Back Roads host Heather Ewart has always had an affinity for small towns – growing up in a Victorian town of about 400 people on the Goulburn River, they’re what she knows best.
She believes the most endearing thing about small country towns is the sense of community.
“The thing is, you know they’ve always got your back in some way. There are things that can drive you mad at times as well, I suppose – sometimes people can know too much,” she laughs.
“But I think I’d rather know that you’re treasured, you’re part of the community, and that matters to everyone.”
Ewart now spends her time on some of the most isolated roads in Australia, travelling to communities off the beaten track.
In the upcoming season of Back Roads, she takes ABC viewers along the Strzelecki Track, a 475-kilometre stretch from Lyndhurst to Innamincka.
In Lyndhurst, there’s really nothing more than just a pub, a petrol station and a hotel, Ewart told The New Daily.
“It is a lonely road, and these people who live along it are on stations and are a long way from anyone else and they also have lonely jobs.
“It seems lonely, but then, when you get to know it, you realise that they don’t feel lonely or remote at all.”
Sitting on the verandah of the Lyndhurst pub, you start to notice people who frequent it. Like the mailman, who travels 400 kilometres to deliver to just a few properties, or the truckie who does the same drive, up and down the Strzelecki Track.
“We loved every bit of it, which is why we ended up extending the show too, to make it two episodes, because it was just so much material,” Ewart said.
This season, Back Roads is also taking people to Walhalla, in Victoria’s Gippsland, which is the “complete opposite” to the Strzelecki Track, and over to Western Australia for an annual sheep festival.
Viewers might get a bit of a boot-scootin’ lesson, while towards the end of the season, there’s a surprise and a first for the show.
Interestingly, Ewart takes the back roads even when she isn’t working. Soon, she and her husband are off to Europe, and she said they don’t last long in big cities.
“My husband’s a country boy as well – of course, having said that, who doesn’t want to see a place like Paris? I’m not decrying that,” she said.
“It’s just lovely getting out into the countryside, like in France, in so many of these places, anywhere in the world.”
The people you meet along the way
After several seasons of Back Roads – she has hosted the program since 2015 – it’s safe to say Ewart has met quite a few people along the way.
“One thing that you don’t always associate with shuffling around the country is some of the incredibly kind and generous characters you come across, who do these jobs people living in the cities wouldn’t even think about,” she said.
One Iraqi refugee named Fari, who delivered fresh fruit and vegetables to remote parts of Queensland, springs to mind for Ewart when asked about the people she has met filming.
She doesn’t know what people in those towns would have done without him – he would even weigh babies on his fruit and veggie scales, with many people along his route showing her photos of him doing so.
“I drove with him for quite a while and his old truck called Betsy. He said to me, ‘The reason I do this is I feel like I need to give back after Australia took me in’,” Ewart recalled.
There’s also a tale from the very first year of Back Roads, in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland.
Ewart was after a haircut – but when she asked the locals where she could get one, she was met with looks that suggested she was an “idiot”.
She was told she might be lucky enough to come across a hairdresser named Lin, who comes down every few months to cut people’s hair.
Sure enough, she found the hairdresser and to this day, Ewart is in contact with both Fari and Lin, and many others she has met along the way.
Tips for a good road trip
Fantales have always been a staple for Ewart when out filming Back Roads, along with Snakes.
“So I don’t know what is going to replace the Fantales. We’ll have to have a meeting about that,” Ewart said when asked about the news of Nestle axing the sweets.
There’s always a good playlist lined up, but the type of music depends on where they are headed, and the camera crew don’t mind putting on a bit of Monty Python.
Tweet from @heatherewart1
The crew also makes sure they have plenty of water, as it can be hard to come by in remote places.
At the last regional centre they’re at, ahead of a long drive, the team will stock up on fresh fruit and veggies.
Even with food, water and fully charged phones, there have been a few mishaps along the way. Along the Strzelecki there were three tyre punctures.
“It’s a rough track and it’s not like there are service stations wherever you look to get them patched up,” she said.
There has been illness and injuries, but that just means everyone has to adapt.
In a year’s time, there could be one more thing people want to pop in their cars when headed on a road trip – the book Ewart is working on.
She describes it as a book about road trips, which links all the towns she possibly can, inspired by meeting people on the road who have told her they are visiting the towns featured in Back Roads.
“It’s been really fun. It reminds you of how much you’ve done really and all the people you’ve come across so I’m weaving in stories. I hope people will enjoy it and take it with them on their road trips.”
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2023-07-02 12:03:48Z
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