Documentary on ‘The Wonder of W. Australia’

Press, 11 July 1983, Page 18

Documentary on ‘The Wonder of W. Australia’

The two-part documentarv, “The Wonder of Western Australia,” screening on Two at 7.30 tonight, contains a fascinating segment on dolphins. Guy Baskin, a Channel Nine producer, spent eight months filming and researching the documentary. “If you want to show a dolphin some affection," says Baskin, “just tickle it under the chin or, if you don’t mind getting a little damp, give it a cuddle. Even a gentle pat on the dolphin’s head will set up an uncomfortable buzzing in his head that will last for hours.”

“The Wonder of Western Australia,” says TVNZ, is a curious mixture of natural history and lifestyle. The emphasis is on Western Australia’s unique wildlife but it touches on different ways of life in the vast state. Baskin has included a segment on cattle mustering by helicopter in the Kimber-

leys. It is a dangerous occupation. The helicopter pilots must skim the trees to flush out the cattle. In 1981 the cattle-mustering company lost three helicopters. All the pilots survived the crashes. Baskin’s camera zooms from north to south, where he captured an extraordinary encounter between a tiger snake and a mouse.

“We used a camera on the end of a long pole to get close enough to the action," he says. “It was an amazing confrontation.” Baskin wrote, produced and directed the programme, which is narrated by John Waters. Wildflowers and black swans do not rate even a passing comment (though there are a couple of kangaroos). The programmes are aimed at the vast majority of people who live in the cities and who rarely venture into the bush, says TVNZ.