I climbed aboard with the DUGONG HUNTERS OF CAPE YORK

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]There's a big tiger shark following us already up the back here.

[00:00:13]>> [laughter] >> This is crazy.

[00:01:16]Morning, guys.

[00:01:18]Look where I've woken up.

[00:01:22]Up here in the fresh water. So, like, not far up from the coast, but closer to those mountains that you can see in the drone footage.

[00:01:29]This um place they call like what's called Wachi.

[00:01:33]I've came down here with John and his family. They shifted camps to here to be with the fresh water for a bit.

[00:01:38]And um I'm just moving camps with them.

[00:01:43]This place is awesome. It's so different to being on the coast with you know, the sea breeze and that. Here is so still.

[00:01:50]And the sounds are different, the bird life.

[00:01:54]You know, having that fresh water instead of that salt water. When you go like so long um camping with limited fresh water and constantly in the salt, you know, just being I got here last night and had a swim [snorts] down in the shallow section down there.

[00:02:09]And um young Tremaine had the head torch for me checking for crocs while I had a swim.

[00:02:16]Ah, it was so nice.

[00:02:18]So, yeah, there is a big croc in here.

[00:02:20]And I just had a chat with John this morning. [music] And uh he said there used to be an albino crocodile in here. Was always in here at this spot.

[00:02:30]But he said it's gone now.

[00:02:32]The episode continues.

[00:02:35]Um Callum was out here last night as well.

[00:02:38]And he wants to He wants to um get a dugong. He still wants to get a dugong, so I'm going to jump in the boat with him again and head out there. And apparently there's like heaps of tiger sharks around when when they get a dugong and they take it to the cutting place, these tiger sharks hang around. So, they they want to get the drone in the sky and film that, too.

[00:02:58]But I would love to just spend the day here on this fresh water.

[00:03:03]Um there's lots of deep holes here, big deep bends, and um there'd be like bream, real sorts of stuff. So, that would be fun.

[00:03:14]So, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm definitely going to get in the truck soon and head up into Lockhart and meet up with Callum.

[00:03:20]And then I don't know whether I come back out here or or what.

[00:03:25]But yeah, big thanks to John.

[00:03:28]John Hobson for, you know, every time I come here, him and Tremaine just really step up and spend so much time with me. But John this trip is just you know, he's just there. He's always there. You know, he's camping out here with his family and um you know, showing me what to do, where to go, and just being here with me.

[00:03:49]Because he has that presence in in town, like in like a like a river.

[00:03:54]Everyone knows John, so for me if he's here with me, then then I'm all good.

[00:03:59]Which is I really appreciate that.

[00:04:08]Morning, Larry.

[00:04:10]How are you?

[00:04:13]I had a rough sleep.

[00:04:15]Where's Troy at? Did he go with the boys last night?

[00:04:19]Ah.

[00:04:20]And they are going to catch up with the boys later. Okay. All right. See you guys. All right.

[00:04:24]Catch up with you next time, bro.

[00:04:26]Definitely.

[00:04:29]Have a safe trip there, bro. Thank you.

[00:04:31]I will.

[00:04:33]See you, pups.

[00:04:36]It's always hard to say goodbye.

[00:04:39]>> [cough] >> So long between trips, you know, like I go to so many different places that takes time to come back.

[00:04:48]You know.

[00:04:49]Yeah, to come back.

[00:04:52]Anyway, I got to move on. Cam will probably be waiting in town.

[00:04:58]I've got a um the bush on the on the um front sway bar on the driver's side is flogged out. It has been It was like heaps of banging last night while I was driving here.

[00:05:15]So it's no real biggie being a sway bar.

[00:05:18]You can actually disconnect your sway bar and it still be all right, but I'm going to try to get that sorted sooner than later.

[00:05:27]Yo.

[00:05:32]What is it?

[00:05:36]Oh, yeah. I will.

[00:05:38]Okay.

[00:06:19]>> That's Cape Direction, but we call it Rocky Point.

[00:06:21]>> Rocky Point? But, yeah, originally back in the days, old people used to call that point Waikiki. Point Waikiki? Yeah, Waikiki. Okay. All right, yes, trace all today we should be on to some luck.

[00:06:36]We got a second boat coming today. Yeah.

[00:06:39]Two boats hunting. What are they chasing turtle?

[00:06:42]Yeah, right.

[00:06:43]Think they're chasing turtle.

