Latest news with #Nyikina
West Australian
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
New ABC wildlife documentary series The Kimberley captures rarely seen animals and locations
When it comes to ambitious wildlife documentaries, you'd be forgiven for imagining sweeping vistas of the Serengeti, with its massive herds in a daily dance of life and death with big cats. You might be surprised to learn there's an untamed ecosystem 30 times as big as the Serengeti, and exponentially more diverse, right on our doorstep – the Kimberley. The 400,000sqkm of this biological ark, stretching from turquoise coast to searing desert, is the subject of a groundbreaking three-part documentary series. The ABC series captures never-before-seen behaviour of animals that are found nowhere else on the planet, in locations that have previously only been seen by the Traditional Owners of the land, making this must-see TV for nature lovers. It's story takes place over a full year, following the six seasons observed by the Nyikina people, starting in Lalin, the peak of the dry season, when parched wallabies risk ending up as lunch for crocs to get a drink of water. After the build-up of Jirrbal, flooding rains eventually come during Wilakarra, transforming the landscape and bringing new challenges for its inhabitants, before the calendar turns to Koolawa, which reveals the region at its most bountiful. A cool change arrives with Barrkana, heralding the appearance of humpbacks from Antarctica to give birth in warmer waters, although the mercury soon rises again with Willbooroo, shrinking the vast wetlands once more. Hosted by Mystery Road: Origin star and Nyikina man Mark Coles Smith, The Kimberley series combines local knowledge from the Traditional Owners with scientific experts to give viewers a rich understanding of the region's significance. Filmmaker Nick Robinson dragged $80,000 worth of camera equipment through some of the most inaccessible wilderness on Earth to create the series, and said pulling off such an ambitious project took 40 per cent planning and 60 per cent getting lucky. Perhaps the best example of getting lucky is a scene in Episode 1, in which a crocodile stalks a wallaby. Unbelievable footage that was made possible by a chance encounter with a local fisherman. 'I've been filming crocodiles my whole life, for the last 20 years, because television just can't get enough of them,' Robinson said. 'So I've been to film crocodiles everywhere, and I feel like I've been to the best places … and I've spent months just trying to get that kind of behaviour and never got it. '(In the Kimberley) we shot that in five days, and I've never shot anything like that.' While it's hard for Robinson to narrow down the flora and fauna he's most proud of capturing in the series, there is one animal that does stand out – the critically endangered nabarlek. The marsupial is so rare that it had never been caught on broadcast-quality cameras before, something Robinson's team achieved after camping for a week on the beach of an uninhabited island with ecologist Ian Bool. 'It's almost a mythical creature if you're a biologist because it doesn't exist on the mainland anywhere, you never see them,' Robinson said. But, in the end, the mythical nabarlek came to them. 'A wild nabarlek, just hopping around the tents,' Robinson laughed. 'I think it took five days of being there before the nabarlek showed itself. 'And on that fifth day, a couple of nabarleks, a baby and an adult, came out and sat and hopped around in front of the camera.' Robinson hoped the series will make Australians realise the Kimberley is every bit as deserving as the Serengeti when it comes to the world's greatest natural wonders. 'The Kimberley is probably the last, great, tropical, wild land on Earth,' he said. 'There'd be nowhere on the planet that's as wild and has the potential to remain wild like that place.'
