Whicker down under

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 18

Whicker down under

Two hundred years ago, Governor Arthur Phillip dropped anchor in Botany Bay. The European settlement of “Terra Australis Incognita” (The Unknown Southern Land, as a penal colony had begun.

A new documentary series, “Whicker’s World: living with Waltzing Matilda” presents a portrait of this vast: sub-continent today, through the eyes of British expatriates. It screens at; 8 j p.m. bn One. i

History plays very little part in this series of 10 "journeys" ! ! throughout

Australia by that doyen of roving correspondents. Alan Whicker. The focus is on new Australians, or "Poms,” all of whom have memories of Britain. i In this way Whicker portrays a country moving steadily away from its sentimental links with its mother country, yet maintaining an essence of something English. I First up tonight Jane Makim, born in London, lives a hard life in the remote and rugged outback of J New South Wales with her rancher husband and two young

children. At the ranch in the drought plain on the Queensland border, Jane reflects on a life and lifestyle that could hardly be less like those of her more famous sister Sarah Ferguson. j Captain John; Alliston, RN, also decided to settle in a remote! corner of Australia. At the end of the war he brought his new bride, Eleanor to a deserted island, a mere speck on the! map of Tasmania, where they eked out a precarious living and raised a large and happy family. I