Interesting to observe discussion about Milton Jones driving the ute with ‘young Milton’ (4 years old) starting to learn to drive, sitting on his lap, on the first episode of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’. Travelling along a straight, private road on Coolibah Station, with his son just steering (not as if he was working the brake & accelerator and his father’s hands weren’t also ready to guide the steering wheel) it didn’t look risky to me. As risky as a suburban child eating rubbish fast food constantly and spending hours in front of screens every day? Of course not.
Which is not to suggest that child safety is not a serious issue in the bush, it is. In ‘Diamonds and Dust’ Sheryl McCorry writes about the heartbreak of her young son riding on the bullbar of a ute driven by her husband Bob, then falling off and dying. Several years ago there was a similar accident north of Richmond (north Queensland), with kids driving a ute when one hanging on the side fell off and was run over. Every parent’s absolutely worst nightmare. These vehicles weren’t travelling at a high speed, but being run over by a heavy 4wd is likely to be fatal for a child, especially.
However four wheel ‘quad’ motorbikes are the single biggest danger I ever see on cattle stations and farms. I know of children and adults that have been killed or severely injured in 4-wheeler roll-overs, which are infinitely more dangerous than 2-wheel motorbikes, due to the weight of motorbike body and relative ease in which they tip over. Seeing totally inexperienced motorbike riders racing up and down sand dunes and steep bush tracks on tourism ‘adventures’ on television makes my hair stand on end. I’m absolutely puzzled as to why riding like this is encouraged and while it is allowed on television. Even if these tourist rides are strictly controlled (though they don’t look it and a helmet does nothing to save your spine, it often only encourages a false sense of security and even more risky riding), these scenes encourage a manner of driving that could easily be deadly if replicated by someone who has no idea of how easy it is to roll a quad bike, and what happens if one ends up on top of you. It’s hello wheelchair or coffin. Yet I’ve never heard a single complaint about these televised displays of potentially deadly motorbike riding. Roll bars and seatbelts are now standard on tractors, it’s puzzling why they are not mandatory on quad bikes.
A very experienced chopper mustering pilot told me years ago that most chopper accidents he had seen over the years had happened when there was a bit of an audience on the ground or someone was standing below filming the action. Given that most chopper mustering pilots are young blokes, many of whom may find it difficult to resist the unconscious urge to add a bit of ‘flair’ to their flying (in other words, show off), just as they may be inclined to do in a car, it makes sense. The chopper mustering scenes in first episode of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ would have raised a few eyebrows in the bush, but no doubt telephoto lenses altered the perspective and gave the illusion of choppers being much closer together than they really were, and the split second editing applied to the whole show fostered the impression of the action being a lot more full on than it actually was. That said, the scene showing someone being towed on the water by a helicopter was real. If I remember rightly, CASA had something to say about that when someone was skiing behind a chopper on Troy Dann’s show, so I’m surprised to see it on TV again, years later when CASA are even stricter than before.
It will be interesting what other discussions arise as the ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ TV series progresses – no doubt there will be controversy in some circles.
Tags: Living in the country and remote areas, Image of the bush, Mustering Choppers, Coolibah Station, Keeping up with the Joneses, Australian outback TV and film