[00:06:45]Probably dugong. Uh.

[00:06:50]There's Jermaine up there.

[00:06:58]Callum knows one speed, full throttle.

[00:07:02]But within moments we've lost the other boat, so we spin around and head back to find them drifting in the bay with engine troubles.

[00:07:18]A few laughs and cigarettes traded and we're underway again.

[00:07:31]Oh, yeah.

[00:07:48]>> So apparently this is a fresh water spring here where there's a big crocodile, eh? Yeah, bro. Big crocodile moves in and out of See how he went up there?

[00:08:00]Yeah, that's when he went up.

[00:08:02]Another one when he comes back down.

[00:08:05]That's a big croc. What?

[00:08:08]See how it's like this? It's only small, mate. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:12]See how it's wide like this?

[00:08:14]That's from the croc's burrow. It's like a wallow, like he just >> Yeah.

[00:08:17]Digs it up.

[00:08:18]Just got to come What?

[00:08:21]That's amazing. It's It's got to be in this.

[00:08:23]>> flattened out from him? See how it's all stirred up? He was just in here last night.

[00:08:30]So there's always fresh water there.

[00:08:31]Yeah.

[00:08:34]When he's not here, bro.

[00:08:36]Well, sometimes when he comes he digs it, see?

[00:08:39]He'll make cuz it's deeper and deeper.

[00:08:43]Then it'll get real clean.

[00:08:45]Yeah, he just use it to come drink, [ __ ] back down.

[00:08:49]High tide, low tide.

[00:08:51]Yeah, yeah.

[00:08:52]My bro will show you this area. Crocks want fresh water, too.

[00:08:56]All uncle here.

[00:08:58]He's a fighter, eh?

[00:09:00]You like him, bro? That's pretty cool, eh?

[00:09:04]I was expecting like when Callum told me like a big sort of swamp, but he just comes and lies in this little hole.

[00:09:10]Yeah.

[00:09:13]Wearing glasses. Yeah, the glasses are in there.

[00:09:22]You got him, bro?

[00:09:30]That big croc's out here somewhere in the salt water now. Yeah.

[00:09:34]He's out there somewhere.

[00:09:38]Yeah, man.

[00:09:54]>> As soon as we reach the hunting grounds, Callum spotted a turtle.

[00:09:58]These Lockhart River men are selectively hunting though, so we quickly move on to find a dugong.

[00:10:04]Leading into the dugong hunt, I think it's important to understand the connection these [music] hunters and their families have with the dugong. For thousands of years, the ancestors of these Aboriginal men, the sand beach people, >> [music] >> being the language groups of Lama Lama, Umbuygamu, Wutati, Kukuyalanji, and Wutati, have not just hunted dugong, but have had a spiritual connection [music] with them and everything else you see in this landscape.

[00:10:27]These animals still to this day play a significant role within the spiritual and social structure of daily life.

[00:10:32]Entwined in this structure are sustainability practices.

[00:10:36]One being totem animals, in which case if your totem through skin or clan is the dugong, then you are not to hunt or eat the dugong. Years ago I discovered a dugong painted in a cave of an inland Aboriginal tribe, the West Yalanji people, hundreds of kilometers inland.

[00:10:51]This shows the importance of this animal and with similar artwork in the area being dated back 4,500 years, it shows at least how long the dugong has played an integral role in Aboriginal life up here in Cape York. Nowadays, dugong numbers are regarded as vulnerable due to the commercial netting and deterioration of feeding grounds.

[00:11:09]Aboriginal people of these coastal groups are entitled through the Native Title Act to continue their sustainable hunting practices that have been passed down through generations. I draw a lot of inspiration from a man named Donald Thomson, an anthropologist who would spend 12 months at a time living in the bush with different Aboriginal clans of northern Australia back in the 1930s before a A of these people were moved to missions.

[00:11:32]I'll quote him here talking of the sand beach people. These people were less dependent on the harvest of vegetable food and so were more or less sedentary for a great part of the year when they lived on dugong and turtles harpooned in the still inshore waters as well as eggs of turtles and sea birds gathered from the sand banks.

[00:11:49]The dugong is a true mammal, a sirenian, which suckles its young like any other warm-blooded animal. It is a vegetarian living on green chlorophyll bearing marine plants which grow [music] in shallow sheltered waters.

