Interviews, Video & Podcasts

Podcast: Lake Ballard – Inside Australia

If you take a Turner Prize-winning artist and a remote, often-shimmering salt-encrusted expanse, and people it with 51 abstract figures cast in metal, you have one of the world’s more extraordinary visitor experiences.

“It was one of the great days of my life… It’s one of the greatest artistic installations I’ve ever seen – it’s in my very, very top ten. I think it changed my life a little bit… It’s a wonderful, wonderful experience and I strongly recommend it.” Sir Ian McKellen, speaking with Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, 22 June 2010

Sir Ian McKellen is just one of many thousands of visitors from around the globe who have ventured into Western Australia’s Goldfields to experience Antony Gormley’s INSIDE AUSTRALIA at Lake Ballard near the former gold boom town of Menzies.

Compiled and narrated by Dr Barry Strickland. Audio edited and mastered by Lee Buddle, Crank Recording.

Podcast: Bobby and the Banded Stilts

In 1995, the ABC’s Natural History Unit filmed a Banded Stilt breeding event at Lake Ballard in the wake of Cyclone Bobby. This was the first time such a breeding event had been recorded. The resulting documentary, BOBBY AND THE BANDED STILTS, was produced by David Luffman and Jeremy Hogarth, with script by Jonathan Holmes and music by Tom Fitzgerald. The narrator was Hugo Weaving, and this audio excerpt comes from the opening minutes of the film.