#142 - Salty Davenport: Salt Lakes, Finding Silence & Personal Adventure
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Company
Progressive
They mention Progressive, an insurance company. The ad is about getting discounts and saving money on auto insurance.
Topic
trail run
They’re talking about running on trails outdoors. It’s more about the event than cars, but it connects to the same outdoor/off-road crowd.
Concept
push bike
A push bike is just a regular bicycle. The point here is that without a car, you can only go as far as you can pedal, so trips and camping plans are much harder.
Concept
walk 40km along this coastline
They’re describing driving to a spot, then walking a long way along the coast to camp. It’s a common remote-travel approach when you can’t drive all the way to where you want to sleep.
Concept
camp the night
“Camp the night” refers to overnight camping after reaching a remote location. In 4WD and salt-lake/off-grid travel, this often implies you’re planning for things like water, shelter, and safety because you may be far from services.
Concept
surfboard
A surfboard is a large piece of gear that affects how you pack and transport equipment on trips. The mention of carrying it “inefficient ways” points to real-world vehicle loading challenges—like securing bulky items and managing space.
Concept
Cape to Cape
“Cape to Cape” refers to a long-distance route/trip concept—here, a person walking from one cape to another with a surfboard. It’s relevant because it contrasts extreme on-foot adventure with the “drive and access” approach typical of 4WD travel.
Concept
lightweight gear
Lightweight gear means using lighter equipment so you don’t get as tired. They’re saying that back then they didn’t have the kind of lighter gear people use now.
Concept
4WD Podcast
This podcast is about using 4WD vehicles to explore places that are far from normal roads. When they talk about being “out of town,” they’re usually talking about going into remote areas where a 4WD helps you get there.
Term
desert
Desert driving can be tricky because the ground isn’t always the same—sometimes it’s firm, sometimes it’s soft sand. With a 4WD, people often adjust how they drive and sometimes the tires to keep traction.
Term
Kimberley
The Kimberley is a remote region in Western Australia known for long distances, rugged landscapes, and limited services. For 4WD trips, that typically means careful route planning, carrying supplies, and being ready for changing road conditions.
Term
WA
“WA” means Western Australia. It’s a huge place, and even a short drive can take you away from the city and into quieter, more open areas.
Term
arbo
“Arbo” is likely shorthand for a local term (often used in Australia for an arborist/trees or a park-like area), but the transcript context suggests it’s a place they were at around 4 PM. It’s not a specific automotive component, but it’s part of the travel/drive narrative.
Concept
Pilbara
The Pilbara is a big, remote area in Western Australia. It’s the sort of place where you’re far from towns, so road conditions and distance really matter for a 4WD trip.
Topic
Pemberton
Pemberton is a place in Western Australia they’re mentioning as a great trip area. They’re basically saying it doesn’t get as much attention as some other nearby tourist spots.
Topic
Margaret River
Margaret River is a well-known area in Western Australia. They’re using it as a reference point to explain where Pemberton sits and why Pemberton might be overlooked.
Concept
diesel crisis at the moment or the price of fuel
If diesel gets expensive, driving farther costs more money. So people often choose shorter trips or stay closer to home to avoid spending a lot on fuel.
Concept
8 hour drive / 10 hour drive / four and a half down to Denmark
Driving for many hours usually means more fuel use and more hassle. If fuel prices go up, people tend to cut down on how far they drive and plan closer trips.
Term
troopy
“Troopy” is slang for a Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD in Australia. It’s the kind of vehicle people use for trips and camping because it’s built for rough roads and long distances.
Concept
close camping
The hosts are contrasting long-distance camping trips with “close camping,” meaning shorter drives to nearby hills or spots. For 4WD owners, this matters because it changes how you plan fuel, recovery gear, and vehicle wear—short trips can still be rewarding without the logistics of far-off travel.
Car
Suzuki Swift
A Suzuki Swift is a small car. It’s easy to drive and park, and in this episode it’s the car they used for their early trips and camping setup.
Concept
put his car on the train
Instead of driving the car all the way, someone can ship it by train. That way the car doesn’t rack up miles, and the owner can focus on the move.
Concept
camp spots at night
When you drive out into the country, you usually plan places to stop and sleep overnight. Those stops matter for safety and convenience.
Concept
swag
A swag is basically a portable camping bed. You roll it out where you’re camping and sleep in it, especially on road trips in Australia.
Term
Uber
Uber is mentioned as the transportation context for the story, but it’s not an automotive system or component. The key takeaway is that they’re using a ride as a way to observe local traffic patterns from a passenger’s perspective.
Concept
perspective
They’re saying that where you are and how you’re moving changes what you notice. It’s like how driving the same streets can feel different depending on your route or where you’re looking.
Concept
route choice / favour one side
They’re saying you naturally pick one side or one way more often. Over time, that can make you more comfortable with certain paths and less aware of others.
Car
Toyota Troopy
A “Troopy” is a Toyota 4WD (often based on the Land Cruiser) that’s built for carrying people or gear and handling rough roads. People like it because it’s tough and made for trips, not just city driving.
Car
Nissan Navara
The Nissan Navara is a pickup truck (ute) that can be had with 4WD. It’s a popular choice in Australia for people who want a vehicle that can handle rougher roads and outdoor trips.
Car
Nissan D40
“D40” is the model generation code for the Nissan Navara pickup. It’s a common 4WD ute that people choose for off-road ability and because parts and upgrades are widely available.
Term
test drive
A test drive is when you take the car for a drive before buying it. It helps you see if it feels right and if there are any obvious problems.
Company
Dunlop Volley
Dunlop Volley appears to be a Dunlop-branded product line the host used for “product shots.” The mention is more about sponsorship/marketing support than vehicle technology, but it’s part of how the trip was equipped and documented.
Company
Oztrail
Oztrail is an Australian outdoor/camping brand. The host mentions Oztrail financing and sending gear, which highlights how camping brands often support overland-style trips with equipment.
Company
Remedy Kombucha
Remedy Kombucha is a drink brand. They sponsored the trip and sent a lot of bottles/cases, so the host had to haul them in their truck.
Term
roof rack
A roof rack is a set of bars on the top of the car that lets you strap extra stuff up high. It’s useful when you’ve run out of space inside or in the bed.
Concept
community perception of modified/unique 4x4s
They’re talking about how people in the 4x4 world react to your truck. Some folks get excited because it looks cool or unique, while others judge it. The host is saying that once their Troopy build started getting attention, people’s opinions became a big part of the story.
Term
sponsors
“Sponsors” here likely refers to brands supporting the build or the host’s activities, often in exchange for visibility, content, or event participation. In 4x4 culture, sponsorship can accelerate upgrades and help fund parts, travel, and maintenance. The host connects sponsorship timing to when the Troopy build started.
Concept
forever upgrading
They’re talking about constantly adding changes to their 4WD. Each upgrade can make the vehicle better for trips, but it can also change how it rides, so they’re trying to keep the same comfortable feel they liked before.
Company
Superior Engineering
They’re talking about a company that makes aftermarket off-road parts. The idea is that the parts they installed are built to handle rough driving better than stock components.
Part
diamond diff housing
A differential is part of the drivetrain that helps the wheels turn at different speeds. A “diff housing” is the protective casing around it, and a stronger one is meant to keep the diff from getting damaged when you hit rough ground.
Concept
track correction
Track correction is about making sure the wheels sit and line up correctly. When the wheels are set up right, tires wear more evenly and the drivetrain doesn’t get forced to work harder than it should.
Term
offset tyres front and back
They’re saying the tires on the front and back aren’t set up the same way. That can be useful for clearance and grip off-road, but it usually means you can’t rotate tires like you would on a normal car.
Term
tyre rotation
Tyre rotation means swapping your tires around so they wear more evenly. If you don’t, one set of tires can wear out faster and grip can get uneven.
Concept
rooftop tent
A rooftop tent is a tent that you mount on top of your vehicle. It lets you sleep up high instead of camping on the ground, but it makes the vehicle taller and can affect driving.
Concept
roof conversion
A roof conversion is when you change the way the roof is set up for camping gear. You want it mounted safely and sealed well so it doesn’t leak or loosen over time.
Concept
center of gravity
Your car’s center of gravity is basically where its weight “balances.” If you add something heavy on the roof, the car feels less stable because it’s harder to keep it balanced.
