The Dry Season

♪♪ -A big place with a big story -- Outback Australia.

The Kimberley region in the northwest of the country is the size of California, yet only 40,000 humans live here among some of Australia's most beautiful and deadly wildlife.

♪♪ -This is beautiful country.

This is untouched country.

♪♪ -I think there's the croc.

Watch out.

Watch out.

Watch out.

Watch out.

-Fire.

-Across the Kimberley, rangers, traditional owners, scientists, and passionate volunteers... -Tough bugger, aren't you?

-...work together under extreme conditions in a strange kind of paradise.

It's a frontier existence, and it takes a tough hide to survive.

-You go against nature, and nature will give you a hell of a hiding.

-True story, isn't it?

[ Both laugh ] -In this episode... it's the dry season, so there's cattle to muster, and Kimberley's best cowboys hit the dust.

-Too old for this.

Yeah.

-Off the coast, humans and whales have a close encounter.

[ Alarm blaring ] And Mandy and her roos go bush.

586 roos we've released now, and it doesn't get any easier.

[ Animal calling ] -Across the Outback, not a drop of rain for 4 months.

[ Birds calling ] Rivers have slimmed and stopped, leaving only vital billabongs.

The threat of fire becomes a certainty.

For black kites, it creates a feast of barbecued insects and lizards.

This is winter, Kimberley style.

The land is dry, but on the coast... life is thriving.

[ Whales singing ] ♪♪ And an osprey pair have mined this sea of plenty to raise their young.

Less than 10 weeks ago, these chicks were still in the egg.

Their vigorous growth is testament to the health of these oceans.

Their parents make flying look a breeze.

♪♪ They groom to release their fluffy down, making space for pristine flight feathers.

♪♪ The parents won't teach their young to fly, but will lead by example.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The chicks are keen students, studying every style of flight in the neighborhood.

♪♪ Like all teenagers, they are hardwired to mimic.

♪♪ The chicks experiment, building their powerful chest muscles.

The first flight is only a few feet from the nest.

♪♪ The second chick still practicing its helicoptering.

♪♪ ♪♪ Suddenly, the larger chick is soaring.

♪♪ Like a youngster with its first car, there's no stopping it now.

♪♪ Unlike osprey from elsewhere in the world, it won't migrate, but will stay on the coast where it's fattened and fledged.

There's absolutely no reason to leave.

♪♪ Other creatures also come here to breed in the winter months, but theirs won't be a family affair.

On the most remote northerly corner, inaccessible by road, a female flatback turtle hauls herself to the shoreline to lay her clutch of eggs.

But she's not the only reptile in these waters.

Getting from ocean to dry sand means running a gauntlet of saltwater crocodiles.

♪♪ The croc is content to sun himself for now.

♪♪ ♪♪ Scientists and traditional owners arrive each winter to learn more about this most mysterious of all sea turtles.

Lawrence Carter is a guardian of the flatbacks.

-We're the Gajerrong people.

We're the saltwater people.

We look after the turtles and the marine life.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Under turtle-friendly red light, the team is on the hunt for nesting females, careful not to become the hunted.

-No crocs out there at the moment.

-They find a female as she finishes her laying... -Need to lift a bit.

-...the perfect candidate to be tracked with a radio transmitter.

-Excellent.

-Come here and cover it.

-So that it's... [ Indistinct conversation ] -Can I give you this torch just so you can keep an eye on that croc?

I'd hate for him to sneak up on us while we're doing all this stuff.

-Lawrence stands guard.

Hungry crocs will happily trade turtle for human.

-Is she all right or what?

She's okay?

-Yeah.

I think she's fine.

She seems quite relaxed, surprisingly.

-Designed to rust off after 3 months, the transmitter will track her movements.

The data recorded will join a global database for sea turtles.

-That's good.

That's looking good there.

[ Transmitter beeping ] Excellent.

-Not much fun for this girl, but a good thing for her species.

Microchipped and tagged, she's ready for release.

♪♪ When the coast is clear of crocs, satellite tag number 163423, also known as Squirtle, returns to the sea.

♪♪ It will be 50 days before Squirtle's eggs hatch, but, every week, somewhere in the Kimberley, a sea turtle's nest springs to life... ...proffering little walking hors d'oeuvres.

[ Crunching ] Very few will survive the first weeks of life.

To compensate, turtles lay lots of eggs.

These are the stragglers from a nest of over 50 hatchlings.

Most have been picked off by predators, but these guys have bodyguards.

