Whicker's World

Whicker visits Norfolk Island, a tiny piece of paradise drifting through the South Pacific where the descendents of the Bounty Mutineers live, the seamen who set Captain Bligh adrift in an open boat and returned to their Tahitian women. Today most islanders are still called Young, McCoy, Adams, Quintal, making isolated Norfolk an 18th Century storeroom of people - the way we used to be, once upon a time. They speak a unique dialect, a soft and joyful blend of West Country English and Tahitian. Their most indomitable character is Girlie Christian, 76-year-old descendant of Fletcher Christian who tells an extraordinary story. Girlie is a television original.

Norfolk Island has no taxes, and nothing that bites or stings; its pigs are fed on wild peaches, and cattle have right of way. When Whicker first visited the island ten years ago, it seemed so appealing that many viewers emigrated. He now discovers whether they are living happily ever after.

Australians like people to be ordinary, but also look favourably on those who "give it a go." In this programme, Whicker meets more unconventional characters and keeps his cool in the presence of, among others, a bikini-clad charlady, a mine owner who wears jewellery while she drills, and a professional gambler who denies he was shot in the backside.

Whicker meets a new breed of Australians: ranchers, cowboys and stockmen from Montana and Nevada, who are flocking to the remote top end of the Northern Territory. Vast tracts of land are leased to Americans, and Whicker learns more about their way of life.

Whicker finds that Australia is still a man's country. At parties, women are relegated to the other end of the room; bars and male conversations remain off-limits. Meeting some surprising women, Whicker wonders why they seem willing to accept their second-class role.

A mid-season special report. Defiant and hostile, the independent principality of Broken Hill stands hundreds of miles from anywhere in parched saltbush country. Controlled by its trade unions, it is not just a closed shop; it's a closed city, where strangers are suspect and Hillites must do as they are told, and watch what they say - or be ostracised...

Australian life is shaped by isolation. In the words of a migrant: "In Europe I used to feel, but here - nothing. There is no deep feeling anywhere." Whicker considers this observation, and in the process examines the Britishness of Australia.

In early 1970, three Aborigines sold their desert claim in Western Australia for £50. Six weeks later that stake was valued on the world's stock exchanges at £80 million. Whicker observes the effect of nickel fever in Kalgoorlie, a town where old prospectors dream of striking gold, and an elderly cook prepares to become a millionaire.