The Advertiser
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
'Closest thing to paradise': a rare insight into The Kimberley
A saltwater crocodile watches a group of wallabies drinking from the river it calls home. It strikes, missing, as the frightened wallabies frantically scale the steep and unstable riverbank. All but one makes it. This wallaby jumps and it jumps, twisting its body mid-air in panic. The crocodile is still watching, waiting, but this time it's not alone. An eagle nesting nearby is attracted by the commotion. It swoops the wallaby, causing it to tumble into the water. The crocodile strikes again - and this time it doesn't miss. The eagle waits for the crocodile to start feasting and, as flesh, fur and bones are flung across the water's surface, grabs its share. It's a confronting but fascinating start to wildlife documentary series The Kimberley, narrated by award-winning actor Mark Coles Smith, a Nyikina man from the lower Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) area. The stunningly filmed three-part series explores the six distinct seasons on the Nyikina calendar - Lalin, Jirrbal, Willakarra, Koolawa, Barrakana and Willbooroo - through daring camerawork and cutting-edge cinematography techniques. The Kimberley spans more than 400,000 square kilometres - three times the size of England - and is made up of sprawling savannas, towering gorges, rivers, tropical coastlines and desert. The remote region's rugged terrain provides a last refuge for countless rare mammals, reptiles and birds, including the world's smallest marsupial, and the largest and fiercest reptile, the saltwater crocodile. "What we've got here is so special. I've grown up in what is, for me, the closest thing to paradise. The Kimberley," Mark says via phone from the ABC Kimberley's studios in Broome. "The scale of biodiversity and the network of ecological systems here is unlike anywhere else in the world. "The pristine tropical coastline, the savanna, the complex sandstone and limestone geology of the caves, the water networks that sustain life ... it's a real labyrinth of ecology and diversity here, and a time capsule for endemic species and for Australia as a whole. "Australia's mammalian extinction rates are really sobering, so it's quite inspiring to know that in parts of the northern Kimberley, it's the only place on mainland Australia with no recorded extinction, even though that's changing every day as we continue to get encroachments impacting into the space." Mark is a captivating orator who knows The Kimberley intimately. I ask him about saltwater crocodiles and their reputation for aggression. "You know, they are tricky for me. I am now doing spear fishing, I am free diving to 20-metre depths up on the peninsula, and I come across some pretty big sharks, and that's not too bad for me," he says. "I try to read them and judge the situation I'm in, but crocs are a whole other story. You would never see me in the water with a saltwater croc, or if one had been identified in a body of water. "They are the only creature I'm aware of that will actively hunt you across several days, that will watch your behaviour, watch your habits, and then place themselves at a particular point on the riverbank. "They are really cunning and they are really competent in what they do, whether that's taking livestock or feral creatures or native animals. They are adept killing machines. Apart from juvenile bull sharks, which can be quite aggressive, the saltwater estuarine crocodile is the one animal we all agree will actively try to kill us when we're in its habitat." Mark swims contentedly in a waterhole in episode one. How did he know it was crocodile-free? "The biggest thing will be the belly tracks, the belly marks. Our mob can tell what species is in the water from the belly marks on the river banks," he replies. "With the smaller waterholes, it makes no sense for a creature of threat to be in there. There's nothing for it to eat, and it will get hotter during the day, which will make it uncomfortable. There's a myriad of signs to look out for." I mention the documentary's soundtrack and am surprised to learn Mark himself had - unintentionally - composed and produced most of it. "I produce hypnotic, ethereal, cinematic, electronic music under an artist name known as Kalaji, and all of my music is about The Kimberley, my mother's culture and our spiritual connection," he explains. "I never once, when I was composing and producing those pieces, thought they would end up in a wildlife documentary. But the team asked if they could listen to some of my music, and fed it into different parts of the series, and they loved it. "I was really proud to see my music recontextualised in that way." Mark left The Kimberley in 2010 to move to Melbourne to study audio engineering and sound design. While there, his acting career unexpectedly "took off". Beneath Hill 60, Apple Cider Vinegar, Last Cab To Darwin, Sweet As, Kid Snow and We Bury The Dead are among his film credits to date. Television-wise, he is best known as Detective Jay Swan in series Mystery Road. Mark won a Helpmann Award in 2017 for best male actor in a play (The Drover's Wife). "I'd done quite a bit of acting but I never believed it could mature into something tangible," he says. "After 10 years in Melbourne, though, I realised how much I missed The Kimberley, and my family and my community and being a part of my culture, so I moved back. "I wondered if the work I'd done on the East Coast over 10 years meant that I could work from The Kimberley, and over the last four years that seems to be the case, which is something I'm really proud about ... it's very hard to work in the arts, and to do it from such a remote place adds all these additional layers." The Kimberley is a labour of love for Mark, and it shows. "It was a privilege for me to be invited to create on this series. It has that international-standard picture quality, but it also has access to the human story inside the Kimberley landscape," he says. "There are these beautiful vignettes of the people who call this place home, who are connected to this landscape, whether it's from a cultural point of view or from our National Parks and Wildlife Protection Service or our incredible ecologists. "The