For Lawrence, he's not just protecting hatchlings.

He's protecting his ancestors.

Turtles represent the spirits of the old people.

=Make me feel happy when a hatch come out of the ground and they go back into the water.

It make me feel real good.

-Lawrence hopes he'll see her again in 20 years, when she returns to lay her eggs.

A little further south, an inland animal guardian begins her day of devotion.

Starting at 4:30 a.m., it takes Mandy Watson over 2 1/2 hours to do her rounds.

-Good morning, girls.

-Almost every resident has been nursed back to life by Dr. Mandy Doolittle.

From motherless ducks and chickens... -Come on, then.

Well, I've done out... Oh, I don't know.

Oh, Xboat.

-...to larger flightless birds like Xboat, the emu chicken.

-It's all right, Xboat.

Good boy.

Eat your piece.

All right, darling.

They brought him in to me.

He was only about 3 days old.

Tiny little thing sat in my hand, and so pretty, just the patterns in their feathers.

It was lovely.

And I had him in, like, a porta-cot inside the house for a while and then finally brought him out here, and now he just thinks he's a chook.

So he literally goes in there at night and sleeps with the chooks.

No, I don't put him in there.

He just walks in and sleeps in there with him.

So he's staying.

Come on out, Puddles.

Hang on, you lot.

Hang on.

Oh, it's always fun in here.

Ready?

There we go.

-The ultimate goal for all Mandy's orphaned animals is that they return to the wild.

-No fighting, boys.

Some of the kangaroos can be in our care for about 2 years, and, when we release them, I cry my eyes out.

-Mandy will release the animals in a national park where water holes survive the dry season.

-It's all gone.

All gone, bubba.

By the time the real dry season hits, they're going to be wild.

They'll naturally sniff out the water and eat the dried grass like the other kangaroos.

It's a heartbreaking thing, in a way, taking them out, but it's what they've got to do, and it's what we do it for.

-Mandy has 2 weeks to get herself and the roos ready.

♪♪ Kangaroos are beautifully adapted to survive the Kimberley's sizzling winter.

But they're not the only mobs flourishing here.

Much of the Kimberley is made up of cattle stations where herds run in their thousands.

Jubilee Downs is typically remote, on the banks of the beautiful Fitzroy River.

♪♪ Station owner Keith Anderson is blasé about the float of freshwater crocs living just feet from the back door of his homestead.

-See how far they're coming from?

They can sense from way down there.

It's quite amazing.

[ Birds chirping ] -Keith has a gruff affection for them.

He's taken to feeding the crocs a tasty byproduct of his cattle station.

-When we castrate, instead of chucking them in the bin, we bring them down here and feed the crocs the prairie oysters.

-Otherwise known as bull testicles.

-But chuck nicely, useless bastards.

[ Birds chirping ] -Jubilee Downs is a hardworking old-school cattle station.

The dry season means Keith, his daughters, and station stockmen need to get mustering.

[ Helicopter blades whirring ] Australia's cattle stations are the biggest in the world.

[ Blades continue whirring ] Cattle roam free across dense scrub.

Until son-in-law Mick joined the family along with his chopper, Jubilee Downs was 100% horse-powered.

-Mick, are you going to bring to us here or further up?

-No, if they're going to come across, they'll come across to you there.

-Mick's aerobatics have cut the muster time by two thirds.

-Mick is a really good chopper pilot.

Most people with machinery are inclined to push too much.

They forget that it's only a beast with a heart.

♪♪ -On Jubilee Downs, horses remain the backbone of the operation.

[ Cows mooing ] [ Men whistling ] ♪♪ -The main reason I still use horses is they're non-mechanical.

You're actually still working with beasts at a beast's level.

If they're a good stock horse, when a beast runs or goes out, he'll be there right with it, you know?

-Keith's horse of choice -- the Australian stock horse, bred not to tire or stumble and able to read the thoughts of a cow.

If you get a good horse, they're pretty special.

So the horse needs that ability, but it also has to be quiet.

-Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut.

-Some horses have more noise than some of the riders, you know?

[ Cows mooing ] ♪♪ -Despite the distances in dense scrub, this crack team brings in the cattle within hours.

♪♪ ♪♪ But their work isn't done.

The weekend is approaching, and it's not a chance to rest.

-See you, mate.

-Keith, Mick, and their favorite horses will head 180 miles to the chaos of their local rodeo.

It's where daredevil Mick pits body against beast.