Company
James Barude
James Baroud (spoken as “James Barude”) is a brand known for rooftop tent systems and related accessories like awnings and tunnel-style add-ons. The segment suggests they’re providing a replacement “new model” and that the speaker has multiple compatible pieces.
Term
awning
An awning is like a small roof you can pull out to block sun or light rain. It helps you stay drier and more comfortable while you’re outside the tent.
Term
lift up hatches
A “lift up hatch” is a cover or panel that opens upward. In this case, it sounds like the rear area is set up so you can open the panels to reach storage.
Term
side steps
Side steps are the little steps along the side of the vehicle. They make it easier to climb in and out, which is handy on bigger off-road cars or when you’re getting in and out a lot.
Term
600 mil
“600 mil” usually means a 600mm camera lens. It helps you zoom in on something far away, but you have to set it up carefully so the picture doesn’t shake.
Concept
pre-drone filming setup
They’re talking about how, before drones, you couldn’t just fly a camera over. You had to drive to the location, set up a tripod, and use a long lens to get the shot.
Term
tripod
A tripod is a stand that holds the camera steady. With zoomed-in shots, even small shakes can ruin the image, so a tripod helps a lot.
Term
long lens
A “long lens” is a zoomed-in camera lens for far-away subjects. It makes distant things look closer, but it’s harder to keep steady and focused.
Term
passing shot
A “passing shot” is video of the vehicle going by the camera. The goal is to time it so the car moves through the camera’s view smoothly.
Term
drive shot
A “drive shot” is footage where the vehicle is actually moving. It’s meant to show what the car looks like while it’s going.
Concept
pivot the drone
“Pivot the drone” means turning the drone around so the camera keeps pointing at the moving car. It helps keep the car in the video frame.
Term
converter
A “converter” here is basically a way to make the vehicle move slower but with more pulling power. That’s helpful when you’re stuck in rough terrain and need careful control.
Term
reverse back
The repeated instruction to “reverse back” and “cross reverse back down here” points to a common recovery technique: backing out to re-align the vehicle’s angle and regain traction. In soft or uneven terrain, reversing can be safer than forcing forward because it helps you avoid digging in and lets you reset your approach.
Concept
low range / low wide
“Low wide” means you’re using a gear setting that makes the car crawl instead of go fast. It helps you drive slowly and smoothly over tricky ground without losing control.
Term
rock slide
A rock slide is when rocks have moved or fallen, leaving the ground messy and unstable. On a small vehicle, that kind of surface can make it hard to grip and stay upright.
Term
bogged
“Bogged” means the vehicle gets stuck in soft ground (like mud, sand, or loose dirt) and can’t move forward under its own power. It usually happens when traction is lost and the tires/suspension can’t find a firm surface.
Concept
doing all your own stunts
“Doing all your own stunts” means the rider did the risky parts themselves, not someone else. It suggests they were really out there handling the situation while making the video.
Car
Vespa
A Vespa is a small scooter (made by Piaggio). It’s the kind of vehicle people use for fun and quick rides, and it can be handy for carrying a little camping gear.
Concept
packing gear that fits under the seat
Some scooters have storage under the seat. That means you can only bring what fits there, so you pack light and keep the essentials.
Car
Mini Cooper
A Mini Cooper is a small car made by Mini. Here they’re talking about using it like an adventure vehicle by adding roof racks and a rooftop tent so you can sleep on top instead of inside.
Term
bitumen
In Australia, “bitumen” usually means regular paved road surface (asphalt). It’s not dirt or sand, so it’s smoother and more predictable underfoot.
Term
big jack
A “jack” is a tool used to lift a vehicle off the ground so you can change a tire or do roadside repairs. In remote travel, having a reliable jack and the right lifting points matters because you may need to get the vehicle up on uneven ground.
Concept
journey pieces
“Journey pieces” sounds like making posts or stories about the trip as you go. That can affect how you plan your drive and what you bring, since you want to be able to keep going and still capture the experience.
Part
bullcatcher
A bullcatcher is a heavy front guard on some 4x4s used where animals can run onto the road. If a bull hits the vehicle, the guard helps push it up or away instead of smashing into the front.
Car
Toyota Land Cruiser
They’re talking about Toyota Land Cruisers—tough 4x4s that people use in remote areas. Here, it’s being used as an example of the kind of vehicle you’d see in cattle/bush country.
Concept
flat stick
“Flat stick” just means the road/ground looks flat and you’re driving along normally. The point they’re making is that even when it seems easy, something can jump out of the bush and cause trouble fast.
Concept
bull comes out of the bush from nowhere
This describes a common remote-driving hazard: wildlife or livestock can appear suddenly from vegetation, with little warning. It highlights why off-road setups (like protective front guards) and cautious speed selection matter in cattle/bush regions.
Concept
crocodile
The speaker suspects a crocodile is responsible for missing cattle, which reflects how local wildlife risk can shape rural travel and search behavior. For 4x4 travelers, it’s a reminder that “off-road” risks aren’t only mechanical—they’re also environmental.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a pickup truck, meaning it has a cargo bed for carrying tools or gear. Some Rangers come with 4-wheel drive, which helps when roads are rough or slippery. It’s often used for trips where you need a reliable vehicle and space for equipment.
Concept
caked our cars
They mean the cars got covered in a thick layer of grime. That kind of buildup can make it harder to see and can also interfere with how the car works if it gets into places it shouldn’t.
Concept
potholes
Potholes are holes in the road that can jolt the car and reduce tire grip. If the road is also slick, hitting them can make the car slide more easily.
Concept
ice skating (slick surface)
They’re saying the ground got so slick that the tires couldn’t grip, so the car slid sideways like it was on ice. It can happen quickly when a little moisture or clay changes the surface.
Concept
sliding
Sliding usually means the surface is too slippery for your tires (or feet) to grip. When that happens, you can’t steer or slow down the way you expect.
Concept
grip in the tread
Tread is the textured pattern on tires. If the surface has “grip,” it means your tires can bite into it instead of sliding around.
Concept
ice or snow
Ice and snow make the ground slick, so tires can’t grab as well. That means stopping and turning take more care and more distance.
Term
offshore stuff
“Offshore stuff” refers to boating activities done farther out from shore, where conditions can be rougher and navigation becomes more demanding. For listeners, it’s a clue that the vessel needs to be capable of handling open-water conditions.
Term
stabby craft
“Stabby craft” is slang for a boat that feels stable and steady underway. In practical terms, it suggests a hull design and weight distribution that reduce excessive rocking or wandering, which matters more when you’re offshore.
Term
5 metres
A boat length of “5 metres” helps listeners gauge size and capability. Smaller boats are often easier to launch and retrieve, but they may be more sensitive to waves and wind than larger offshore-capable craft.
Concept
beach launch and retrieve
This is when you put the boat in the water from a beach and take it back out the same way. It’s different from using a normal boat ramp, and it can be trickier because the water depth and sand conditions change.
Car
Ford Expedition
The Ford Expedition is a large SUV made for carrying people and gear on longer trips. It’s typically used when you need more room than a smaller SUV. Many versions are also set up to tow, which can help when bringing equipment.
Concept
salt lake
A salt lake is a place where the ground and water have a lot of salt. Salt can be rough and corrosive, and the surface can be tricky to walk or drive on, especially if it’s crusty or uneven.
Topic
Lake Ballard
Lake Ballard is the specific place they went camping at a salt lake. In this segment it’s mainly part of the personal story and setting.
Concept
gravel car park
A gravel car park implies loose surface traction and potential for stones to kick up. For off-road or 4WD travelers, that affects tire grip, braking distance, and how safely you can park without getting stuck or damaging underbody components.
Concept
camp next to the car
Camping next to your car is convenient, but it means your vehicle is right next to the environment you’re dealing with. In places like salt lakes, that can increase the chance of salt getting on the car and making things rust faster.
Concept
reflective surface
When the ground is reflective, it bounces light back at you. That can make colors look more intense—especially near sunset when the light is softer and angled.
Concept
camp on these things
Camping on a salt lake can be tricky because the surface might be firm or might be unsafe. The important idea here is checking that it’s “rock solid” before you walk out or park.
Concept
flies never seem to make it out there
They’re saying there aren’t many flies around, which makes the place feel quieter. The environment out there can be tougher for insects than nearby areas.