[00:12:00]The dugong comes inshore to graze and on still nights the sound of its blowing can be heard from the beach. The Aborigines then put out in their canoes in search of these elusive but much prized quarry.

[00:12:12]So we're at the hunting ground here now.

[00:12:15]Callum's up on the bow.

[00:12:17]Apparently this um this sand marker is way down the coast.

[00:12:21]It's like a feeding ground for the dugong and the turtle.

[00:12:37]Now we just stay behind him like this.

[00:12:39]He's going to come around and then chase him up to the point.

[00:12:42]Yeah.

[00:12:45]Yeah, come.

[00:12:54]He goes straight up and then swims straight back around. Okay. So yeah, you've got to keep your eyes up.

[00:12:59]Yeah. Yeah. You got that?

[00:13:01]Yeah. Follow us.

[00:13:03]One up front there.

[00:13:04]One up front here one more.

[00:13:06]Come up front.

[00:13:07]One of the three up front.

[00:13:13]You saw the feeding ground place?

[00:13:16]Yes, this area here is all grass, sea grass.

[00:13:18]That's what they're feeding on.

[00:13:30]>> This one just came up. He was all relaxed.

[00:13:33]He just came up real nice and slow.

[00:13:35]There's a fair few of them out there, bro. There's more out there. Today, these men have told me they leave the females alone to breed and are after a large male.

[00:13:47]Dugong hunting in a frail outrigger canoe with only 8 to 12 inches of freeboard in a choppy sea or slight swell is a difficult and dangerous occupation and certainly the most adventurous and hazardous practice by any Aborigine.

[00:14:00]It is stated in many books on natural history that the dugong, which is a near relation to the whale, is a sluggish animal easily approached. In actual fact, it is one of the most timid of animals and sounds at the least noise.

[00:14:14]The natives are aware of the presence of dugong by the grass that is floating on the surface and they cruise at high water over the reefs and beds where this grass is known to grow. When the animal comes up to spout or blow, the harpooner takes the long walk, a mangrove pole 11 or 12 feet in length, inserts the short harpoon head of wood or iron to which is attached a long rope of hibiscus fiber and takes up his station on the harpooner's platform on the bow. In a choppy sea, the skill required in balancing even apart from [music] the driving home of the harpoon is not inconsiderable. Once the quarry has been sighted, the harpooner directs the steersman. No words are spoken, but the whole of the maneuvering is done by gesture language alone. When at length he is within striking distance of the great green bulk, the harpooner leaps bodily overboard driving home his harpoon with the full weight of his body and skillfully avoiding the rope as it pays out.

[00:15:20]Up, up, up, up.

[00:15:22]Oh.

[00:15:26]>> The harpoon does not, of course, kill the dugong. It merely secured it to the canoe. And after one or two rushes have exhausted the animal, the craft is slowly drawn in close.

[00:15:36]A rope is secured around the base of the tail above the flukes, and the head held down under water until the animal drowns. Again, considerable skill is required to drown the animal, which weighs several hundred pounds. So, what do you got to do now? You tie rope to the tail. Tie rope to the tail.

[00:15:51]Hang him off the side of the boat. Drown him.

[00:15:53]And then tow it in.

[00:16:04]Wow, this is crazy to see.

[00:16:06]>> [snorts] >> Yeah, bro.

[00:16:10]Bacon for days.

[00:16:13]Fresh meat, eh?

[00:16:17]That's what they're doing to another dugong down the back there.

[00:16:19]Pull them up.

[00:16:20]That's why they're just slow slow back there.

[00:16:23]We're all going to meet up here.

[00:16:24]That's when the tiger shark's going to come.

[00:16:27]Come.

[00:16:28]Look at him now.

[00:16:32]Oh.

[00:16:42]Pretty amazing to see that.

[00:16:46]Big fellow one.

[00:16:48]That's the main fellow one they hunt out here.

[00:16:50]You see dugong.

[00:16:51]So, that's him up the back there. That's my fellow one.

[00:16:54]He'll follow us all the way up into the leading water, bro.

[00:16:58]Anyone coming to attack the dugong with the boat?

[00:17:00]>> He won't come and attack the dugong.

[00:17:02]He's he not You know, we'll go up there.

[00:17:03]We'll chuck the leftovers for him.

[00:17:06]Like the guts.

[00:17:09]The lungs and everything.

[00:17:11]We feed it to them, but sometimes we'll give them the head and the tail.