Beyond these plains and endless roads, beyond all things, is the sea... ♪♪ ...where humpback whales are forging north.

Having traveled from their Antarctic feeding grounds, they're arriving at their winter home.

For months, they will rest and frolic here.

The most acrobatic of all whales, humpbacks can heave their full 30-ton body clear of the water.

♪♪ ♪♪ Whether they do it to communicate to other whales or to dislodge parasites from their skin, what it looks like is pure joy.

♪♪ ♪♪ But it's not just downtime for whales here.

This is where they mate, give birth and fatten their calves.

♪♪ Newborn calves down 420 pints of milk per day.

The milk is thick, like toothpaste, and around 50% fat.

♪♪ Each year, these calves are growing the pod by 10%.

After being hunted close to extinction, today, it's the largest herd of humpbacks on the planet, now protected and priceless.

♪♪ But on the seafloor, another creature has a bounty on its head.

On the outside, Australia's South Sea pearl oyster may not look impressive.

It's what is inside that counts.

These are the most valuable pearls known to mankind.

Off the Kimberley coast is the world's last commercial bed of wild pearl oysters.

The Paspaley family has been running pearl diving operations for three generations.

In winter, when conditions are calmer, the fleet heads out with their team of elite divers.

Searching for wild shell means spending up to 9 hours a day underwater.

-Some of the interactions you have with some of the fish down there, they just -- It's amazing.

I mean, the things they do, you see fish resting up against coral cups, sleeping, and things you wouldn't imagine.

It's pretty neat, some of the experiences.

It's entering another world.

It's peaceful.

It's also challenging, but the guys that do do it really enjoy it.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -As the boat drifts forward, divers are pulled along the seafloor.

Spotting buried oyster shells is a practiced skill.

♪♪ This type of fishing has strict quotas, and only oysters of a certain size can be collected.

♪♪ Skipper Peter Dixon guides from above.

An ex-diver himself, he can't stay away.

-Yeah, I think it's a young and free and sort of a bit of adventure, really.

It's their own little world that they sort of keep coming back to every year, so, yeah.

But it's, I mean, swimming all day.

If you're young and fit, no drama, but as you get older, your body definitely starts to feel it.

[ Chains rattling ] -Here's this one.

[ Indistinct conversation ] [ Horn blaring ] -The first dive of the day has gone swimmingly.

The divers offload their shells and grab fuel for the next dive.

Before long, they're headed back to the water.

-Quick bite and a quick coffee, and off we go again.

-The shells they found are beginning a new journey of their own.

The oysters leave the dive boat for the mother ship, anchored nearby.

They are placed in the hands of Japanese pearl surgeons.

The art of seeding an oyster is a guarded secret, handed down over generations.

A natural pearl happens when a foreign fragment enters the oyster, stimulating it to produce nacre or mother of pearl in thousands of iridescent layers.

The pearl surgeons override chance, placing a fragment of mussel shell inside the oyster.

♪♪ They work delicately with the living oyster, careful also not to upset any of the tiny, but important hitchhikers like the pea crab.

♪♪ The crab relies on currents of water created by the oyster to feed itself.

The oyster can feel its presence.

If the crab makes a quick retreat into the shell, the oyster knows to close up shop, escaping predators hungry for oyster meat.

♪♪ ♪♪ By dusk, it's the end of the eighth and final dive for the day.

♪♪ -I can't think of any other job like it in the world, definitely unique.

I think that's why we all love it so much.

Yeah, a couple of chips and a beer would be good.

We earned it.

-But not every day is smooth sailing, as tomorrow will prove.

♪♪ ♪♪ In the Kimberley's northeast corner, the landscape appears untouched by human hands.

♪♪ Yet people have left their mark right across this land.

Rock art is hidden everywhere.

It's estimated that only 2% has been recorded by science.

♪♪ Europe's rock art is thought to be the oldest in the world, but that might be about to change.

It's not an exaggeration to say that there would be tens of millions of images potentially tens of thousands of years old.

Archaeologist Peter Veth is leading a team of international experts to map the region's art.

He's greeted by colleague Martin Paul, who has led an advanced search.

-Hi.

How are you?

Good to see you.

It's been a while.

[ Chuckles ] -They're starting in an extremely remote corner of the northwest at the invitation of traditional owner Ambrose Chalarimeri.

-Wow.

Isn't that amazing?

-Wall painting, that one could be my ancestors.

People left it behind just to somebody to come and have a look.