Topic
Burning Man exists
They’re comparing the vibe of camping on salt flats to Burning Man, which is famous for being held in a desert and for people camping out for the event. The point is that the open, unusual landscape changes the whole experience.
Company
Tough Dog
Tough Dog makes off-road suspension parts, like shocks. They’re meant to help your vehicle ride better on rough dirt roads and trails.
Topic
Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog is a remote island in Western Australia that people often visit with 4WDs. Because it’s far from help and services, trips there usually require extra planning.
Company
DJI
DJI makes drones and camera gear. People use it to film from the air and get steady, high-quality shots while exploring.
Company
Simrad
Simrad makes electronics for boats. Their gear helps you navigate and find fish using sensors and displays.
Term
trolling motor
A trolling motor is a small electric motor for slow, controlled movement on a boat. It’s commonly used for fishing so you can stay on target without going fast.
Company
BCF
BCF is a store where you can buy fishing and boating gear. The speaker is saying they got the trolling motor there.
Concept
holding position against wind and currents
They’re talking about keeping the boat in the same spot while wind and water push it around. The motor helps cancel those forces so you can fish in one area.
Term
60 horsepower
Horsepower is basically how strong the engine is. If you go up to more horsepower, the vehicle or motor usually feels like it can move more easily, particularly when you’re carrying weight.
Concept
snow laden cars
“Snow laden” just means the cars are covered in a lot of snow. When that happens, it can make driving harder and you may need to clear the car and be careful about traction.
Concept
single set of footprints
They’re describing how only one person’s tracks were visible, which suggests the area was really quiet and mostly untouched. It’s a way of showing how isolated they were.
Concept
cold-weather camping gear limitations
They’re talking about how the wrong sleeping bag for the temperature can leave you freezing. When you’re cold enough, it can be hard to move or even get out of your setup.
Car
Morgan Plus 4
The Morgan Plus 4 is a sports car made for driving for fun rather than everyday practicality. It’s known for its traditional look and a more old-school feel. People mention it when they’re talking about what kind of car suits a certain driving style or mood.
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Righto, welcome back to the Fuller Drive podcast.
Powered by Typer, recording in the Bad Jax Studios built by Grounded.
I just saw a massive bit of spit at the spit bubble just before.
I was hoping the camera doesn't catch that.
I'm using one of the Southern River Band with Let It Ride.
Get on to us on the socials, theforwarddrivepodcast.com.au, to buy the new merch,
which Jayden apparently has gifted me with a jumper this week.
Yeah, but I just tried to put it on and I think it's an extra small, so I don't think it'll fit you.
OK, that's fine.
We can go back to the drawing board for that.
Sorry, mate.
Typer, tough dog, thank you for your sponsors.
Now, mate, we've got a guest sitting across from us that we have been talking about getting in here since episode one of this podcast.
Yeah, the beginning.
He's been...it's only taken three years, roughly.
Yeah, for three and a half, three and a half.
Not bad. It's not bad.
Considering this man does a lot of work away, but I feel like it's probably on us that we haven't...
No, let's blame it on him.
Salty, it's your fault that we haven't got you on, mate.
Thank you.
Welcoming Salty Davenport to the podcast, mate.
Thank you, boys.
How are you going?
Thanks for having me.
Well overdue.
Well overdue.
Covid on it anymore.
No, we can't.
He's been knocking at the door, just trying to get on for all this time.
How are you, mate?
Going alright?
I'm going well.
I'm going well.
It's coming in the good season of getting warmer up north, the cold down here.
So I start to pack up the car and the boat and plan where the hell I'm going.
Head north.
Yeah, that's about what you want to do, actually.
Yeah, it is what I want to do, but unfortunately I'm stuck here.
Stuck in this chair.
Yeah, yeah.
Just working away.
Mate, for those that don't know, you'd probably a lot do that listen to our podcast.
Do you want to give a quick overview of just who you are and what you do?
Just before we get into a little bit of how you got there, just so everyone knows who
we're actually talking to and what we're talking about.
Do you want to give everyone a quick overview of that?
Sweet.
Yeah, I guess just a bloke that loves to travel and explore and see how far I can push things.
I've got a troopy, had a couple of dogs and started out on YouTube for might have been
10 years ago now.
YouTube's kind of fallen by the wayside a little bit lately with work, but for me it
was always about just trying to document things and learn about where I was going and forcing
myself to learn because I'd film myself doing it and use that as a memory as to where I'm
going, why I'm going there and how special it really is.
That's what got me into it and got me to where I am today was just going out and curious
about where I was going and filming it.
Then the audience seemed to respond and love following it.
That work that you're speaking of is as a freelance photographer?
Yeah, it's probably more film these days.
Photos are a bit of a dying art with everyone needing something, a hook within three seconds
to catch your attention.
So more documentary style filming these days and photos are there to accompany it.
Take us back to the start.
So growing up, where did you grow up first and foremost?
Little town called Wickapun in the wheat belt.
So Albert Fasey was from, so I didn't ever know about Albert Fasey when I was living
there.
It wasn't until my mate from Hawaii came over and we were surfing up north and I told
him where I'm from and he's like, Albert Fasey?
What?
I was like, how do you know about Albert Fasey?
He's like, yeah, a fortunate life.
I was like, geez, I need to do some research on where I'm from.
Have you read that?
No.
It would be my favourite book of all time.
Really?
I've read it twice.
Highly recommend.
And I'm not a reader.
It's incredible.
Incredible story.
So Wickapun grew up on a farm?
Yeah.
Wheat and sheep farm, big skies, 7000 acres, just the ultimate place for a kid to grow
up.
It's like, what do I want to do today?
Like, sweet, go out and get on the motorbike or I'll go sift through the old, old hundred
homesteads on the farm and look for old bottles or coins or go chase some sheep around or
get the air rifle and shoot some targets.
It was ultimate freedom.
And I guess that's what's kind of stayed in my blood since then.
Yeah.
So for those, like Wickapun, what's that, a couple of hours?
Two hours, Easter Perth.
Yeah.
And so it has, I mean, the adventure lifestyle that you probably live now, I want to call
that, which I reckon it would be in all facets of your life, almost the way you like to camp,
travel and your work.
Has that been, has that sense of adventure always been you from a young age, like getting
out on the farm and just seeing what there is to do?
Has that always been something that's been in you or has that grown over time?
Yeah.
I think, I think there might have been a pause when we, the parents split up, we moved to
Sandra.
And then like slowly moved our way up to Perth over 15 years.
Yeah, okay.
But in that 15 years, I think there was, you know, adventures didn't really happen because
you didn't have a car, so you got to push you or something and you could get around.
But it's only as far as you're willing to ride the push bike.
But yeah, it wasn't until I finally had a car again or had a car and then I could go,
okay, like, I want to go down south and park the car up and I want to walk 40km along this
coastline and see where I can camp the night and try and catch a fish.
But I also carried my surfboard like, yeah, it was really inefficient ways.
Carried everything.
Yeah.
I think Wilcox just did, Jacob Wilcox just did something recently where he walked the
Cape to Cape with a surfboard.
I was like, man, I did that like 10, 15 years ago.
And with a fishing rod.
But it was with a massive swag.
Just stupid.
Yeah.
You know, there wasn't any lightweight gear then.
So yeah.
Yeah.
So that's kind of where it started.
Yeah.
Right.
So what age would you have been roughly when like the, like move to the beach or Mandra
start to sort of experiment the ocean a little bit more as well?
Cause I'm sure it was quite hard from Wikipedia.
Oh yeah.
It's difficult.
Yeah.
There's no waves in the dam.
And there's no sharks in the dam either.
Yeah.
Probably started to get into like surfing and all that still playing 40 a heat in Mandra.
And that was from seven till 15.
Yeah.
And then moved up to Perth.
Yeah.
But yeah, it was, it was that, that time around Mandra, secret harbor, then up to Perth that
that's, I think that's where the adventure slowly started to creep back in and that desire
to just get out.
Yeah.
I mean always, you know, I was always the kid that like slammed the door.
I'm just going to run away.
Yeah.
I probably would have if I could.
Which direction?
Get on the bike.
Don't go too far west.
I'm a country boy.
Like I didn't even know how to catch a bus.
That's gold.