[00:17:15]They'll don't the head and the tail. We just take the belly meat, the ribs and stuff. Wow.

[00:17:21]There's a big tiger shark following us already up the back here.

[00:17:25]Callum has been telling me about this the last couple of days that these tiger sharks follow them right in for where the dugong gets cut up on the beach.

[00:17:34]They know. Must be the sound of the motor.

[00:17:37]Yeah.

[00:17:41]Come from nowhere.

[00:17:46]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Holy [ __ ] There's more of them, bro. That's only a little bit, yeah. Well, we got 1 2 3 4 5 There's more.

[00:18:44]6 7 Holy [ __ ] Yeah, they go nuts, hey? Yeah, more are going to come around.

[00:18:52]So, two dugongs going to feed everyone, hey? Yeah. Feed them. Bro, look at that big dugong.

[00:18:57]That's the big one, bro.

[00:18:59]Bro, look at that big one. Look, not even 2 minutes and they're already All right.

[00:19:04]There'll be more, bro.

[00:19:05]Wait till we get the first >> crazy. You got them all, mate? Yeah, that's a big one. Come, mate.

[00:19:12]So, this where you always cut them, eh?

[00:19:13]Yeah, bro. Come to here.

[00:19:16]A big dugong weighs several hundred pounds, and its arrival is an event in the camp. But, the people do not fall upon the quarry like wild animals. On the contrary, the most careful preparations are made before the carcass is cut up at all, and it is then quartered and divided with a skill and dispatch [music] that would do credit to a tradesman butcher.

[00:19:35]First, a bed of green branches is laid on the sand, and the heavy carcass is rolled onto this. Incisions approved by tradition are then made in the thick heavy blubber of the dugong, and finally the ribs with viscera intact are rolled out of a flat sheet of flesh that has been dissected away. [music] This meat is then cut up into portions again, laid down by custom, each of which bears a name and is allotted to a member of the crew that captured the dugong according to his station in the craft. The division [music] is done in such a manner that each man receives a fair share of fat, which is greatly prized as well as the meat. Each of the crew again divides the share in accordance with his personal obligations [music] under the kinship organization system, under which it is impossible for any individual to have a monopoly of the food supply. A further safeguard is provided by the fact that [music] a man's social prestige is dependent upon the degree to which he honors his kinship obligations.

[00:20:27][music] Taboos, many of them onerous and prolonged, surround and restrict the eating of dugong flesh.

[00:20:33]>> [music] >> These taboos depend partly on the age and status of the harpooner, and not least on the development of his beard and the amount of gray hairs it shows.

[00:20:41]No young man, and as a rule no women, is permitted to eat dugong flesh, and even when this rule is relaxed, a woman may not eat the meat of a dugong killed by a young man whose hair and beard are not tinged with gray hair, that is by a man who is not entitled to be addressed by the honorific jilba, the gray one.

[00:21:01]Remember that bacon I was telling you about?

[00:21:02]>> Yeah. I said here, bro.

[00:21:04]So, the way you're cutting here, is this the way you've been taught?

[00:21:07]>> Yeah, bro. There's that the local the to do it?

[00:21:09]>> Sometimes I would just split them straight down the middle. I would just take the bolt them up, leave all the mess out here. Yeah.

[00:21:15]But this one, because you know how we left the esky? Yeah.

[00:21:18]I would just chuck him and take the belly out, the guts, head, tail. And just throw him in like that. And then chuck all the meat in. Okay. And then use that body like esky. Yeah, I got it.

[00:21:27]And take the whole thing back like that.

[00:21:29]And these sharks coming in, like you don't seem worried at all. No. They're just They're just They're waiting for their feed, hey?

[00:21:38]>> Hello, lady.

[00:21:40]Oh, [ __ ] He's a big fellow out there.

[00:21:46]It's way thicker than this one. So it's a different part of the guts.

[00:21:49]>> Yeah, we'll keep this guts. This is the good one. And the sharks get the other one. Yeah, sharks eat that one.

[00:21:56]The intestines of the dugong are also kept.

[00:21:59]Well, a part of them anyway. Once they're thoroughly cleaned out, they're considered a delicacy in most of the islands and communities I pass through.

[00:22:47]Oh, it's a fatty looking guy.

[00:22:50]Holy [ __ ] Want to set my line here, bro.

[00:23:05]Step on my line.

[00:23:06]>> [laughter] >> Hey.

