I like to say it's a multi-media project concieved to showcase the rarely-told stories and characters from the Australian bush, but it's really a scheme I've designed to get paid for traveling the country.

It started early in 2007 when Charles Wooley talked me into driving around the country in a campervan - The Parrot, pictured below at Red Lily Lagoon, Arnhem Land - sourcing and broadcasting stories for his (then) radio show Across Australia.

To be honest I was only lukewarm on the idea initially, having already done my share of travel as the Today Show’s wandering weatherman, but I found myself getting seduced by the whole thing - the country, living on the road, the people - and I ended up really enjoying the work, interviewing everyone I came across, from nutters and nudists to hookers and saints, as well as all the usual suspects, and gaining valuable insight into the country from the people who know it best. Hear sample interviews.

From that trip the first Red in the Centre book  and companion CD eventuated - read  sample chapters.

. . . and it was in the process of launching these on Channel Seven’s Sunrise that I suggested to the show’s EP that I could probably make television out of the same material.

So out I went again, this time in a new rig - Mother Theresa, pictured left - equipped with camera and editing gear to operate as a one-man production unit (or so the theory went).

And while I had my trials and tribulations - mainly getting my head around the technology needed to pull it off - I quickly realised this was a lifestyle that suited me: one where I could earn a living on the road, doing what I enjoyed, ie talking to people and shaping their stories into forms I could share across a variety of media.

In addition, after two trips I’d just about rendered myself unfit for polite society, so there was nothing to be done but get my own rig and get back out there. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.

So Claude’s my new traveling partner and for our first trip we plan on doing the Tablelands, the Cape, the Gulf, the Top End, the Kimberley and the Centre - or at least as much of it as I can cover before the wet sets in.

This time I’ll be shooting video segments for Australia Network and Tourism Australia, as well as working on the next stage of the Red in the Centre project, which will include not only a new book and CD of music, but a DVD of the best of the stories as well. I’d like to think I’ll have it all ready by Tamworth Music Festival in January of next year, but that might be a bit ambitious.

Meantime the first Red in the Centre project is still available right here. So do us both a favour and buy it now before I run out of stock - I’m down to my last million.

Or if you just want to keep up with my progress, check out the blog.

Cheers,

Monte