-Not many places in the world where an aboriginal person like you can go to a site that's probably over 10,000 years old and say, "My ancestors painted that, and I'm here now."

-Yeah, yeah.

I just feel very happy inside.

-Yeah, yeah.

This reminds you that life is short but that culture is long.

-Yeah.

-[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ -The archaeological teams trek deep into Ambrose's country and are rewarded.

-You turn a corner, literally, in the bush, and all of the sudden you're confronted with something totally unexpected.

And as the only record of a human civilization in material form, it is a rare privilege.

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fantastic.

It's just beautiful.

I can't believe how well preserved these -- What do you think the animal is there on the left-hand side?

-The rock wallaby look like.

-Should we go and have a look?

-Yeah.

-It's not enough to admire the art.

The team collects fragments of the surrounding unpainted rock for laboratory testing.

-I will collect close to boomerang around that area just to determine... -And that crust under the boomerang will give you a maximum age.

-And that will be the minimum age, yes, for this group.

-The geology of the rock tells its own creation story.

-You can clearly see the paint under.

Excellent.

-Scientists use a range of techniques to measure mineral changes, helping them gauge the age of the art embedded in its surface.

-Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

-The art is rich.

It's diverse.

It changes through time, and, very importantly, it's figurative, and that does make the Kimberley of global significance.

-The team is also launching the first excavation to be carried out in this corner of the Kimberley.

-We know, looking at the art around us, that people have been here for hundreds and hundreds of generations, but here we actually have the artifacts, the occupational evidence, and this will be the beginning of that journey of peeling back those hundreds of families and generations, and this is about to start right now.

-The site immediately offers up its treasures.

-We've got this fantastic point that's been finely flaked off a blade.

It's beautifully made.

And that's incredibly sharp actually.

Would have been used for working vegetables, cutting meat.

It looks like a spear tip, but things don't always get used for what they look like.

-Fragments date from the Stone Age to the arrival of European pastoralists in the Kimberley 140 years ago.

-Here, someone has actually used glass and made a stunning little point from the glass, which can be put onto a fine spear or used as a barb.

-All of these materials come from different places, so we can potentially actually reconstruct how that one site ties into a larger network of the movement of people in the landscape.

-The volume of archaeological material across the Kimberley will take between 1 and 2 decades to collect.

Peter Veth has signed up for the long haul.

-We are literally scratching the surface.

In 5 years' time, we'll be talking about all sorts of wonderful artifacts and art bodies that weren't even thought of, let alone documented systematically, and that's going to be incredibly exciting.

I'll be doing this until I'm extremely old, but I'm sure we can get a Zimmer frame on wheels out here one day.

At the moment, it's just a Land Cruiser.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ [ Insects chirping, radio playing indistinctly ] -Back at 80-Mile Beach, the sun is not up, but the pearl divers are.

-We'll be getting in just as the sun is coming up, probably be doing our last dive somewhere around 5:00, 5:30, so we'll be doing that in the dark, as well.

-♪ We're the people of the red sunset ♪ ♪ We connect like the flows in the river ♪ ♪♪ -As head diver, it's Lee Carter's job to be prepared.

-Danger is always present underwater, so you don't know when something bad could happen.

It could happen on dive one.

It could happen on dive two.

Might not even happen today.

All we can do is be ready for it, make sure all our equipment is up and running and good to go.

-With the ocean swell, it's not the perfect day for diving.

And the wind does more than whip up the water.

-Yeah, there's two whales just on the starboard side of you.

A fair distance, but as long as they stay that distance, it's okay.

Yeah, they're just a bit more frisky when it's windy.

The breach a bit more.

They flap a bit more.

Perhaps feeling the spray they get from it, I'm not sure.

We'll have to watch out today, yeah.

-When the wind hits the ocean... whales hit the air.

They might be drawing extra oxygen into their lungs, or maybe, like the rest of us, windy weather makes them restless.

[ Whale singing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ As Peter watches, the ocean giants get closer to the boat and its divers.

-The whales are on the starboard side.

Can you just warn the divers?

Whales on the starboard side.

Can you warn the divers please?

[ Hammer clanging ] ♪♪ [ Clanging continues ] -The divers hear the warnings and the whale song reverberating through the water.

-It's good the divers know they're into, be a bit more wary.

♪♪ -Humpbacks aren't dangerous by nature, but 30 tons of whale can create terrible havoc.

♪♪ And these creatures are naturally curious.