[00:23:09]No time for it.

[00:23:10]No time for it, I'm about to take off.

[00:23:17]Go go go go go go go.

[00:23:22]Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, go. Get better, bro. Yeah.

[00:23:41]Hey.

[00:23:44]It's so amazing to sit here and watch this happen without being a part of what's happening.

[00:23:50]Just being like a fly on the wall and watching it.

[00:23:54]I asked Callum while we're out there how often he does this and he said, "You know the hunters, how often do they Hunters go after dugong and turtle?" And he said, "It's like this, we'll come out. We'll get enough for our family.

[00:24:06]We'll take them back in. We'll take a bag to everyone in the family like in their street.

[00:24:11]And then as long as everyone gets a taste, if everyone gets a taste, everyone's then happy. And then they'll be like, 'Hey, you boys should go out and get magpie geese.' So then they'll they'll be on country looking for magpie geese.

[00:24:23]And then, 'Hey, you boys should go get a bull. We feel like bull.' Oh, not bull, um bullet.

[00:24:27]So they'll go out and they'll they'll drop a beast and butcher it up and bring it back in for everyone. 'Hey, you boys should go get fish.' And it's like a a cycle, you know, and then it goes around and they're like, 'Hey, you boys should go get a dugong again.'

[00:24:40]So he didn't give me like how often that is, but they're constantly hunting different species out here on land and sea.

[00:24:48]And um as as he said down there before, nothing goes to waste.

[00:24:52]Like everything's all the leftovers, the guts, everything is fed to the sharks here.

[00:24:56]And I mean, I'm okay watching this because the other option is is beef from the shop here, like frozen steaks.

[00:25:06]And they're all animals, you know, those [music] things are are bred on a farm to be slaughtered and and fed to the public.

[00:25:13]These things are wild animals and they're out here hunting.

[00:25:16]Like the boys are out here hunting, doing what they should be doing and um fresh, healthy meat down there.

[00:25:27]You know, I know it's hard to watch.

[00:25:30]You know, when it you go and it's caught and it's being drowned and that, but that's the process. This is what This is what it takes to get proper fresh meat up here.

[00:25:40]And these sharks, far out.

[00:25:42]Look at this. Look at this.

[00:25:44]Hey!

[00:25:46]Let's get back.

[00:25:51]What?

[00:25:56]Ah, that's crazy. We're going to get closer.

[00:26:02]I wonder who's the boss out there, the tiger or the bully? Ah That tiger's the biggest, I reckon, eh? Yeah.

[00:26:10]He might not be the boss, though.

[00:26:12]And you got different ways of cooking all the different cuts?

[00:26:15]Yeah.

[00:26:16]You said you're cutting it, the whole thing. Just bone it.

[00:26:18]This is the chest bone, bro. The heart is under there.

[00:26:23]Nice. You put it on the coals and cook it. Yeah.

[00:26:26]Nice and sweet, that meat. This one here, bro, you throw it in the water so shark can eat it.

[00:26:30]Otherwise, I keep the bone and chuck it.

[00:26:35]I chuck it [music] when I'm finished up.

[00:26:37]Yeah, this one, bro, when you get it, you always especially when you catch the dugong.

[00:26:43]I see how that one Mhm.

[00:26:44]the chest. I'll have to grab that one.

[00:26:46]I'll have to eat that one.

[00:26:48]Okay, so you have to quarter it. Yeah, we have to quarter it. Otherwise, you leave this one there and someone will come see that.

[00:26:54]Will do something to you as well.

[00:26:57]You know, like can make you sick.

[00:26:59]From the chest bone because you catch this dugong, you'll have to eat it or just feed the shark. Okay. That's the best way. Drop it in the deep water or feed the shark.

[00:27:07]So, this is the tata. I've never seen this before.

[00:27:11]The way that it penetrates the skin like that. It's amazing today to see this thing whole, the pressure that was put on it.

[00:27:18]But, it still held in the skin.

[00:27:25]The guts, yeah.

[00:27:28]So, what do you do with the guts?

[00:27:31]Cook them in a stew. In a stew? Yeah, yeah, or you can boil it and >> boil it like that?

[00:27:36]What do you call it? Blachan.

[00:27:37]>> Yeah, that's what I had up the island.

[00:27:39]Yeah.

[00:27:45]Look at this, bro.

[00:27:46]Yeah, look at that.

