Sunday, September 18 at 7.30pm on Nine
Race for Survival
It’s the kind of life or death moment that makes you wonder: what would I do? Trapped in a narrow gorge, a raging fire bearing down and no escape in any direction. It’s what marathon runner Heather Scott and her fellow competitors found themselves facing when a firestorm engulfed their race in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia last weekend. Two competitors remain critically ill and three others are recovering from burns after the extreme outback challenge became a desperate race to stay alive. Hemmed in by a wall of fire, it came down to a single act of courage – defy every instinct of self-preservation and rush headlong back through the flames.
Reporter: Michael Usher
Producer: Stephen Rice, Ali Smith
School of Hard Knocks
Teenage boys are a mysterious breed. That adolescent hit of testosterone can transform your sweet little boy into an aggressive, monosyllabic stranger. In those crucial, formative years of high school, it’s easy for some boys to fall between the widening cracks in our education system. For decades now, at what may be Australia’s toughest boys’ school, Frank Dando has been picking up the pieces. Frank’s strict code of traditional maths and English combined with a gruelling exercise regime comes with a healthy dose of old-school discipline. The results speak for themselves. At 81 years of age, Frank and his committed band of teachers have never met a teenage rebel they couldn’t tame.
Reporter: Ellen Fanning
Producer: David Alrich
Sexual Evolution
Here’s an Aussie bragging right you may not be using. We invented sex! Well, at least, this is where it all started. Three hundred and eighty million years ago, living creatures physically mated here for the first time. It was Australian dinosaur hunter John Long who made this startling discovery and, we can tell you, it’s causing a revolution in evolution. Liz Hayes spent a fascinating few days with John and his team, unearthing the saucy secrets of our prehistoric past. She can report that, even in the world of paleontology, size isn’t everything.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Nick Greenaway
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