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antipodi
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Sat May 13, 2006 10:11 am
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 Animal People : Bush Tucker Man ..Les Hiddens
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Animal People : Bush Tucker Man ..Les Hiddens..
Alot of my experience and knowledge has been gained from watching documentries of my favourite naturalists and the story of the "Bush Tucker Man " is uniquely Australian and if you dont know about him you should start looking up info on him...His name is Les Hiddens and he is an Army Man , strangely, who took it upon himself to Go Bush and learn about native foods and animals for lone survival in the Australian Outback..Here is part of his story..
The Bush Tucker Man is the television show I remember most from my high school days. During years 7 and 8, I spent many Social Studies classes learning about the Australian Outback. It wasn’t the easiest subject to learn about, given that it involved reading fairly sterile books and seeing pictures of bleak, desolate regions. Something was needed to kindle my interest in my own country.
Les Hiddens is the person who saved the day. Being an ex-Major in the Australian Army, he became known for being a survival expert. His knowledge of which plant life and animals were not only tasty, but wouldn't leave you with any bad after-effects, such as food poisoning (or death) is enormous.
This is the figure that Russell Coight’s character is based on. If you are familiar with his adventures, then The Bush Tucker Man is right up your alley. However, you need to leave your sense of humour behind, because Les Hiddens is all fact.
Les Hiddens' show, The Bush Tucker Man, was broadcast on the ABC from 1987-1990. Exploring remote regions of Australia, from the desolate deserts to bushy bushland, Les taught the average viewer what to do when stuck without food and water. Mind you, I would be eating any berries or leaves that looked edible, or any animal that is slow enough for me to catch, or would dig a hole under a tree to find water. I am sure I would have no success, and would be left to die. Unless you have a portable DVD player on hand when stranded, you would need to remember all of his teachings.
In 1996, The Bush Tucker Man was revived for an 8-part series, showing Les exploring some of Australia’s historic outback adventures, following in the explorers' footsteps and narrating along the way. From explorers with expertise in aerial expeditions, on foot, and briefly by water to some unlikely travellers who are thrown into cross-country situations, these stories are both fascinating to learn from, and sometimes unbelievable to hear about. The outback is not the easiest place to roam around in. Australia really did not have many famous explorers in its remote regions.
Here are some of his Documentary adventures
The Coffee Royal Affair
This follows one of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s flights that didn’t quite reach its destination. Crashing in the remote region of northern Western Australia, Kingsford Smith and his crew had to survive for several weeks on what rations they had, and the plant life in the surrounding area. Les shows what food they did eat, and what they should have eaten. It is all a little too late to say this now, Les.
The Cannibal Convict
On the western coastline of Tasmania, a group of convicts in the early days of Australia escape and set out through the rugged bushland, only to find that there is very little food. In the end, the episode title comes into play, leaving only one left. Les goes along the same path that these convicts did, but does not resort to eating the flesh of his camera crew. Obviously they had a feast behind the cameras, therefore cheating their way through the episode.
The Best Of Them All
A deceiving title. Right through central Australia, Les travels not only with his trusty Land Rover, but by train. Neither of these existed when John McDouall Stuart became the first person to make this trek.
The Dutch Settlement
Les claims that there is proof that Australia was not first settled by the First Fleet, but by the Dutch. This Dutch settlement became more myth than fact as Les tried proving that he is more of a conspiracy theorist, following rumours to no avail.
Gold Fever
Seeking a lost gold reef that Harold Lasseter was searching for, Les' appetite for gold gets him nowhere.
The Passionate Prussian
A journey from Toowoomba to the north-eastern areas of Northern Territory, following a fellow named Leichardt. Once again, an explorer I was not aware existed, nor made this phenomenal journey.
The Great Misadventure
Following the journey set out upon by the famous explorers Burke & Wills, Les heads from Bendigo up north to the Gulf Of Carpentaria. These explorers came so close to their destination, only to turn back and die a slow death of starvation. There are just some things that Les will not recreate, probably a wise thing.
Into The Vilest Country
Kennedy, an explorer travelling with his expedition to the northern tip of Queensland, comes to a disastrous end when he is killed by the local Aboriginals.
