The call of the wild

For generations of Australians, some of the most powerful lessons about the natural world around us did not come from classrooms, but from our television screens.

Long before streaming services, drones, and AI-altered reality, a handful of pioneering broadcasters packed their cameras into four-wheel drives, boats, and light aircraft, then headed to places most Australians had never seen. 

Names like Harry Butler, Ted Egan, Alby Mangels, and Steve Irwin became shorthand for a uniquely Australian storytelling tradition: practical, unpretentious, and driven by genuine wonder at the country itself. 

Butler’s In the Wild brought outback flora and fauna into suburban lounge rooms in the 1970s, while Irwin later carried that same enthusiasm – especially for crocodiles – to a global audience. 

Mangels’ World Safari films and series celebrated travel as a test of endurance as much as curiosity, and Egan used music, storytelling, and bush knowledge to bridge culture, history, and country. 

These presenters didn’t just show Australians what the country looked like; they let us know that it was there for us all to explore. 

Among the most influential were Mike and Mal Leyland, whose programs Ask the Leyland Brothers and earlier documentaries defined Australian travel television in the 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s. 

Viewers wrote in with their questions about our big country and the brothers went out and found the answers – often taking the track less travelled. 

Their journeys took them across deserts, through floodplains, and into regions that were, at the time, rarely visited by ordinary travellers. 

Their unpretentious manner, worn-out vehicles, bush camping, and problem-solving on the run were relatable and, for many of us, transformative. 

Many Australians now in their senior years trace their love of independent travel directly back to those programs. 

The modern phenomenon of the “grey nomad” – retirees setting off with caravans, campervans, or four-wheel drives to explore the continent – owes a lot to those early TV documentaries.