Do you, this is jumping ahead a little bit.
So we don't need to go into too much depth doing what you're doing now in your life.
Did you ever think at the age of 12 or 15 down in Mandra that that was going to be where
you were?
No chance.
I hadn't really picked up a camera.
A camera than either.
So I think once I found a camera, I just enjoyed it and it was a hobby, but I didn't think
I'd ever make money from it.
And even now it's still like a pinch myself moment, you know, like when I look around
like the house or the troopy or the boat knowing that that's all come from looking through a
lens.
It's still feels pretty good.
But I think originally I wanted to be a vet or a zookeeper.
I think a zookeeper probably has a lot of children did.
Take care of the best animals.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So when did you pick up a camera then?
I got gifted a camera.
Two megapixel Kodak.
And it was a lot.
Do you?
Sorry.
Do you remember your first camera?
Because you're you're quite a Canon EOS something.
I think.
I just find that cool.
Like first DSLR camera, then like obviously those little waterproof cameras that you get
like when you were when you were younger, you know, those ones.
The disposable.
Yeah, the disposable ones.
Yeah.
24 shots and then that they use at weddings now.
Yeah.
They're bigger weddings now.
They've come back.
That's what's keeping Kodak alive.
It's just weird.
It's just weird when they're disposable cameras.
So I can't even I just love that like you're like you remember that first camera that you
you were gifted like that's so cool.
I still remember I still remember the shots, you know, and you know, the screen was like
this big and it was there's no zoom or anything.
It's just take the photo and that's it.
But you know, if you were to put that on a on a normal screen now, like, you know, it's
resolutions like here and zoom in, then you'd actually see massive pixels.
Not every good photo.
Did that like, did that teach you how to be good at framing and that kind of photography
because you can't adjust the zoom.
You can't adjust anything.
It's just point and shoot.
Yeah.
Maybe you had a frame.
Maybe because I've always been one not to get like the lens that you can a 24 to 70
mil, for example, we zoom in, zoom out.
I've always been one to now like to run around and find that frame with a fixed lens and
maybe it was because of that.
Yeah.
Maybe I don't know.
Yeah.
No, because I'm similar.
I love a prime lens over like a zoom lens.
Much prefer the prime lens.
I don't know why I think it's just like you don't have to do anything with the zoom.
It's just what you see is what you get.
Get your focus.
I like that a lot.
Aperture and then that's it.
Yeah.
Just set it and then you're good.
I thought that was really good.
So was that we were talking off air about your passion for footy growing up.
You thought you were going to be a footy player.
You wanted to be a footy player.
100% man.
I remember.
I remember writing down, I think it was 12.
I think it was 12 and I think Ben cousins had just been signed as like a 17 year old.
And so I was like, I was like, well, this is me.
Like sweet.
I've only got five years to go.
Right.
And I remember writing on a bit of A4 paper all the dates like every month and every day
in it for five whole years and then starting to cross them off.
And it was until I play AFL at the top.
And so I had written out 365 days, five times and I was just slowly starting to cross them off.
That's awesome.
I love that.
And then, yeah, I was legit.
It was, Ballas and I were playing together at Bell Davis.
Yeah.
We were always ruck over a wing and just kind of change.
I mean, he was always, he was always like destined.
You could see it.
I knew I'd have to work a bit harder.
But yeah, it was always him and I kind of jump in between like best games and.
Wow.
But yeah, he was special.
I remember the amount of times he used to just get flattened.
Like when we play certain teams, they just line him up from miles away.
Yeah.
Was he always like quite small as a teenager as well?
Always small, but he was already doing the full side steps and spins when we were 15.
Yeah.
Cut above.
Yeah.
That's pretty.
I didn't know that actually.
Was he all due respect to Ballas?
Was he under the skin sort of type of operator back then too?
Oh yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
That was a couple of times.
We had to like grab some jumpers and we thought we're going to punch on.
That's go boy.
So what kind of player were you on the field?
You get a bit of white line favor yourself?
100%.
Yeah.
Get on the field and just like.
Oh man.
I just, I've always had like kind of one hand in the fire and the other foot on the accelerator.
Like just.
Yeah.
Go.
It doesn't take much.
Working on it these days.
But yeah, on the footy field, I was just like, yeah.
Were you, yeah.
Cause you're quite tall.
Were you tall as a teenager then too?
Not overly.
I think I was like for my, for my age, I was like, yeah, a bit above average.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
But I was always wing or ruck over.
A bit of running in you.
Yeah.
A lot of running.
Yeah.
Okay.
Loved it.
Bit of tank.
So the footy, this was off there as well.
So when you sort of discovered the ocean, fishing, surfing, maybe the camera at the same time.
I'm not sure what, what was the sort of reasons for like now going to chase a different dream?
Cause there was, you said there was a bit of a lawn moment where it was like this.
Yeah.
Anymore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We just got, just got like called into the Peel Development Squad.
Yeah.
And I'd also found, we'd moved to the coast, moved to Mandra and I've found surfing.
And yeah, it got to a point where I saw a couple of mates get injured and we're like,
you know, out for five, six months.
I was like, I don't want that to be me.
Like I can't surf with a busted knee or a busted ankle or broken ribs.
So I was like, nothing, I'm done with footy.
I'd rather get barreled and, you know, chase little adventures down the coast or up north
and kick a footy around.
But then, you know, I see you and what we're chatting about before, how you're inspired
by what I do.
But I'm like, man, what I would have done to play footy.
Yeah.
For context, we were sort of saying, because Salty was explaining what he's got coming up
in the next four weeks.
And I was like, I had his the sickest thing the whole time.
And then we were just comparing because obviously my job in the real world is to play.
It was not even the real world.
I wouldn't have called it, but the real world.
There is in the fake world.
You just kind of play with everyone more so than what I do.
So it's just, it's, yeah.
The job outside of this is very cool.
It is.
I think we all have that saying that you probably sometimes want what you don't have in a way.
Yeah, grass is always great.
I haven't been able to do that stuff.
One, because I'm not talented at any of that.
You're a great editor.
Yeah.
I'm working on that.
One day he will be.
I used, I touched a dial before.
That was pretty cool.
You did.
That's just volume in the headphones as well.
I think comparison can be the face of joy with that.
So yeah, don't, don't, don't sound me short, mate.
No, I'm not, mate.
I'm building, yeah.
It's dark, but anyway.
You've got laughter in front of you.
Yeah.
My job is cool, but I do think what Salty's doing at the moment is pretty, is very pretty sick.
Which is great.
Growing up in WA, is that been like a bit of that like platform for you?
Do you reckon?
Like do you, this is more get around WA right now because I know you love it.
And I've seen it moving over here as a 18 year old and living my 20s here and just,
there is so much on offer for adventure, surfing, fishing, all of that stuff that we're into
probably in the year.
Best state, Togo?
It will go easy there.
We'll just, we'll let Salty describe WA for us, but like growing up here, is that been
a massive part of you as well.
And because you've seen the world now through this lens.
So has that helped?
I think WA, there's a reason, it's so like, you know, there's a reason why I think people
are different in WA, like in a good way.
And you know, we're so remote.
We're so cut off from the East Coast where every state is only just around the corner.
Yeah.
You know, to get to our borders like two days drive.
Yeah.
It's true.
It's wild.
It's wild.
And you know, with old Mark McGowan, you couldn't leave anyway.
People couldn't come in.
So we really were on our own.
You trapped it.
Yeah.
Couldn't do anything.
It's pretty good in here.
It was nice.
Very good when you're here.
Not great when you're here.
But I think, yeah, just having, you know, we've got everything but snow, you know, and maybe
rainforest.
But, you know, you've got the desert down South, you've got the desert up North, you've
got incredible beaches, you've got surf, you've got the Kimberley.
We do have rainforest.
Yeah.
Kimberley up North.
Every kind of dangerous animal is here.
Yeah.
In somewhere in WA.
You've got the inland deserts and the great sandy desert, the little sandy desert, all of
that here.
I mean, what's not to, it's in your blood, you know, it's, you can't escape it unless
you're just in the city 24 seven.
Right.
As soon as you get out, you're like, okay, I see what WA is about.
And I see why people love it.
And you've got, you know, Margaret River.
If you chase some waves, I find every time I go into the desert or up into the Kimberley,
I just feel like I'm at home for some reason.
