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Australian Story: July 4

ABC profiles filmmaker David Batty, who has collaborated with the Indigenous community for the series Bush Mechanics and Black As.

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Tonight Australian Story profiles filmmaker David Batty, who has collaborated with the Indigenous community for the series Bush Mechanics and Black As.

This episode is introduced by actor David Field.

How did a white boy from Wollongong end up making some of the most loved TV shows and documentaries about Black life?

David Batty and his Aboriginal collaborator Francis Kelly struck gold with Bush Mechanics, their hilarious take on getting around the country with no roadside assistance. The cult classic followed a group of men using ingenious tricks to keep their cars running in the unforgiving desert of Central Australia.

An idyllic childhood canoeing wild rivers and walking rough bushland gave David a deep connection to nature as well as an ability to sleep rough – two things that later made him at home filming in remote Indigenous settlements.

David’s childhood turned into a teenage disaster. Just out of school, he was forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend and ended up as a single dad.

He escaped with his young son to Alice Springs in the early 1980s. They thrived in a town where young whites were walking alongside a newly radicalised Indigenous population. Out of those collaborations would come many documentaries shining a light on Aboriginal life and history.

Seven years ago, a shocking personal tragedy took David to the brink.

Now David Batty is at it again with his new series Black As, a ‘Bush Mechanics’ for a new generation, this time set in crocodile infested Arnhem Land. Three Black guys and their adopted white brother Joe embody the joy of hunting and fishing off the land, all the while trying to keep their clapped-out 4-wheel drive alive.

Producer Vanessa Gorman.

Monday 4th July at 8pm on ABC.

One Response

  1. Dear David
    It was largely by chance that I caught this evening’s Australian Story — and then became totally absorbed. Yours is such a touching and true story …

    best wishes, kind regards
    Perpetua [Durack Clancy]

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