[00:27:48]That's the prime, that's the best.

[00:27:50]Like that.

[00:27:54]That meat.

[00:28:21]Look at him still going, fighting over the skin.

[00:28:46]Hey man, watch.

[00:28:50]>> That's a big tiger.

[00:28:57]That's a big tiger with three. Oh, yeah, that's a big tiger.

[00:29:06]Now, this one it's it's for dugong.

[00:29:09]You can see how it's a three-bar.

[00:29:11]There's a single bar at the front they will use for killing.

[00:29:14]This one is much more better tool. When you go into the skin, the skin will latch on to the bar. Can't rip out.

[00:29:20]You'll have to cut it out. Yeah, I see those three bars. Open up. Open up. It will stay like this. Yeah, right. It will stay like this. That's suction. Yeah.

[00:29:30]>> When you hit it, the suction it won't come off. That's amazing. That's from the three-bar. And what do you think?

[00:29:35]What are all these marks on the dugongs?

[00:29:36]Are they from sharks, do you think?

[00:29:38]Reef. Reef.

[00:29:39]>> Scratching. Yeah, okay.

[00:29:40]I'll probably another bull. Now, this one it's a dominant bull. Dominant male.

[00:29:45]Yeah, male bull.

[00:29:46]But, see, they they push this one out of the pack.

[00:29:51]They kicked him out. There was another big one that bigger than this one. They kicked him out of the pack. Okay.

[00:29:56]This one is is an is like he's aging up to live by himself.

[00:30:01]That's why they kicked him out of the pack. Okay.

[00:30:08]Heading back in towards Lookout River, the boys are going to be processing the meat and sharing it out with their families while I head back to camp and get the truck ready [music] for the next leg of the journey south to Coen River.

[00:30:21]All right.

[00:30:23]Good morning, guys. Few running repairs before I hit the road for Coen.

[00:30:27]Today, um, the truck has been going bloody great.

[00:30:32]It's been going really good. The only issue I have one is the passenger window I still haven't been able to fix.

[00:30:39]>> [clears throat] >> So, the mechanism in there is brand new.

[00:30:41]I put a new one in there, but it's real stiff still.

[00:30:44]I couldn't work it out the last days before I left and um that's been a [ __ ] Um but yeah, I'll show you this issue under the truck here.

[00:30:53]This here is the sway bar.

[00:30:56]Uh it's what connects or one of the things that connects your chassis to your diff. Um and the bush in it is completely flogged out. You can see this one's pretty bad, too, but see this side it's got a circlip and another part to that bush.

[00:31:12]This one here is actually snapped off the other side and the circlip is gone.

[00:31:21]So I could hear a big banging noise the other night and that was the actual sway bar going up and down as it does and hitting the top and hitting the bottom of that um metal surround, whatever you want to call that. So I've got some tools here, bits and pieces. I'm going to grease it up because this would normally be pressed in.

[00:31:40]So it could be tricky.

[00:31:41]Um grease it up.

[00:31:44]A big hammer.

[00:31:47]A pinch bar or whatever you want to call that. Um a couple of hose clamps with which which look like they're too big, but I'll try to make them work and a bit of rubber to go around it. So this isn't ideal, but I'm going to slide this back in.

[00:32:07]Put this piece of rubber like I'll slice this and put it on either side of that and then put so once this is hard in, I'll put it hard against the edge of this and then I will tighten up two of those hose clamps really tight on that side of it, like against here and put that circlip back on that side and it should stop it sliding back out at least [clears throat] until I get off the PDR, the corrugations and then um you know, down the highway, you'd be fine.

[00:32:38]So, and if I got to keep adjusting it, I will, but that that'll, um, be better than what it is right now.

[00:32:47]If you guys have any better ideas, comment below and I'll see you in a couple of months and kick myself.

[00:32:53]Yeah.

[00:32:54]So, you've had to change that?

[00:32:58]Yeah.

[00:33:05]>> [laughter] >> Hey, guys.

[00:33:22]I've made it to my favorite little roadside camp on the PDR in the Cape.

[00:33:34]Here in Colane.

[00:33:36]Such a good spot, especially this time of year. There was there's no one here. There's hardly anyone on the road today.

[00:33:43]But, say, um, it was actually the truck went great.

[00:33:46]>> [cough and clears throat] >> That truck's doing so good. That little repair I made up there in Lockhart has made it, no worries, on the PDR there.