A whale dives right near the boat.

It's unclear which direction it's headed.

♪♪ [ Alarm blaring ] The air hose alarm sounds.

It can only mean one thing.

The whale has dragged a diver, forcing him to disconnect his air hose.

Under 100 feet of water, the situation is serious.

♪♪ It's a tense wait.

♪♪ Head diver Lee Carter suddenly bobs to the surface.

With his emergency air supply, he's bailed out safely.

-You know, you react before you ever think about it.

It all happens that quick, so you just got to flick that weight belt open and release it and switch to your emergency air.

-But it's an unnerving one-of-a-kind experience.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Whenever you see a whale in the wild, a big, slow-moving, graceful animal, you don't really expect the speed and the power.

The only way I can describe it, it's like you're riding your bike one way, and you've got a rope tied onto a steam train the other way.

-While Lee recovers, the steam train chugs on, unaffected by the chaos in its wake.

It is, after all, a whale's playground, something Lee and his fellow divers understand.

The next dawn, the next dive, Lee doesn't hesitate.

-You can't do this job forever, so got to make every minute count.

Everything brings you back to this job.

♪♪ ♪♪ -620 inland, Halls Creek wakes to a beautiful dawn.

♪♪ Chopper pilot Mick enjoys a moment of quiet before a crazy day.

It's a peaceful cuppa before the bedlam begins.

[ Horse snorts ] [ Cheers and applause ] [ Horse neighs ] The annual Halls Creek Rodeo, an all-bucking all-bruising social world for station workers from across the Kimberley.

The Jubilee Downs crew are all here with their hopes pinned on Mick.

-Oh, he's right up there with the best of them.

He can win a rodeo, no worries.

-Go!

-Saddle bronc -- pitting rider against angry, unbroken horse, is Mick's favorite.

-I've always liked it, so I don't know.

It's a bit of a thrill, or, you know, your adrenaline gets up a little bit.

♪♪ -Rodeo horses are bred for their strengths and natural bucking tendencies.

Like their riders, some are better than others.

Each rider has to stay on for 8 seconds... with only one hand touching the horse.

[ Whistle blows ] ♪♪ [ Crowd cheering ] ♪♪ -Go!

-Mick is on his second ride and looking good.

One more, and he could win the day.

[ Whistle blows ] [ Cheers and applause ] -It's a good feeling.

Yeah, you know, when it's all coming together, you get a smile on your face.

[ Horse grunting, neighing ] -For the rodeo boys, it's pretty good money.

It's, you know, it's tough competition.

It's not easy to just pull off the prize money, so.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ -It's Mick's final ride.

The sweet smell of prize money hangs in the air.

His fan club is nervous.

-Good horse would be waiting for that gate.

Yeah, they're pretty high-spirited, some of them.

We hang there best we can, and they try their heart out to get us off.

♪♪ [ Horse grunting ] ♪♪ -No matter how hard he tries, this bucking bronco can't shake unmoveable Mick.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ -This is my second win for the season, so, hopefully, it continues on.

Yeah, a few sticky situations there, but it all come out well, so, yeah, no, it was good.

-For most men, this might seem the perfect time to hang up the chaps, but not Mick.

He just ups the ante.

Mick takes up the most dangerous position in the bull-riding ring.

-Stay on it, kid.

Stay on it!

Hey!

-The job of the clown is to distract a furious bull away from its fallen rider.

-It doesn't matter if you don't know the bloke.

I mean, it's your job to take the hit for the boy.

I mean, you just got to be there, step between him and the bull if you can.

♪♪ ♪♪ Their hooves just -- It's not so much the head that'll damage you.

It's if you end up underneath the bull and their feet are coming down.

That's the ones that hurt you.

-When the hoof comes down, its force is twice the animal's weight, more than enough to crush any human bone.

Which makes Mick's clown antics nothing short of heroic.

♪♪ -Hey!

I'm confident in my abilities to get around one, and you don't always get around them.

I've been jumped on and lifted 6 or 7, 8 foot in the air with them and hit hard, and keeps you nimble.

♪♪ -By nightfall, despite all his best efforts, Mick is still standing, injury-free.

-Come on, boy.

Come on!

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Whistle blows ] -Tomorrow, he'll try harder.

♪♪ -All right.

They're ready.

-Back in Kununurra, it's the start of a day Mandy has been dreading.

-Well, today, we're going to go and release these kangaroos.

My tummy, I get butterflies in it every time we do a release, just want it all to go smoothly, so it's a nerve-racking day.