It just, it's just like this big breath out.
I'm like, I'm meant to be here.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Don't know what it is.
I feel it even probably more than I do going back to the farm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's interesting that I've loved about WA and I probably, I didn't exactly grow up in
Melbourne.
So it probably suited me as well coming over here to live what was in the city, but any
direction 40 minutes, I feel like I'm out of, you know, out of town.
Yeah.
Okay.
There's actually some fresh air, some, some trees, some like some animal life around.
And it's just, I don't know.
I love that about WA because it's like that easy.
I can be gone.
And if it's for two hours, that sometimes is all you need, I reckon.
Even just two weeks ago, we had not much on.
It was four PM in the arbo.
Little fella needed to go down for a sleep.
It was like, let's just throw him in the car, drove to the zig zags, drove down those
with the wicked view back of the city.
And you just, you're in amongst like, it was literally just 25 from home.
This is a great spot.
That's not far away though.
Nah.
And I was just, I just love that about WA and then you've got 10 hours away, 20 hours
away.
And you're still in WA.
You're in your state.
It's like, it's, it's amazing.
And I think that's like my favorite part I've ever seen is the Pilbara, which is like where
Jaden's grown up.
I just love that.
That is so unassuming through that, through that region, which I've found a lot of WA.
I've been thinking about that lady that asked about her trip last week.
Going down south.
Yeah.
And you compare Pemberton and Manjimup and Nanup and those areas down there to some of the,
some of those places in Victoria that you get that along the coast and stuff like that.
But we've actually got that too.
Yeah.
It's so, no one's really talking about Pemberton because it's not that far from Margaret River
or from Denmark or Albany, but.
Under a spot though.
Yeah.
We could spot.
There's so much variety here, which I've loved.
I agree.
And it's not that far away.
Yeah.
If you don't want to go and do those bigger, longer trips.
What's kind of forced me out with that, the whole diesel price at the moment.
I mean, I still,
Oh, glad you brought it up.
So I was going to ask you something.
I don't have a diesel sponsor.
I'm not Ronnie.
Does he still have that?
I don't think he's got it anymore.
I think I'm starting to think that'd be real in that back.
That whole diesel crisis at the moment or the price of fuel,
that really forced me to just look a lot closer and look just in the hills.
And, you know, cause I've always been one for, oh, you know,
let's do an eight hour drive.
Let's do a 10 hour drive.
Let's do four and a half down to Denmark and we'll stay there for one night
or two nights and come back.
And, you know, in a troopy, it really adds up pretty quickly,
especially once you put in forward driving and that as well.
And so, yeah, forced me to look a little bit closer.
And so the last two weeks, I've had three camp nights in the hills
and just like found beautiful little spots to myself.
Still feels like you're 400 Ks away.
And then it's, it's almost an hour door to door.
Yeah.
All right. This is great.
It's 80 bucks return in the troopy.
Yeah.
Perfect.
That is good.
That's the thing I don't think I've done enough of is the close camping in Perth.
Like I was the same as you.
I just go eight hours away, 10 hours away.
I'll go to Denmark or like as far away as the city from the city
as I can possibly get, but I don't explore the hills or things that are close
nearly enough.
Well, I've got a little spot then for your little on the road chat as well.
Next time you want to do it and you have like one night free.
Yeah.
Great spot.
Yeah. One hour.
Done.
Yeah.
And it's all, it is all you need sometimes too, isn't it?
Yeah.
Actually, we just need to complain that we don't get out enough.
I know.
But it's like, you can leave the house at three or four.
Yeah.
You can be back at, if you need to be, you can be back in the morning.
Yeah.
For breakfast.
Yeah.
I'm back at like nine, nine thirty.
Yeah.
Because, you know, camping you're up at five, five thirty anyway.
Have a cuppa, a lot of fire, cook brekkie on the fire.
Yeah.
And then you're done at seven.
You're like, oh, might as well beat traffic.
Yeah.
And you camped under the stars.
I got that.
Yeah.
I just had one of the all time times.
All time nights.
All time times.
All time times.
Well, I know.
All time times.
Really?
Have you got something to go to on that?
Well, I was just going to say, what was your first trip?
What was your first adventure that kind of got you going?
Like whether it was with your parents or family trip or by yourself,
what was the first thing that kind of got you hooked on adventuring and camping
and that lifestyle?
I think we didn't really camp.
Like when you're on the farm.
You got the farm.
You're on the farm anyway, right?
And then we're in Mandra.
My mum used to take us.
There's a tiny little Suzuki Swift.
My two brothers and I and our 80 kilo Rottweiler.
Right?
The Rottweiler would always have the front seat because it was the biggest.
Yeah.
Right?
Which is fair.
So three of us boys.
That's a huge Rottweiler.
Three of us boys.
One tent in the back.
I don't know.
Whatever mum was bringing us to eat.
I don't think we had a cook or anything like that.
And then the massive Rottweiler in the front.
We always used to get laughs because people would see my mum and then this massive dog
sitting up in the seat.
Like, you know, seatbelt on.
And then us three in the back.
Man, I don't know what we were feeding it.
But if that one let one go.
We're stuck.
And there wasn't windows in the back of the Suzuki Swift.
It's all the air is going back.
It's like, you know, kids faces on the windows.
That's the old help sign.
Yeah, please.
So many looks.
They were kind of my earliest memories of camping.
But I don't think they inspired me.
It doesn't sound very good.
No, that's not inspiring.
I'd almost quit camping off that.
That was more like dwelling up.
Like just in those conditions.
Yeah.
But I think it was my mate.
My mate, Pitchie, he just moved over to Sydney.
And he was kind of chasing a dream over there.
And he was going to put his car on the train.
And it was going to cost him 800 bucks.
And I said, man, I'll just drive it over for you.
And he was like, oh, you serious?
I'm like, yeah, yeah.
I was just nothing to do like.
Wicked boat.
Yeah, I'll just drive it over.
I thought you just pay for fuel and anything I spend on
like food or anything.
And he's like, all right, sweet.
So I just drove it over.
And I got over there in like three and a half days.
But just still that time in the car and looking out the deserts
and the few camp spots at night and how silent they were
and known around.
I think that was the inspiration.
I remember pulling up just off the side of the road.
And I woke up in the morning.
I just hopped out of the swag.
And it was like, you'd kind of put your hands on your ears
like that.
But I could see as far as I could see.
And there wasn't a single sound.
But it was like I was in the sound booth.
Yeah, right.
And I was like, this is what people must talk about
when they talk about like real silence
or on the top of the mountain, that kind of silence.
I was like, I've never experienced anything like it.
I think that might have been one of the key moments.
Yeah, right.
There you go.
And was that about 17, 18?
Was it, did you say?
Or a bit older?
I think that was 20, maybe 22.
Yeah, I'd done a few little camps and all that.
But yeah, I think that was when I was like, oh man,
I need my own car to do this.
And I need to get out here and see what it's about
and see where I can take it.
It opens up so much for you.
You can go find any surf spot, any desert, any camp spot now.
If you've got a car, you can just go and do whatever you want.
Because if you've got nothing, what are you doing?
Exactly.
I mean, you can still get a bus somewhere
and then right from there or there's not really an excuse
that you can't go and explore and go on an adventure
because adventure is personal, right?
It's whatever takes you to the edge of your comfort zone
if that's how you see your adventure.
But so it could be anything.
It could just be getting out of your house
and walking to the beach instead of catching the bus
and it's a 10K walk.
And see the places along the way.
I understand.
I still walk around my own suburb
and either you do it in the driver's seat.
I reckon you see the same thing each time.
You sit in the passenger seat.
I reckon I'll notice something different in my own street
that I haven't seen and I don't do it very often.
So it stands out when I do.
Then you walk it and it's like,
see what you're saying about sitting out there and doing it.
The perspective is the way that you're getting there.
I suppose.
100%.
Without getting too deep.
But I noticed something this morning
sitting in the back of an Uber
because I had to drop Lauren's car off for a service.
I've never, ever noticed that.
It was right on the corner where I'd be watching traffic usually
coming up and I looked and I was just watching out the window
and I was like, I've never noticed that.
Yeah, you do see the world differently.
I've lived in that suburb for eight years.
I was like, how's that?
Even going back down straight
so I can normally go up them.
You always tend to favour one side.