Les Hiddins, never saw himself as anything but a bloke who liked to amble around in the scrub, picking things up. There is a natural way about him that the camera loved. An encyclopaedic knowledge of bush foods just seemed to be something he absorbed with ease. “I like that word ‘tucker’,” he said at one stage. “It’s very Australian, and that’s a good thing.”
He has always had a preference for the Northern part of Australia, seldom venturing south of the Tropic of Capricorn. “I call it the Les Line,” he quipped. Travelling with him can be interesting, for he seldom sees himself the way others do. Stopped for a coffee at Lakeland on the way north in Cape York, some folk at a nearby table whispered audibly, “That’s the Bush Tucker Man.” A little boy comes over and asks for an autograph, and Les obliges. “That little bloke would be too young to remember the series,” and the well-known grin appears. “Must be video or something.”
That sums up the quality of the man. What you see, or rather saw, on the television is what you get in real life. The trademark hat is still there too, but it’s not the original, that’s in the National Museum in Canberra. “It might have had a couple of pups though.”
As a young private soldier Les saw service in Vietnam. He did two tours of duty, the first as a forward scout, a tough job in the infantry. Years later and well into his 50’s, the effects of those years have taken their toll. “Just about everyone who went over there’s got some sort of a problem. In the second world war they called it shell shock.”
In his camp on the banks of the Normanby River at Kalpowar, Les relaxes in a folding chair that looks like it dates back to the TV series. A light plane flies overhead. “That’s probably the Premier’s mob checking up on us,” he quips. But he’s quite serious about this project he calls Pandanus Park. The date was the 18th of August, 2003 - Vietnam Veterans Day. That morning a service was held on site, and Padre John Newman had consecrated a recently-built memorial obelisk. Les is hopeful that the Pandanus Park memorial service will become an annual event for Australian ex-servicemen.
Many things have changed since the Bush Tucker Man series went to air. But there are a few things that have remained constant. The boyish irreverence remains, as does the basic good humour. The boy from the bush who became a private soldier and rose to the rank of major has come a long way, but he’s never forgotten where he came from. He dismisses a lot of his accomplishments in typical Hiddins-style, saying, “Just goes to show they’ll let anyone be an officer.”
But those accomplishments should never be underestimated; before the show finished, he had become a household word in many parts of the world. He had also been a visiting fellow at the Durham University in England for a few months, and received an Order of Australia. There’s a wide range of books to his credit, including a series that introduces children to things about the Australian bush. The lazy smile and easy-going manner belie a formidable intellect.
Les’s latest venture is a wine label. In partnership with Chain of Ponds Winery in South Australia, he has bought out a shiraz and a chardonnay, both blended to his requirements for a nice “quaffing” wine. Not surprisingly he’s named them after prominent Cape York explorer, Edmund Kennedy. The labels tell the story behind the naming of the wines, the Bloodwood Tree Shiraz and the Pudding Pan Hill Chardonnay.
But for Les, the greatest pleasure is still pulling up beside some Top End river and chasing a barra. “Getting yourself a feed out in the bush is a lot of fun, especially when it involves fishing,” he reckons. He’s a bloke who likes his food fairly simple, but especially likes the idea of things like barramundi and mud crabs. “Every day’s a Sunday when you catch a barramundi,” he laughs.
On a more serious note, Les has claimed that getting out in the bush and doing some fishing in the Cape is more therapeutic for many veterans than “all the pills and pensions in the world”.
It is rather doubtful that Les Hiddins will shake off the Bush Tucker Man tag for some time to come. The books, videos and re-runs of the series will see to that. While travelling in Cape York, Les stops in a patch of scrub and points out three varieties of edible plants within the turning circle of his Land Rover. “The secret of bush tucker is being in the right place at the right time,” he says. “At another time you might go hungry. There’s also a lot of ‘rubbish tucker’ about.”
Real bushmen are a bit thin on the ground these days, regardless of how much the term gets thrown around.
In this bloke however, we’ve got the genuine article.
_________________
Antipodi
May one day man and Animals live together in harmony and peace
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