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Private Notes
Tim and John start their journey at Dinosaur Cove in Western Victoria to find out how the Great Dividing Range was formed. Next, they travel to the Grampians to climb Mt William, and search for gold in Bendigo. In Daylesford, John has his tarot read while Tim has a man-facial. A drive through Marysville reminds them of the extremes of this continent and the lurking dangers of natural disasters. They complete the first leg of their journey taking on Victoria's highest peak and despite being summer, cold weather, mist and torrential rain made bagging Mt Bogong a real challenge.
Tim and John bag Mt Kosciuszko, the third of their big peaks, but it is more of an amble than a climb. They 'recover' with a beer and an argument about the comparative merits of Sydney versus Melbourne. They go underground for a close-up investigation of the Snowy River Scheme and go hunting for the endangered corroboree frog. And when they get embroiled in a debate about brumbies in the high country, emotions run high. Next stop is a visit to the mysterious natural feature on top of the Divide - Lake George, which seemingly appears and disappears by magic. Down the road they visit the Bradman Oval in Bowral to discuss sporting role models with Stuart McGill, and Tim takes to the nets for the first time. In the shadows of the Blue Mountains, they take a tour of the Penrith Panthers Rugby Leagues Club to look at the social cost of gambling, and they learn a thing or two about drag racing. In the highlands, a visit to the Norman Lindsay Gallery leads to a discussion about wowserism, and a stop off at the Explorers' Tree leads Tim to declare that Wentworth, Blaxland and Lawson were over-rated! John takes Tim on a sentimental tour of his birthplace, Lithgow, and in the Hunter Valley they look at the march of coal mining and the effect it is having on agriculture, tourism and the wine industry. Next, they travel through the Northern Rivers of NSW, and fly over Mt Warning in a microlight. Safely back on terra firma, they head to Wallangarra, a tiny town that played a special role in the Federation of Australia. Last stop is Tenterfield where John performs the famous Tenterfield Address, in the room where Henry Parkes first made it in 1889.
The last episode of Two on the Great Divide is as big and diverse as the state of Queensland. Tim and John start the final leg of their epic journey atop the towering Q1 building on the Gold Coast. Next they travel north to the Mary River to look at the remarkable Mary River turtle and the Australian lungfish. In Toowoomba they join a group of retired folk in a computer class and explore the divide for those who have been left behind by technology. In the nearby Darling Downs, Tim and John join amateur palaeontologist Ian Sobbe to try and work out what killed the mega-fauna that once roamed the area. Tim is in fossil heaven! As they discover, the Downs are also the flashpoint of one of the biggest divides between farmers and those supporting coal seam gas mining. A trek through spectacular Carnarvon Gorge leads to some amazing ancient rock paintings, and a visit to the small town of Alpha shows how the mineral boom is reshaping the country. At Richmond, Tim and John join a fossil dig before crossing back to the coast near Townsville. A chat with poet Rupert McCall tries to divine the essence of being a Queenslander. Tim and John then take on their fifth big peak, Mt Bartle Frere. It's a difficult climb - as the track is ravaged by Cyclone Yasi and they have to be dropped part way by helicopter - but ultimately a fulfilling one, with views across the Atherton Tablelands and right out to the Great Barrier Reef. Then it is up over the Cape to look at mining at Weipa, and the proposed mining on the wetlands of the Wik people. The northernmost peak of the Divide is on the tiny island of Duan, just seven kilometres from Papua New Guinea. What Tim and John had hoped would be a one-hour stroll up Mt Cornwallis becomes a three-and-a-half hour slog, with some hidden dangers.