Same with walking the dog.
Always try and mix it up as much as I can.
Every little adventure.
That perspective is interesting.
What were you doing for work around that time?
Because I kind of want to touch on quickly where
you and the camera have been
because it's not always been,
and we've spoken about this before,
but it's not always been documenting yourself on a trip
or doing the work that you're doing currently,
which we'll get to later on.
I don't know if David knows this.
Where did the camera take you for a few years there?
Oh, do you want to go to that?
Or where was I before?
Start with before and then go to...
Yeah, go to where.
That's a cool part.
Sorry about getting into it.
It's such a unique career.
I'm very curious now.
I feel like I've done my research and I've missed something.
You might have missed something.
No, he's...
I think he's onto it.
I already know about this one, mate.
He knows what happened in the last night.
He probably does this.
I went to university.
I'd give this a crack.
Actually, what did I do first?
At a high school,
I just started doing
just like labouring work,
like landscaping.
Did that for a couple of years
on and off and then
got into good construction as well,
like shutdown work.
Companies would fly up north
or a lot of mine was along the
Kwanana Strip.
Go down there, you do 13 days on,
one day off, 13 days on,
one day off and you're doing
12-hour shifts every day.
But for me, this was like the dream job
because you do it for two months
and as an 18-year-old,
you're so cached up.
Man, I got 25 grand in my pocket.
I'm hitting...
I'm just getting straight on a plane
going away for six months
and then you get your tax return while you're away.
You're like, this is the best thing ever.
And that's where that was my income.
They've had this much money.
So yeah, it was that
for a while and then I was like,
this isn't for me.
Like, you know, sure, it's good to
have a steady income but
so I went to university,
tried to...
got a degree for photo and film
and
part of the reason I went to university
is because...
Sorry, take that back.
Got the degree with photo and film
just before I finished.
Someone told me that you can go
overseas
with... if you're within a year
of finishing your degree, you get a J1.
So you can just go to America for a year
and try and work
or you can at least just live for a year
and then come back.
And the aim with doing that
is you try and get sponsored while you're there
and then you get your O1
which is you can basically live there
and you're getting paid by an employer.
Right, okay.
And so I applied,
got my J1.
I was like, sweet. I'm out of here
going to New York
and I'm going to
try and work as a photographer.
And so I moved into
a joint in Williamsburg with two
mates that were also moving over the same time
and
got there and I was just like, alright
shit, now what?
I was like, how do I even get into
this industry? I'd met a woman
I'd met a woman who
who was
actually working with Terry Richardson
who was, he's like
showed all those Pirelli calendars
and probably got caught up in the whole
you know, just
doing the wrong thing.
And so she was like, oh I can
get you in with a few different photographers
and get you assisting.
So there I was in Williamsburg
living there and then
I'd just skate down the road
get on the train, get into Manhattan
and go to these
these photo shoots.
And it was epic, it was wild, it was
opening. And normally
the whole
the way you get to New York is
if you're in Perth, you move to Sydney, you
assist in Sydney for a few years
learn all the ropes there and then you go to
New York
with that experience.
Straight there, it's day one.
It's pretty straightforward in New York.
This is a proper fake it to you
mate.
I didn't even know, I wouldn't tell you what
this is.
I wouldn't know what these stands are.
All I knew was how to take a photo.
But then I'm all of a sudden, you know
I'm in studio, massive studios are on
like, you know, spots where they close
down the whole street.
And set up all these
lights and scrims and everything.
And so at first
I was the fifth assistant to the
photographer.
Four assistants, Jesus.
It was a big job mate. Ultimately you're
pretty much running coffee.
I can't believe the photographer
has got five assistants. That's better
than Trump.
That should have none.
Yeah, it doesn't need him.
And then, you know, slowly
you get into the pool
of assistants and then people message you
like, oh bro, can't do this, can you do this
and then you go to that shoot.
And then towards the
second half of that year
I fell in with
the photographer.
And I was like, you know, his second assistant, I think.
And he'd be like,
you know, I'll be out having a big night
with a bunch of people and like
I'd kind of met a promoter
over there, Russian promoter.
So he was always hitting me up because
he knew I'd like had friends with models.
I was friends with models in Brooklyn
and he was like, man, like, you know, bring
a girl or a couple girls and come
out and you know, it's a Monday night.
And you go out to this amazing restaurant
and everything's paid for except for
the tip. And that's the whole thing because
you're bringing beautiful people and then that brings people
and that was their whole business
plan.
And so like we'd rock up and we'd eat
this amazing food
drink heaps of drinks and pay like
you know, $200 for like 12 people.
And then he's like, all right, cool.
Let's go to the club and then you just bounce
your way to these different clubs and you go into the
club. There's no lining up.
You'd go downstairs. There's like
you know, 10 litre bottles of grey goose
and Belvedere and everything just
lined up there with all your mixes and
you're with like 15 Russian models.
And I'm like, this is pretty hard.
It's just tough going.
That's amazing stuff.
And so that was like, you know, that was
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday during
the week and then you wouldn't
as a local, you wouldn't go out
on Saturdays because then that's when all the Jersey
crew would come over and like just fill
up the city with Jersey people.
Is that bad? What's Jersey people?
Oh, that's just got a bit of a
stigma. There's the whole, you know, Jersey
Shore, a bit more
joc-esque, like
real doled up girls.
Instead of you like
you're rocker kind of jazz Manhattan girls.
Yeah, right.
So and then, you know,
like while I'm out, I'd get a message
like, oh, mate, 5am
in Queens, like
sent me the address of the warehouse.
So I like rock up there, hung over
go upstairs
and he's like, all right, we're just shooting
this girl and she's a Victoria secret
girl. We're just shooting her on this mattress
in the warehouse and there's nothing else around.
And I'm just like with the reflector
like just bouncing light. I'm standing
directly above it.
Right, hung over as fuck.
And she's laying on the bed in a G banger.
Right, and she's looking up at me and she's
like, is this okay?
Is this okay? I'm like
I'm sitting there
and I'm sitting there going,
am I getting paid for this shit?
People pay for this stuff.
I'm getting paid for this.
So then it was like,
you know, months of that
and it was epic. It was amazing.
It was wild, like New York is a wild time.
It sounds it.
If I stayed there, who knows what would have happened.
As you're saying this whole thing, I'm just
I can't help but go back to you sitting
in the back of a Suzuki Swift with your two brothers
and a Rottweeler in the front farting on you.
Not that long later.
You here are in New York.
Just loving your brother's model.
Very good.
There's a big wild transition that one.
But while I was there
the whole time I was just thinking like, man
I miss Australia. I miss the desert.
There's something about a big city.
There's so much going on, especially New York
that it's such a distraction.
Like it's a sensory overload
every day.
But you wouldn't
I wouldn't really crave the surf
too much or anything too much
because
yeah, every corner you turn there's something fascinating
going on. Like I used to get my camera
on days off.
Little film camera. I dress down
old kind of leather jacket, ripped jeans
and I go up to Harlem in the Bronx
and just kind of like
start documenting
just basically
hood, you know, like
thugs on the corner
chicks all the time.
Would you approach them and be like, can I take your photo?
Yeah, right.
And they're like sitting out in front of a bodega lean
and on a car like old
Caddy or something or like
and I just roam the streets.
Well then you didn't see any
white crew up there. It was just
local Harlem Bronx
so they probably thought maybe I was local
and so I thought nothing of it.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, it was
I'm going to assume you weren't wearing
your hat and your
blunnies.
I think I was wearing Converse
ripped jeans
and just hair and had a bit of a beard as well.
And I'm like, hey boys
can I take a photo of you?
My whole plan was to do
an uptown, midtown,
downtown photo book
and the whole contrast between it
because downtown's all your suits and your tires
and Wall Street.
Midtown's tourists
with socks and thongs on and
heavily overweight
and just walk around with
a massive sippy cup and stuff
and then uptown's like
just guy walking
around with a massive stereo on his shoulder
but even though
iPods had just come in and all that stuff
is still just boom boxes
and it just felt real up there
and I think that's maybe why I went up there
and craved it and
you know, hit up these people and go
yo man, you a cop?
Why the fuck do you want a photo of us?
I'm like, nah, do I sound like a cop?
And he's like
what you doing up here?
Huh? You for real?
