Melissa Leong on letting go and embracing the tremendous in 'Great Australian Road Trips'
Actor Claudia Karvan and writer/performer Steph Tisdell make up one duo in this on-road adventure series, while comedian Nazeem Hussain and food critic/journalist Melissa Leong make up the other, the duos taking on different parts of the country. Every episode gives us a glimpse at how diverse Australia can be, from the magic and the mystique of the Red Centre Way in the Northern Territory to the windy and watery west coast of Tasmania. SBS spoke with Leong about her unforgettable, inspiring and oftentimes life-changing journey, and how it was made all the more exceptional with Hussain by her side.
Melissa Leong at the Red Centre of the Northern Territory in episode 1 of Great Australian Road Trips. Credit: rachel frankenbach
What are you most excited for people to see in Great Australian Road Trips ? What I'm most excited for people to see in Great Australian Road Trips is our country in all of its glory. I think that as Australians we're told very young that we can take on the world and we can get on a plane and go to the opposite side and make it an adventure, but there are so many adventures to be had on the continent that we are so lucky to live on. I really hope people see these road trips as an invitation to explore more of where we are, where we live and where we come from. All the things that we go overseas for: dramatic landscapes, incredible people, rich culture, wonderful food – all of that is also here too and I think that we forget that because this is home. We have our own little bubbles of life but outside of those bubbles are just completely different worlds all around us. There's such a great variation of different kinds of environments to see here. Within six episodes, Steph and Claudia and Nazeem and I get to cover a fair amount of it, but I think one of the things I'm most proud of is in showcasing the people and places that make this country so special.
These are the experiences that really fill my soul and last a lifetime for me as a human being. You mentioned "different worlds" existing within Australia and how beautiful and amazing they are – the 'Red Centre' of the Northern Territory is often described as quite a mesmerising, otherworldly part of Australia. How did you feel exploring that area in episode 1? When we think of dramatic Australian landscapes in terms of that romantic, cinematic, expansive feel – I think the first thing most people think of is endless red dirt, blue sky, and sweeping hills surrounding it. You see that and you feel that when you drive the Mereenie Loop from the Red Centre all the way to Kings Canyon and back again. Dirt roads, wild horses, camels in packs, it's everything that you hope for when you think of the romance of the Australian outback. To be able to do that with great company is a great luxury and something that I will never forget as an Australian and as a person who works in the entertainment world. To be able to hang out with my friend Naz and do that was really a life memory. I mean, you're walking on stone where you can see the ripples of what was once the sand bed – the bottom of the ocean. The ripples of the sand fossilised into the stone. It just makes you feel so tremendously insignificant in the best possible way. We really don't matter. It's a really lovely thing. When we were standing in Kings Canyon, it's seen everything – and we are just a blip. We really just need to appreciate what's good and let go of the rest. I think that's a great life lesson to have in a place like that.
Melissa Leong and Nazeem Hussain at Kings Canyon in the Red Centre during episode 1 of Great Australian Road Trips. Credit: rachel frankenbach
In episode three of Great Australian Road Trips , you go from Queenstown to Cradle Mountain. How was that experience? So bucket list for me. I lived in Tasmania for two years about a decade ago and I never got to go to Cradle Mountain. I spent a lot of my time on the south of Hobart in farming country and that was wonderful, but I had always dreamed of going to Cradle Mountain so it was legitimately one of those things for me, and not just something you say for television. The opportunity to go to Cradle Mountain and also see other parts of the West Coast was incredible. Amongst Tasmanians, the West Coast of the island is highly mythologised. You have to be intrepid to go there. To meet with Trish Hodges and to see the pride that she has in being part of the oldest continuous living culture on the planet was special. To hear stories first hand, to stand on this wind-swept beach at Trial Harbour and have her show us the ways of her community, these are the experiences that really fill my soul and last a lifetime for me as a human being. With Cradle Mountain being one of your bucket list kind of adventures, was there something that surprised you, or that you weren't expecting to see that you did? Yeah, it definitely surprised me. I like to kind of suppress my Type-A personality urge to research everything beforehand and really want to try and just be present and take in the experiences that are offered to me. And obviously when you're working on a production like this, there's an entire team of people that have done just the most incredible job to give you these experiences. So you kind of just need to relinquish control and lean into being present. And so from the places we got to see, the people we got meet, and also just the environments that we were able to be immersed in, everything was just... wow. I have all the adjectives at my fingertips but you just come back to 'wow' because there's just no words can really do a place like Cradle Mountain justice. I'm so pleased that we can recognise as human beings, who regularly fuck things up, that this is a place in the world that we need to really protect and keep as pristine as possible because to do anything less would be an injustice.
Melissa Leong and Nazeem Hussain on an airboat in the Top End of the Northern Territory during episode 5 of Great Australian Road Trips.
During the road trips, you and Nazeem were able to connect and bond. What was it like having a comedian alongside you for those long drives? Look, I think you could do worse than to have a wildly talented comedian and actor in the car with you when you go on a road trip like this. I mean, a road trip already is going to be a wonderful experience, but yeah, it's a five-stars-no-notes kind of proposition with someone like him. And Naz is one of the smartest, most considerate people I've ever met. I'm very lucky to call him a friend. I think we both really enjoyed it. It's like a buddy cop movie meets a travel show. We are mates, we tease each other, we find commonalities in being parts of migrant families from different parts of the world. We share our likes and dislikes and political views and all of those things. I think nothing was really off the table. I live for conversations that light up my brain, and I was constantly challenged in the best possible way being in the company of such a wonderful human being. Great Australian Road Trips is now streaming on SBS On Demand, with new episodes weekly. Episodes are also airing weekly on SBS on Thursdays at 7.30pm.
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