mosaic that we end up creating is, I think, really unique for a wildlife series." A saltwater crocodile watches a group of wallabies drinking from the river it calls home. It strikes, missing, as the frightened wallabies frantically scale the steep and unstable riverbank. All but one makes it. This wallaby jumps and it jumps, twisting its body mid-air in panic. The crocodile is still watching, waiting, but this time it's not alone. An eagle nesting nearby is attracted by the commotion. It swoops the wallaby, causing it to tumble into the water. The crocodile strikes again - and this time it doesn't miss. The eagle waits for the crocodile to start feasting and, as flesh, fur and bones are flung across the water's surface, grabs its share. It's a confronting but fascinating start to wildlife documentary series The Kimberley, narrated by award-winning actor Mark Coles Smith, a Nyikina man from the lower Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) area. The stunningly filmed three-part series explores the six distinct seasons on the Nyikina calendar - Lalin, Jirrbal, Willakarra, Koolawa, Barrakana and Willbooroo - through daring camerawork and cutting-edge cinematography techniques. The Kimberley spans more than 400,000 square kilometres - three times the size of England - and is made up of sprawling savannas, towering gorges, rivers, tropical coastlines and desert. The remote region's rugged terrain provides a last refuge for countless rare mammals, reptiles and birds, including the world's smallest marsupial, and the largest and fiercest reptile, the saltwater crocodile. "What we've got here is so special. I've grown up in what is, for me, the closest thing to paradise. The Kimberley," Mark says via phone from the ABC Kimberley's studios in Broome. "The scale of biodiversity and the network of ecological systems here is unlike anywhere else in the world. "The pristine tropical coastline, the savanna, the complex sandstone and limestone geology of the caves, the water networks that sustain life ... it's a real labyrinth of ecology and diversity here, and a time capsule for endemic species and for Australia as a whole. "Australia's mammalian extinction rates are really sobering, so it's quite inspiring to know that in parts of the northern Kimberley, it's the only place on mainland Australia with no recorded extinction, even though that's changing every day as we continue to get encroachments impacting into the space." Mark is a captivating orator who knows The Kimberley intimately. I ask him about saltwater crocodiles and their reputation for aggression. "You know, they are tricky for me. I am now doing spear fishing, I am free diving to 20-metre depths up on the peninsula, and I come across some pretty big sharks, and that's not too bad for me," he says. "I try to read them and judge the situation I'm in, but crocs are a whole other story. You would never see me in the water with a saltwater croc, or if one had been identified in a body of water. "They are the only creature I'm aware of that will actively hunt you across several days, that will watch your behaviour, watch your habits, and then place themselves at a particular point on the riverbank. "They are really cunning and they are really competent in what they do, whether that's taking livestock or feral creatures or native animals. They are adept killing machines. Apart from juvenile bull sharks, which can be quite aggressive, the saltwater estuarine crocodile is the one animal we all agree will actively try to kill us when we're in its habitat." Mark swims contentedly in a waterhole in episode one. How did he know it was crocodile-free? "The biggest thing will be the belly tracks, the belly marks. Our mob can tell what species is in the water from the belly marks on the river banks," he replies. "With the smaller waterholes, it makes no sense for a creature of threat to be in there. There's nothing for it to eat, and it will get hotter during the day, which will make it uncomfortable. There's a myriad of signs to look out for." I mention the documentary's soundtrack and am surprised to learn Mark himself had - unintentionally - composed and produced most of it. "I produce hypnotic, ethereal, cinematic, electronic music under an artist name known as Kalaji, and all of my music is about The Kimberley, my mother's culture and our spiritual connection," he explains. "I never once, when I was composing and producing those pieces, thought they would end up in a wildlife documentary. But the team asked if they could listen to some of my music, and fed it into different parts of the series, and they loved it. "I was really proud to see my music recontextualised in that way." Mark left The Kimberley in 2010 to move to Melbourne to study audio engineering and sound design. While there, his acting career unexpectedly "took off". Beneath Hill 60, Apple Cider Vinegar, Last Cab To Darwin, Sweet As, Kid Snow and We Bury The Dead are among his film credits to date. Television-wise, he is best known as Detective Jay Swan in series Mystery Road. Mark won a Helpmann Award in 2017 for best male actor in a play (The Drover's Wife). "I'd done quite a bit of acting but I never believed it could mature into something tangible," he says. "After 10 years in Melbourne, though, I realised how much I missed The Kimberley, and my family and my community and being a part of my culture, so I moved back. "I wondered if the work I'd done on the East Coast over 10 years meant that I could work from The Kimberley, and over the last four years that seems to be the case, which is something I'm really proud about ... it's very hard to work in the arts, and to do it from such a remote place adds all these additional layers." The Kimberley is a labour of love for Mark, and it shows. "It was a privilege for me to be invited to create on this series. It has that international-standard picture quality, but it also has access to the human story inside the Kimberley landscape," he says. "There are these beautiful vignettes of the people who call this place home, who are connected to this landscape, whether it's from a cultural point of view or from our National Parks and Wildlife Protection Service or our incredible ecologists. "The mosaic that we end up creating is, I