strangers and they play alright, if a little decayed by time. Blacks are true to life for the most part although there’s maybe one or two bits where they go a deeper blue.

The audio of Australia is usually bloody quiet, but Les talks over that a fair bit, endlessly droppin’ his g’s an’ ‘is h’s. Nothin’ bloody wrong with that – it’s bloody unAustralian not to. The music has been banged out by two of my old mates, Craig Hanicek and Brian White, and this is effective for the show, being upbeat Aussie bush ballad, or acoustic guitar or hauntingly eerie for the scary bits. It’s all bloody bonza anyway and sounds ripper in Dolby Digital 2.0.

There aren’t any extra bits of bush tucker lyin’ around by way of special features, but the episodes are pretty good on their own anyway. Here’s a tip for yas: Bring your own extras with ya when you play the show. Like some nuts or berries or a long bit of grass to chew or somethin’. Bewdy!

Anyone who likes the adventures of my old mate Les will no doubt get into this two disc set, but using two discs for eight episodes does seem like a bit of excess baggage in the Aussie outback and that can lead to bloody disaster. If you’re gonna use two-discs, at least make ‘em work for ya by putting on some extras or giving your sound a bit of a tweak. Anyway, the whole presentation does look pretty ripper and it’s a good looking collection of the Stories of Survival series.

Bloody ripper!