[00:33:54]Shout out to all the crew in Lockhart River.

[00:33:57]>> [clears throat] >> And even all the road crew coming out, they were on the radio talking to me and saying goodbye and um, that's what means a lot to me. You know, I was talking to a fellow in Lockhart today talking about like what success means and success for me isn't about the numbers. It isn't about the views as such. It's like when I come to a community and the kids come running up and the elders come to me and shake my hand and everyone in town know knows the show and respects what I'm doing and that's success to me, you know, and being invited back. So, yeah, Lockhart's a special place, special people, and, um, I really love love going there. And there's still so much to see in that area, so I'll be back to Lockhart.

[00:34:39]But that is a wrap for another episode watching the process of dugong hunting and turtle hunting, which I know is a controversial topic, and all I can say to that is, you know, my theory is you never judge anyone until you've walked in their shoes, and same with comments. Like, don't judge and comment until you've actually been to these places and, you know, even that, that's not enough.

[00:35:01]You got to walk in their shoes. You got to sleep in their houses and you got to, you know, go survive from their shopping or from what they get from the shop when the barge comes and, you know, the prices they pay for things and even that's probably not enough, you know, you got to look at what their ancestors went through and that that um what still goes on to this day in these communities. It's all It all comes back to mission days, and yeah, anyway, I don't want to go deep into that, but it was an amazing thing to witness the dugong hunting, the meat that went back to the families, so much [snorts] meat.

[00:35:37]Nothing goes to waste. Seeing those sharks, wow, wasn't that cool? Those tigers and the bull sharks, lemon sharks.

[00:35:44]That was That was pretty cool, and I was absolutely buggered by the end of it. It's been a big week in Lockhart.

[00:35:50]Everyone there, they know >> [sighs] >> they know how to have a a good time, and everything's based around hunting, which is pretty cool.

[00:35:57]Um so shout out to all the kids, so many beautiful kids there that come up to me and get photos and hang out while I'm while I'm getting fuel and going to the shops and that.

[00:36:09]Um so shout out to all of you.

[00:36:11]And um yeah, all the boys, Callum, Jaden, Quentin, Tremaine, obviously. Um Brendan, um T-Sun, all the young kids, like yeah, it was great. Thank you guys. And thank you to everyone else for watching.

[00:36:32]You know, if you want to support what we're doing, jump on patreon.com. We just had one of our patrons, Jay, he came up here for the start of this trip and spent four or five days with me in the truck, you know, walking rivers and catching fish and coming into Lockhart River and spending a day with the boys there fishing and seeing their way of life. So, um that was a pretty cool thing to do.

[00:36:54]So, if you want to be part of that, jump on there and uh if you want to support what I'm doing, wildreaches.com/shop.

[00:37:02]We're really stepping it up with our merch merch game, like >> [snorts] >> no one's really asked why, but the prices have gone up with our t-shirts and adventure shirts and stuff and it's because I am conscious of what we're putting out there. So, everything is ethically made.

[00:37:17]Uh it's an Australian company who has people around the world, [music] like like local families who they've dealt with for the last 12 years. They go back and forth and spend time with these families. So, everything's ethically made and all the all the um products are organic cotton, organic hemp.

[00:37:34]Um they're screen printed locally in Australia, so the quality [music] is there and um that means a lot to me. So, get your merch wildreaches.com/shop.

[00:37:44]What else do I say? I mean, Coen, >> [snorts] >> this is the next leg of the journey.

[00:37:48]Um passed through Coen so many times. A lot of you would have coming up the Cape. It is the PDR runs straight through Coen. There's a little store here. There's the Sex Change Hotel, um which everyone knows about, stops for a beer and probably a burger.

[00:38:03]But, there's more to Coen than meets the eye. There's a lot of history here and um and I want to see I want to see this place through the through the eyes of the traditional owners here and learn about its history [music] and learn about the beauty of this country.

[00:38:18]I mean, this creek I'm in right now, what was was this a camp here? Like pure fresh water all year round like this late in the year and look at this beautiful fresh water so Um Yeah, there's a lot of gold mining history here. A lot of cool stuff and tomorrow's the day catching up with a fellow named Deon who I spoke to right back at the beginning of our adventures. I'll touch on that tomorrow in the next episode.

[00:38:43]That's a wrap.

[00:38:44]See you on the next episode. Thanks for watching.