My Travel CV: I wrote the Aussie bush bible, this spot is my No.1

This filmmaker has spent a lifetime traversing the Australian bush, now he’s sharing his top spots with the rest of us.

David Batty

3 min read

December 27, 2024 - 8:40AM

Lifestyle

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The director and co-creator of Bush Mechanics, David Batty, has been shooting across Australia for more than 40 years and has written the guidebook to prove it. This is his Travel CV:

I got my first passport…

In 1980. My brother and I decided to go bushwalking in Papua New Guinea. What we encountered was as close to walking in Australia as ice skating on Mars. Near starvation, dense jungle tracks, killer mountain ranges, encounters with people who had never seen a white man, skull caves and clouds of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. We ended our month-long adventure back at Port Moresby without a cent between us, which meant sleeping under coconut trees at the airport before our flight home.

We boarded Qantas' new A220 from Sydney to Uluru

My first holiday memory is…

My father loved nothing more than spending his hard-earned breaks from the Port Kembla Steel Works taking us camping by rivers, lakes and beaches. The Shoalhaven River, Myall Lakes and Honeymoon Bay come to mind with fishing, bushwalking and just lolling about filling our days playing on the beach before a roaring campfire at night.

My favourite place in Australia is…

The far south coast of NSW. And my favourite spot here is a beach down the end of my road which shall go unnamed. Like many beaches on the South Coast, its golden sands are protected from annoying winds, the water is clear, and its surrounds are unadulterated bush. It’s also a designated nude beach, an added attraction which doesn’t always attract the attractive.

The place I’d love to visit in Australia is…

As a remote area filmmaker for 40 years and keen traveller and camper, there’s barely anywhere I haven’t been, except for one standout, Montgomery Island on the NSW south coast. There are old lighthouse buildings with accommodation and wildlife that are said to be next level.

My favourite place in Australia is the far south coast of NSW.

The place I’ve visited most often is…

Price Point north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula has been my family’s go-to spot for over 30 years and still is. Living in Broome, we would head up there and camp for a week on the cliff edge. Days were spent fishing, snorkelling, playing soccer on the beach and driving up long beaches framed by vertical red cliffs to hunt for mud crabs, then sitting around the campfire with the sun setting over the Indian Ocean.

The travel experience on my bucket-list is…

Suwarrow island, part of the Cook Islands. My great-great-grandfather was a sea captain and trader back in the 1850s and had epic adventures there. I would love to visit what is one of the most remote places on Earth.

The place that most surprised me was…

Scuba diving at the Rowley Shoals off the WA coast. The marine life is spectacular.

The place that most surprised me was the Rowley Shoals off the WA coast.

The advice I’d give to young travellers is…

Go the road less travelled. Explore the backwaters and untamed.

My holidays are mostly devoted to…

Exploring somewhere I haven’t been before. That can be a national park, a city, an island. I very rarely sit still for long. Lounging by the pool reading a book is not me.

The souvenir I always buy…

Believe it or not I’m always on the lookout for souvenir spoons. Not the plastic/resin varieties, but the silver-plated ones with enamel artwork that died out in the ’70s, only to be found in op shops and junk shops. I never pay more than $2 a spoon.

The place I’ve visited most often is Price Point, north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula.

The most interesting person I’ve met on a plane is…

Flying from my home in Broome down south I sat next to an anthropologist who had spent a few years with the Warlpiri in a remote Aboriginal community in the NT.

The best/weirdest thing I’ve eaten while travelling was...

While travelling through cattle station country in the Kimberley making the doco Rodeo Road we spent a fair bit of time hanging out with ringers. On one occasion they were de-balling bulls and roasting the testicles in a bed of coals. They’re known as prairie oysters and I found they tasted like kidney with the texture of calamari.