Back Roads - Season 9
Season 9
Episodes
The Great Australian Pub
In this special 100th episode of Back Roads, Heather Ewart looks at The Great Australian Pub. Our very own unique style of watering hole, the humble pub sits at the heart of many communities.
Brunette Downs, Northern Territory
Back Roads heads to one of the country's largest cattle stations, Brunette Downs in the NT. Heather Ewart discovers what makes life on this remote and rugged property so attractive and arrives in time for the Brunette Races.
Marrawah, Tasmania
Foodie and farmer Paul West packs his surfboard for a Back Roads visit to tiny Marrawah in northwest Tasmania for the legendary West Coast Classic: three days of big swells, blowing gales and woolly beanies.
Quilpie, Queensland
Heather Ewart visits the Quilpie shire in outback Queensland. With an average age of under 40, residents have transformed this former Opalopolis into a vibrant community, with a little help from Australia's biggest dinosaur.
Ord River, Western Australia
Wiradjuri woman and journalist, Rae Johnston, takes Back Roads on a water fuelled odyssey to the East Kimberley region, at the very top of WA, where the mighty Ord River is the lifeblood of the community.
Pyramid Hill and Nhill, Victoria
Nhill and Pyramid Hill lie 260km apart but are connected in the most surprising ways. These two old farming towns offer newcomers a fresh start and a fair go. Heather discovers the spin offs were surprising and unexpected.
Tennant Creek, Northern Territory
Champion Paralympian Kurt Fearnley finds a heart of gold shining brightly amongst the townsfolk of Tennant Creek. Locals are overcoming intergenerational trauma by nourishing residents with great education, art and religion.
Musical Road Trip Through Western Queensland
Heather Ewart hitches a ride with singer-songwriter Josh Arnold across western Queensland as he makes stars of local kids, teaching them how to celebrate their community by writing their own town anthem. (Midseason Final)
Strzelecki Track, South Australia (Part 1)
Back Roads returns with a journey on the Strzelecki Track, starting near Lyndhurst in SA and heading into the Strzelecki Desert. Heather Ewart witnesses a way of life on this historic track that's been unchanged for decades.
Strzelecki Track, South Australia (Part 2)
Back Roads continues the journey on the challenging Strzelecki Track, heading up to Innamincka in the top corner of South Australia. Heather Ewart finds out what it takes to survive a job on this remote and historic track.
Great South West Walk, Victoria
Guest presenter Lisa Millar takes us on a journey along Victoria's spectacular Great South West Walk. Hiking the 250km trail is a chance to connect with nature but, as Lisa discovers, the experience can also be life changing.
Walhalla, Victoria
Heather visits the sleepy Victorian mountainside town of Walhalla, on the historic Goldfields Railway. Frozen in time, with movie-set looks, a cricket pitch that defies logic, and nearby creatures straight from the Dreamtime.
Cunnamulla, Queensland
Back Roads visits Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland with guest presenter, 24-year-old Yorta Yorta man and TikTok star Tom Forrest aka 'Outback Tom'. He finds a town transforming itself from a dark past to a brighter future.
Darkan, Western Australia
Back Roads is heading to Western Australia's vast wheatbelt region, to the little town of Darkan. Deep in the golden plains of sheep country, Heather Ewart discovers how a very small community saved itself from extinction.
Boot Scootin' Tour, Tasmania
Heather Ewart heads to Tasmania with two intrepid line dancers who are on a boot scootin' line dancing tour of the nation holding 'Hoedowns for country towns', lifting spirits and raising money to help others, along the way.
Rabaul, Papua New Guinea
For the first time, Back Roads leaves Australian shores and travels to our closest northern neighbour, Papua New Guinea. Guest presenter Tania Bale introduces us to Rabaul, a community with close ties to Australia.
Recently Updated Shows
Fightland
Fightland follows a disgraced, formerly incarcerated boxing champion who returns to London to seek vengeance against the crime family he thinks betrayed him. With edge-of-seat action and populated by dangerous characters, this is a world of money and power never seen before.
On the night Duke Kilroy becomes world heavyweight champion, a vicious assault leaves his brother, Calvin, dead, causing Duke to snap and results in him spending eight years in a U.S. prison. Upon his release, and after having made a sinister discovery, Duke returns home seeking vengeance against the man he believes set him up -- the criminal kingpin and former promoter, Kingsley Marshall. But Kingsley has vanished, leaving his children and wife, Joy, who happens to be the love of Duke's life, to pick up the pieces.
Working with a cartel desperate to control London's drug market, Duke begins a high-risk game of infiltrating Kingsley's empire to destroy it from within and smoke out his enemy. But amidst a volatile criminal landscape, and competing influences threatening to pull him off course, Duke will need to channel everything that made him a champion fighter into his bloody pursuit to win the ultimate victory - revenge for his brother.
Doc
Doc centers on the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Larsen, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she's treated, colleagues she's crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away. She can rely only on her estranged 17-year-old daughter, whom she remembers as a 9-year-old, and a handful of devoted friends, as she struggles to continue practicing medicine, despite having lost nearly a decade of knowledge and experience.
Dark Matter
Hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade, Dark Matter is a story about the road not taken. The series follows Jason Dessen, a physicist, professor, and family man who – one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago – is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the multiverse of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of mind-bending realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.