You know you can't talk shit?
I'm like, I'm not a cop mate.
I am 100% not a cop
and I'm telling my idea
and they're like, alright bro, alright
you check out, you check out, bro.
How do you want us?
Can we show gang signs?
Do whatever you want.
There was one where
two girls walked into
a shop and they were all dressed up
and had like
gold necklace like bitch or whatever it was
or big nails
and everything and they walked out
and I was like, hey can I take a photo of you guys?
Yeah, oh of us?
Sure.
They took photos
and then it's all black and white film
and then
they're like, what you doing tonight?
I was like, oh nothing.
I'm going out of the rush.
You want to count?
And they're like, oh you should come out with us
and I was like, oh shit.
I was like, where's that?
And they're like, oh we're working,
we're going to get our nails done now
but then we're working later.
I'm like, oh we're out and they're like,
place called heavenlies.
I'm like, don't worry
we'll look after you.
Went back to Brooklyn
googled heavenlies
latest thing about it
was four people shot outside of heavenlies.
I was like, not with the camera I'm assuming.
Maybe heavenlies
maybe heavenlies, yeah it means a different thing.
Yeah, fuck yeah.
This is where you're going after you got there.
We'll take care of you.
That's all good.
That's a white boy coming.
Might have money.
Because I was dosing you photograph before.
How long was that part of your life then over there?
That was one year.
That felt like a couple.
Yeah, right.
And then
I came back to Australia
and I was like, no I'm just going to start.
I'm not going back to construction
of
not giving myself a plan B.
It's just photography and that's how I'm going to make it.
Yeah.
And started to
hit up all these companies on Instagram
and just kind of started.
So I was like DMing
maybe 150, 200 companies a day.
Just saying, hey
if you want me to shoot your stuff
on girls in Perth
or
up in a location where
you wouldn't otherwise see your product
and it would just look amazing
in that location.
Let me know and you'd get
100 not seen
or 100 seen and no response.
You'd get
five that are maybes and you'd get maybe
two out of 200 that are like, oh yeah
sounds good. I'm like, well this is how it's going to be.
I just got to keep on chipping away at this
and eventually getting
a bit of a catalog
of photos for where I want to push things.
And they're like, oh awesome
we can send you some bikinis
as payment. I'm like
I'm a guy.
We'd love them, thank you.
And yes, I'll take them.
And
yeah, so I end up
shooting
girls in Perth
and trying to
get into that model agency scene
and it was just hard work.
They just
would really
cage them like
in Perth. I don't know, it just feels like
the modeling scene in Perth is
they feel like they're in New York
but they're so far from it.
The people running the agencies.
So in New York
you'd be like, oh can I shoot this girl
and they're like, you know fucking top model, right?
And they're like, yeah no worries we'll send her to
your location
and send us the photos after
and you're up on top of a rooftop
in Brooklyn and shooting
photos with the New York and the skyline
in the background. In Perth
they're like, where are you going?
What time do you need her?
What time is she coming back? Who else is going to be there?
Are you picking her up?
And then this is the payment
and everything else. I'm like
I'm just trying
to get photos for your girls.
This is the chance
and they're all
just starting out models
and any chance they get surely
hand them out and take them
and then eventually
that kind of put me off and I was like
it's just too hard work
and then
started shooting surfing and I was like
travelling to Hawaii
and over east and shooting
like a pipeline
in the water? Yeah
I was never really one to sit on the beach
for the long lens. I was always
wide angle right there
about to die at pipeline
and
I loved it though, just that thrill
you're in the arena on the North shore
with all of the best surfers in the world
like you've got Slater dropping in right in front of you
and it's just you and him
and you're just like
It's not an easy career path
to get into freelance photography
filmmaking that whole thing and it's not cheap
but the gear that you'd have to buy
is very expensive. How'd you go
with all that kind of stuff
being young? Yeah
young
when I first started out it was definitely
that construction landscaping that was
kind of financing that
and then
after that it was just
saving. I remember like the first
even when I met my
mrs. now, Essa
the first couple years she met me
I was I think I was 27
26, I don't know
and
I was earning I think like
two of my
earnings for the year
were like $3,000
the next year was like $8,000
and you know she's like
a few years older and she's like
with ultimately like a bum
I don't know how long she's going to stay with me for
quite actually
oh that is my sugar mama
and I don't know
it was tough
because
as you live off a career
seriously though
and I somehow made it work
and slowly it gets more and more
and then you get to a point
where you finally
hit a milestone and you're like
I can do this
but people
are paving this much
to actually do what I love
and trust me to
shoot what they need to
increase their brand as well
did you have like a we'll get into
because I've just realised we're on the
four-wheel drive podcast and I'm loving this too much
so I don't really want to talk about
was there a breakthrough moment
with that stuff or was there a
breakthrough contract for one of a better term
or was it just layers
that over time built up
to be able to support you
yeah I think layers
but there was a couple of big clients that came around
that helped me start to pay
for everything
like Bankwest was my first big client
but that was a few years in
and I think that helped me
to buy my Troopy
great segue
and that's
thank you Bankwest
proud sponsor
love Bankwest
that takes us into the Troopy
so is that the first four-wheel drive basically
that you went and bought
so when I met Mrs
her dad was selling a
Navarra
a D40
kind of remember now
and
he was selling it for like
$8,000
and I think it had
$80,000 or $100,000
on the clock and I'm like
absolutely
and so we actually
she said to her dad
can we take it for a test drive
and he's like yeah sweet so we took it for two weeks
up to Nalu
and then it came back and I was like yeah I'll buy it
yeah
I'll take this one
she works alright
so it was a couple of years
it was
it was over
and I was like oh once again
I'll drive across and come and see you
didn't have money for flights but I'll drive
the Nissan
across and I'll stay with you for a week
did that and then she flew home
and then I was like oh Sydney's kind of fun
I might stay here for a bit
and she's like are you serious
I was like well I don't have any money to get home right now
so I was like you know hustling again
trying to get sponsors and trying to get
enough kind of
money to be able to get me
back home to Perth
because it got over there just couldn't get back
and then
my first big sponsors in the
four-wheel drive industry were
Oztrail, Dunlop Volley
and Remedy Kombucha
so they
they financed my whole trip
back to Perth
Remedy Kombucha
was like they're huge now
but they had only just started out
there were a couple months earlier
so we were their first campaigns
and they sent us 16
cases of Kombucha
and we had a back of
a Navara so we could only take like three
and the rest was my mates
I was like here you go but I hope you like Kombucha
we had 30 pairs of Dunlop Volley
because they wanted all these
different product shots
the car was just full of product
and Oztrail sent a truck
of gear so
this Navara had nothing they sent
a roof rack
they sent all the holders
all the mounts they sent
all of the camping gear, chairs
swags, cooking gear
pots, pans, everything
we were like oh my god this is it
this is the start
and then you know
we drove back across Australia and just
the camera didn't stop
and that's where I was like okay
yeah I reckon I can make some now this
right so that was almost
the avenue then into
the full drive
adventure space
was that when your YouTube became a thing as well
or was that already going?