think, really unique for a wildlife series." A saltwater crocodile watches a group of wallabies drinking from the river it calls home. It strikes, missing, as the frightened wallabies frantically scale the steep and unstable riverbank. All but one makes it. This wallaby jumps and it jumps, twisting its body mid-air in panic. The crocodile is still watching, waiting, but this time it's not alone. An eagle nesting nearby is attracted by the commotion. It swoops the wallaby, causing it to tumble into the water. The crocodile strikes again - and this time it doesn't miss. The eagle waits for the crocodile to start feasting and, as flesh, fur and bones are flung across the water's surface, grabs its share. It's a confronting but fascinating start to wildlife documentary series The Kimberley, narrated by award-winning actor Mark Coles Smith, a Nyikina man from the lower Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) area. The stunningly filmed three-part series explores the six distinct seasons on the Nyikina calendar - Lalin, Jirrbal, Willakarra, Koolawa, Barrakana and Willbooroo - through daring camerawork and cutting-edge cinematography techniques. The Kimberley spans more than 400,000 square kilometres - three times the size of England - and is made up of sprawling savannas, towering gorges, rivers, tropical coastlines and desert. The remote region's rugged terrain provides a last refuge for countless rare mammals, reptiles and birds, including the world's smallest marsupial, and the largest and fiercest reptile, the saltwater crocodile. "What we've got here is so special. I've grown up in what is, for me, the closest thing to paradise. The Kimberley," Mark says via phone from the ABC Kimberley's studios in Broome. "The scale of biodiversity and the network of ecological systems here is unlike anywhere else in the world. "The pristine tropical coastline, the savanna, the complex sandstone and limestone geology of the caves, the water networks that sustain life ... it's a real labyrinth of ecology and diversity here, and a time capsule for endemic species and for Australia as a whole. "Australia's mammalian extinction rates are really sobering, so it's quite inspiring to know that in parts of the northern Kimberley, it's the only place on mainland Australia with no recorded extinction, even though that's changing every day as we continue to get encroachments impacting into the space." Mark is a captivating orator who knows The Kimberley intimately. I ask him about saltwater crocodiles and their reputation for aggression. "You know, they are tricky for me. I am now doing spear fishing, I am free diving to 20-metre depths up on the peninsula, and I come across some pretty big sharks, and that's not too bad for me," he says. "I try to read them and judge the situation I'm in, but crocs are a whole other story. You would never see me in the water with a saltwater croc, or if one had been identified in a body of water. "They are the only creature I'm aware of that will actively hunt you across several days, that will watch your behaviour, watch your habits, and then place themselves at a particular point on the riverbank. "They are really cunning and they are really competent in what they do, whether that's taking livestock or feral creatures or native animals. They are adept killing machines. Apart from juvenile bull sharks, which can be quite aggressive, the saltwater estuarine crocodile is the one animal we all agree will actively try to kill us when we're in its habitat." Mark swims contentedly in a waterhole in episode one. How did he know it was crocodile-free? "The biggest thing will be the belly tracks, the belly marks. Our mob can tell what species is in the water from the belly marks on the river banks," he replies. "With the smaller waterholes, it makes no sense for a creature of threat to be in there. There's nothing for it to eat, and it will get hotter during the day, which will make it uncomfortable. There's a myriad of signs to look out for." I mention the documentary's soundtrack and am surprised to learn Mark himself had - unintentionally - composed and produced most of it. "I produce hypnotic, ethereal, cinematic, electronic music under an artist name known as Kalaji, and all of my music is about The Kimberley, my mother's culture and our spiritual connection," he explains. "I never once, when I was composing and producing those pieces, thought they would end up in a wildlife documentary. But the team asked if they could listen to some of my music, and fed it into different parts of the series, and they loved it. "I was really proud to see my music recontextualised in that way." Mark left The Kimberley in 2010 to move to Melbourne to study audio engineering and sound design. While there, his acting career unexpectedly "took off". Beneath Hill 60, Apple Cider Vinegar, Last Cab To Darwin, Sweet As, Kid Snow and We Bury The Dead are among his film credits to date. Television-wise, he is best known as Detective Jay Swan in series Mystery Road. Mark won a Helpmann Award in 2017 for best male actor in a play (The Drover's Wife). "I'd done quite a bit of acting but I never believed it could mature into something tangible," he says. "After 10 years in Melbourne, though, I realised how much I missed The Kimberley, and my family and my community and being a part of my culture, so I moved back. "I wondered if the work I'd done on the East Coast over 10 years meant that I could work from The Kimberley, and over the last four years that seems to be the case, which is something I'm really proud about ... it's very hard to work in the arts, and to do it from such a remote place adds all these additional layers." The Kimberley is a labour of love for Mark, and it shows. "It was a privilege for me to be invited to create on this series. It has that international-standard picture quality, but it also has access to the human story inside the Kimberley landscape," he says. "There are these beautiful vignettes of the people who call this place home, who are connected to this landscape, whether it's from a cultural point of view or from our National Parks and Wildlife Protection Service or our incredible ecologists. "The mosaic that we end up creating is, I think, really unique for a wildlife series."
