Airdate: Back To Nature

New ABC factual series Back To Nature, hosted by Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road, Jack Irish) and bestselling author Holly Ringland (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) will screen on ABC from August.

The 8 part series guides viewers through the wonder and awe of the Australian landscape, exploring stories that reconnect the audience with the natural world and with Country.

In each episode Holly and Aaron visit a new Australian location, each within easy reach of a city or town. ABC notes the series isn’t about travelling to exotic, faraway places, but about seeing the local and accessible with fresh eyes and deeper appreciation. Along the way, they meet people connected to the landscapes including John Williamson, Missy Higgins, and Poh Ling Yeow, but others who have ancestral connections with the country stretching back tens of thousands of years.

Aaron Pedersen said; “This is a breakthrough series. Nothing like this has been done before. We’re all connected to all of life. Most nature shows feel like they sit above the earth, like they’re separate from it. This series feels like we’re part of it, like there’s a relationship. Back to Nature is medicine for all of us.”

While Holly Ringland added; “My greatest passions are nature and storytelling. Stories cultivate empathy and the opportunity for understanding; nature offers us a shared experience of what it is to be alive. Being in nature, and connecting to nature through story, is how we come home to ourselves and each other.”

During the series, Holly and Aaron visit Springbrook National Park on Yugambeh Country in Queensland, meet singer John Williamson, and encounter mystery in the lush Gondwanan rainforest. They visit the High Country, the Snowy Mountains-Ngarigo country in NSW, where the earth touches the sky and where rivers are born. In the Mount Lofty Ranges South Australia, Aaron and Holly meet a senior Kaurna man, before traveling towards the ocean and hearing about Poh’s affinity with nature.

They yarn on Wurundjeri country near Melbourne, take in the mysteries of Hanging Rock-Ngannelong, and connect with deep time at an ancient quarry and visit Northeast Tasmania, tebrakunna – larapuna country, exploring kinship and connection as they visit the stunning Bay of Fires coast and inland forests.

While in the Otways, Victoria, Aaron and Holly meet singer Missy Higgins, contemplate the healing power of nature, and meet a Wathaurung man singing back Country. They travel on and around Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, to find stories, art and artists living on the riverbanks and surrounding country And finally, Aaron and Holly visit Arrernte country in Central Australia, where connection to country is strong and unbroken, and contemplate their place in the universe.

Production Credits:
Back To Nature is a Media Stockade and Threshold Pictures production. The series was commissioned by ABC TV and funded in association with Screen NSW and The People and Parks Foundation. Executive Producer: Aaron Pederson, Series Producer: Jane Manning (Threshold Pictures), Producers: Rebecca Barry and Madeleine Hetherton (Media Stockade), Directors: Kimberley Benjamin, Dena Curtis, Jane Manning, Sophie Wiesner ABC Executive Producer: Frances O’Riordan, ABC Head of Entertainment: Nick Hayden.

Tuesday August 10 at 8pm on ABC.