On open roads
Back Roads has returned for a sixth season of exploring Australia on another epic road trip. Heather Ewart tells Danielle McGrane about the hidden gems she unearthed in her latest journey across the country.
T here’s never been a better time to take to the road and see this vast country.
Back Roads has returned just in time to act as the perfect guide for any road trip.
“The beauty of the series coming up now is that we’re not really freed up to go overseas yet, so I’m hoping the series will give people ideas to think ‘I should go and have a look at that’, or ‘Why don’t I get in the car and go there?’” series presenter Heather Ewart said.
Even though the show is in its sixth season, there’s still so many places that haven’t featured before now.
Ewart manages to discover new places in every state that she visits. Her first stop is the Nullarbor Plain in South
Australia, and Ewart always has some good advice for any would-be adventurers.
“If you actually turn off the Nullarbor, there’s whale watching, there’s the Great Australian Bight, there’s so much to see, and we go all the way to the border where they do a check of all the vehicles to make sure you’re not carrying any stuff Western Australia doesn’t want.” Ewart said.
In WA, Ewart and the Back Roads team came across a bird observatory.
“We go to a little town called Eucla and we go out to this amazing bird observatory that used to be an old telegraph station back in the day. How they built it out there is beyond me. That’s right on the beach so that was really incredible.
And we ended up in Esperance at the wonderful beach called Lucky Bay, which has the most stunning water,” she said.
“They’re the first two episodes, just jam packed with characters who’ve chosen to live out there and indigenous communities as well.” The places are incredible, but so too are the people Ewart encounters.
“People who live there are smitten with the place, there’ s something almost charismatic about it for them. And they like the isolation and the privacy,” she said.
“We stay at road houses where people have worked there for years and love working there.”
One town in particular that’s been in the news over the last few years is Biloela in central Queensland. It’s the town that’s been fighting to keep a family of asylum seekers who have been sent to Christmas Island as they protest against being sent back to Sri Lanka.
Heather Ewart: I’m hoping the series will give people ideas to think ‘I should go and have a look at that.’ Or ‘Why don’t I get in the car and go there?’