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘The river keeps us alive, we keep the river alive': new documentary captures the Kimberley and its custodians
The Kimberley's winding ochre gorges, coral sunsets and celadon crocodile-filled rivers feature in a new ABC documentary series about one of Earth's last great tropical wetlands. Filmed on cinema-grade cameras in the remote and vast north-west Australian region, The Kimberley captures an intimate portrait of its ancient landscape and offers ecological and cultural insight across three episodes. The series follows the six seasons in the Nyikina calendar. The Nyikina people are the traditional custodians of the Martuwarra, also known as the Fitzroy River, the Kimberley's largest river system. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Actor and Nyikina man Mark Coles Smith, the series' narrator and host, describes himself as deeply connected to the land, his mother's country. He introduces the Martuwarra as a 'literal ancestral entity' that has sustained the cultural, spiritual and physical life of First Nations people in the area for tens of thousands of years. The crocodile is a 'revered spirit of the riverways' in the Kimberley. Photograph: ABC TV At the end of the hot, dry season of Lalin – colloquially called 'married turtle season' because it's when the reptiles mate – a crocodile ambushes a thirsty wallaby, snapping it into its jaws before its tail disappears through the croc's teeth. Director Nick Robinson describes it as one of the most astonishing sequences he has ever filmed. The rare footage was taken during the six months he and the series' director of photography, Jack Riley, spent camping, rafting and trekking throughout the Western Australian region. Director Nick Robinson and camera operator Paul Bell shoot a scene with Mark Coles Smith and Gooniyandi elder Mervyn Street. Photograph: ABC TV 'We were just talking to a random fisherman,' Robinson says. 'He mentioned having seen a croc take a wallaby. I'd never seen that in the wild, and I've spent years filming crocs. 'That tip turned into one of the most amazing sequences I've ever shot.' Coles Smith, who won an Australian best actor award for his role in Mystery Road: Origin and is a Gold Logie nominee, explains the crocodile is a 'revered spirit of the riverways', playing an important role in the ecosystem and symbolising the 'raw power of nature'. The tiny crew worked alongside Indigenous rangers, traditional owners and scientists, including the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, to capture animal behaviour and landscapes never before filmed – from frill-necked lizards sparring in their quest for love to humpback whales arriving in the cool, dry season of Barrgana. Some stories came unexpectedly. A planned shoot of northern quolls, small carnivorous marsupials, was derailed when cane toads arrived, likely devastating local populations. Coles Smith takes viewers to the riverbanks of the Martuwarra: kids splash and fish in green-mirrored waters as an elder sketches shapes in the earth for young children and kangaroo tails cook on a fire. A still from the documentary of a northern quoll. Photograph: ABC TV As she untangles a line in her lap, one woman says: 'That spiritual connection we have – with the river, the land, all these things – it heals you. You hear the birds, the river, and the calmness of it … your body is meditating.' skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion A man, tending smouldering flames with a shovel, explains: 'You come up here and sit down, have a feed, go fishing, maybe catch a barramundi if you're lucky; those things, are really, really good for the heart, good for the mind, good for the spirit.' The Martuwarra is one of the most pristine river systems on Earth. Photograph: ABC TV When peaking humidity brings in the rainy season, Wilakarra, it revives the Martuwarra for a stunning rafting expedition – a journey that Robinson says requires helicopters, small planes, and local knowledge to access rarely seen gorges and rapids. Despite damage caused by European farming in the last 150 years, the Martuwarra is still one of the most pristine river systems on Earth. 'I can't fathom the generations behind me, through my mother's family, that begin and return to the river – that's what I think of when I'm out here,' Coles Smith says. But the series also documents the looming danger the Kimberley faces. Aerial shots show mining, water extraction and fracking equipment cutting into the wilderness. 'It's an existential threat,' Coles Smith says. 'You hear the birds, the river, and the calmness of it … your body is meditating.' Photograph: ABC TV In response, local leaders have formed the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council – a 'coalition of hope' – advocating for the river's rights. 'There are many nations that make up the length of the Martuwarra,' Coles Smith says. 'All of us have a cultural obligation to protect these waters for future generations. 'The river keeps us alive; we keep the river alive. That's the deal.' The Kimberley airs from Tuesday 13 May at 8pm on the ABC and ABC iview.