-Especially when one of them is highly strung.

-Nice bottle, sweetheart.

This is Micky.

He's the one that's going to get darted today.

So, as you can see, he's a little bit nervous.

Poor little darling.

But there's no way he'd be any good in the car on his own just being free like the other ones, so, for his safety, it's going to be better to dart him.

-Eight months in Mandy's care has done little to tame him.

-He's definitely ready for release now.

I think he'll be the first one to bolt when we get there.

All right.

Let's go and get these darts drawn up, I think.

-Knowing the car trip will make Micky anxious, Mandy has decided to dart him with a tranquilizer.

-Oh, and I've started shaking already.

Hey, Micky.

Oh, Micky.

Good boy.

Good boy.

It's okay, bubba.

It's okay.

Oh, I hate that bit.

[ Laughs ] Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

It's okay, bubba.

Slow down.

-By now, Micky should be out cold.

-Different roos will react different to the the amount they get.

Micky, just accept it, darling.

Lay down.

Micky.

Might have to give him a bit more, hey.

-With Micky in danger of hurting himself, Mandy decides more tranquilizer is needed.

-Wrap him up.

He really did fight that, hey.

-Micky's survival instinct drives him to stay alert.

-Where do you want him?

-She might go in because she's so big.

-The two females, Hiphop and Babs, are easy to handle.

You're all right.

Turn that up, Joe.

-Mimicking the safety of their mother's pouch, the bags are enough to keep them calm.

-Stay there, Babs.

That's it.

We're done.

-[ Laughs ] -Bye.

-It's a 5-hour drive to the release site at Purnululu National Park.

-Yeah, it's a long trip, but the reds are worth it.

Got to be safe and happy, haven't ya?

Hey.

Oh, Mommy is going to cry already.

So, yeah.

I don't want to talk about it because I'll cry.

Hey, bubba.

Too many tears.

Yes.

-There's one roo turning the long trip into a marathon.

-Never known one to fight the drug as much as Micky.

Micky.

For God's sake.

-Micky has come around an hour sooner than expected.

-Micky, stop.

Oh.

Okay, Micky.

It's all right.

Far out.

♪♪ I don't want him to be having too much, and then he's too sleepy when we get there, you know?

-Could we put him in a bag?

-Micky needs to be fully alert when he's released.

Putting him in a mock pouch will calm him down without the need for more drugs.

-Yeah, yeah.

♪♪ ♪♪ -At last, they reach Purnululu, home to the distinct Bungle Bungle Ranges.

-It's the best place for them.

There's grass.

It's the most beautiful place, and there's so much feed.

There's water around, and there's other roos there, but not too many, so we're not overpopulating.

♪♪ ♪♪ Just, yeah, 100% the best place for them.

-The new arrivals will gradually join other mobs in the park, living out their lives in the wilderness.

-Hiphop, stop.

Here you go, Hiphop.

-Who's this?

-Hiphop.

All right.

We've done 583.

This will make it 586 roos we've released now, and it doesn't get any easier.

-No.

-It really doesn't.

There you go.

You can have a nice drink down here, darling.

-It's a big moment for the newly formed mob.

This is the first time they've smelled the bush since they were rescued as pouch young.

-Your new home, babies.

-Go, darlings.

-There you go.

Slowly, slowly.

Hiphop, slowly.

Well done, bubbas.

Well done.

-Her legs are still searching.

-All better.

You're all right, sweetie.

They're going to be fine.

Hey.

Be safe, my babies.

I love you.

[ Sniffles ] Mm.

-Micky, desperate for his freedom only moments ago, is the last to say goodbye.

-Micky, be safe, darling.

I miss Mouse.

Aw, sweetheart, just live a long and happy life, and I'll miss you.

[ Sniffles ] [ Crying ] ♪♪ The thing that motivates me is I've got a lot of love in my heart, and there's so many more animals out there that I can help.

As long as they need me, I'll be here for them.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Next time on "Outback," Life is getting hot, humid, and hard.

-If you see a croc, just stay still.

-Brave volunteers wade into croc-infested waters... -We've got to lift this net.

Lift it.

-...while others race to avert disaster.

-They're so tiny.

Oh.

-Honest John strikes gold.

-It's a nice little nugget.

[ Laughs ] -And the monsoon arrives, turning drought to flood.

-This program is available on Blu-ray and DVD.

To order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

Also available on iTunes.

♪♪ ♪♪