I think, no, YouTube wasn't
started yet, I think I started that with
Trupey so it was
like four years before
with the Navara where it was just
shooting stuff for Facebook and shooting stuff
just because
and mixing
still mixing that with my surf trips so
getting a bunch of boys
we'd go up to the desert and we'd just camp out for a month
and shoot that kind of
surfing meets camping meets adventure
and then that's when
like you know you start to get
eyes on your work like monster
children who have that lifestyle
Surfskate magazine
and Corona
were doing like stories on the road then
so
they were kind of getting in touch and then
we'll send you beers I'm like amazing
like we need beers
we'll take them
yeah and then that's kind of how it started
there you go
so yeah take us to the Trupey now
because that's still your vehicle
to this day
so when did that come along
and then talk about the early days with that thing
and where you took it and what you started to
I suppose modify on it as well
to do what you wanted to do
yeah well I guess out of the
out of the boys
the WA boys when we're all kind of
starting out together like Ronnie and Harry
and myself and a few others
I think I'm the only one that still has the original
I would say well and truly
Ronnie definitely doesn't
Ronnie doesn't even remember how to spell then
no not even sure
he does because he just forgets how to spell V8
you couldn't say that
forgets the rumble
and the uncomfortable drives
yeah
so I got the Trupey and I was like
alright I started a YouTube series
but you know like I said
it was more for me
than it was for YouTube
like Harry hadn't even started a YouTube
I fired a fork yet
and
we're all still just doing that Instagram thing
and I was like alright
we'll start putting my finger on a map
and going out there and the whole thing was
I wanted to learn more about these places
the history
indigenous history, white history
bush tucker, birds
everything that I could possibly know
everything I could find about these areas
and
the beauty about these areas and the sad part
is that there's not much history
so you go out there and you kind of
feel like you're almost discovering it
for the first time and you're trying to work it out
with your own knowledge
and that's kind of where
the first few videos really
lent into
I guess a particular audience
because they were like oh this is fascinating
it's not the fast paced quick cut stuff
that you see today and even back then
there was a lot of that
it was more long form 40 minutes
and see it and just watch
and being on that journey with me
and that's kind of
I don't know it just it kind of snowballed
and
you know you start to get a lot of people
seeing you when you're out
and they're like man love your channel
and you're like what are you watching my channel
it's a weird feeling
and I still get it today and I haven't posted anything for
it must be almost
6 months or a year
and you know just non stop
when he putting up something
I was over in Europe same thing like hey man love your channel
I'm like what
you're a Greek man living on an island
have you been to Australia
no but I want to go one day
your video is inspiring
yeah and I think that's a beautiful thing
about YouTube is it is
such a community and
and that has definitely helped me
to keep going because
for me it doesn't pay the bills
it doesn't even pay the fuel
because I don't post enough
algorithm if you're not posting enough
it doesn't push people to you
and so the less you do
the more long form you do
the less interest it gets
and so it's hard
it's hard to keep chasing it
yep no doubt
so the
on the Troopy was it straight away
you started to modify
that or were you just
YouTube and whatever was going on in your life at the time
was just out of a stock Troopy
it was
I think I'd put a few things on the Troopy
by the first one
I think there was a few carry on sponsors from the
Navara and I told them what I was doing
and that I got one of the first
in WA the first
2018 Troopies
there definitely wasn't many sandy
top Troopies around then
now it's just insane
and there's like a dislike for them
because people see them
and get over yourself
people like this colour
there's three colours to choose from
what do you hate on white when there's 10 million white Troopies
20 white cars
there's not that many sandy cars going around
there's some people probably hate on Teslas as well
yeah true
so we got the sandy Troopy
and told them what I was doing
and got those sponsors happening
very quickly
the Troopy started to get built up
and
was
people either love you
for your car how you do up your car
or they love
the story you're telling and where you're going
I think mom was a bit of a mix
you've got some people
that only will post photos of their car
or videos of their car
hundreds of thousands of followers
but there's no real journey to it
yeah it's all in the shed
yeah
and so just different audiences
so
yeah got the stuff with the Troopy
kind of built up and then
sponsors slowly change
and
ideas of where I want to go
and what the Troopy is capable of would change as well
and
now it's an absolute weapon
but I'm still forever upgrading to make it more comfortable
the more you do
the more you change it from what it originally was
and then you're like I'd want to get it
back to that same feeling of what it was
but you've added a ton
so much to it yeah
how is it still comfortable
what's the current setup in it at the moment
at the moment I've got
underneath I've got all superior engineering
so I replaced
you did the track correction
I did the track correction diamond diff housing
which is a
it was a good idea to do
because firstly it's like
it's built for a tank
you can hit anything with that and it's not going to do anything
and also
having offset
tyres front and back
on your spares you've got
one for your back one for your front
and then when you do your tyre rotation
and balance
the guys would charge you $600
because they have to take three of the tyres off the rims
put them back on
we're in the same boat there Dougie
oh is that what you're doing now
we've got the offset
on the back
haven't done a tyre rotation yet
but I'm due
I'm putting it off for track correction
and then still
so your rooftop tent have been for a long time
that's still the go did you ever consider the roof conversion
the roof conversion
looking for a race that's more than just a run
this one gives back to the trails you race on
join us May 9th
in downtown Helena
for the don't fence me in trail run
the happiest race in the west
climb iconic trails
take in big views
and when you cross that finish line
you're part of something bigger
you're part of something bigger
spots are limited so don't wait
sign up for the 26th annual
don't fence me in trail run today
I thought about it
but I also think that I've spent so much time
in my car
I don't want to then sleep in it
I can understand you know you're reducing your height
and your weight on the roof
and so you're more stable down the tracks
even though tributes are never going to be stable
but
it's just like having that rooftop tent
man you always wake up with a view
even if you're in a city parking lot
you're trying to see the top of the house
it's great view
it's great up there
it's like those real estate places
when they put a stairway in the middle of nowhere
and go this will be your view
climb in the rooftop tent
you'll see
same thing
I got the James Barude on top
love that thing
it's epic
it doesn't shake
it doesn't
there's no fluttering
old rooftop tents were just
noisy
you could even just get a 5km hour wind
from the wrong direction
and you're like
and then you're out there with tape
taping it up to something or tying that to somewhere else
with a knife just cut it off
get rid of it mate
don't need it
too annoying
cause that's been on there for a while now
James Barude
they've sent me like
a new model
sell the old one
send it back to them and then they'll send me a new one
and then I've got James Barude awning as well
so there's a full tunnel you can climb through
if it's raining in that
which is great
in the back is all
custom
installation
drawers
and I've also ripped out the back seats
a year ago
you just got the two in the front
two in the front and then I've turned that into
storage in the back but still like a dog bed
so just two lift up
hatches
cause I was like the back seat is kind of a waste
very rarely am I
the designated driver
and have people in the back
if we're on the beach and we're chasing waves
and the boys just jump on the side steps
and we race up the beach
to a different wave that's breaking
that's it
so I've got just a quick one
just not on the troopy but do you think
your long form style of youtube videos
helped gain you that audience
rather than the quick cutting
engagement type videos
do you think that long form your style
of cutting videos helped just
build that for youtube?
yeah I think so
in those early days?
well people were craving it
and when I
first put out I just thought
40 minutes that's about
how long it is to tell this story
and people were into it
and then I saw
everyone else doing
shorter videos and I was like
maybe I should scale it back
make it a bit quicker more like 20-25 minutes
and with that
that's when I was kind of thinking
well
I'm not really sure what's working
because 40 was working great
25 was working great
do I go back to the 40 or do I just
whatever it lands itself
to the length of the video to tell the story
do I just keep it at that
and
next thing there's people doing 8 minute videos
I'm like
what now?
2 minute videos
yeah well
I wasn't sure if I used to get paid for 8 minutes
or whatever it was
and like I said it was never really about payment
but if I still get a couple hundred bucks
a month coming through then sweet
and then start looking around
and people are just putting up GoPro videos
for their whole youtube channel
and really bad edits
I'm thinking well
am I wasting my time here with like
good edits, good shots, clean transitions
of music of the photos
sorry of the drone shots
then to whatever
when people are making 20 grand a month
putting up horrible clips
like but
I guess people are just hungry
for content and it doesn't matter what the quality is
if it was a little bit humor in there
and a little bit of
action then people just
put it on and kind of have it as background
and then I was like I don't know
if I want to keep doing this
it was disheartening
and
in this in the best way possible
like a one man show with
obviously film, photo
you are the content yourself
editing yourself
that's all you
there's no one in the background doing all that for you
which a lot of these channels probably have
now
Ronnie needs it
he needs that to get his stuff out there
team of people here to do it
that's probably the other part
I didn't notice until we went on our trip
how much work goes into actually
getting, oh every Sunday
I'll turn on
YouTube and watch a few videos that get released and whatever
and I don't realise how much
work actually goes into
just the filming
and the photo part of it
that blew my mind
and then you see the video that it goes into
it's all packed into half an hour
and it's like wow
just imagine Salty with the 600 mil
setting up by himself
600 mil was like a trigger word on that
4km away and then driving
as soon as I heard 600 mil when I was standing next to
the boys I was like
don't do it to me because I just knew I was
reversed and like two guys back over those
congregations I was like
this 600 mil was going to be lost
on the gun barrel
what happened with the 600 mil? I don't know
pre-drone where you had to
drive up
set up the tripod
put the long lens on
reverse back
and then race back past it
and then stop, spin it, reverse back
so then you'd get the passing shot as well
and now it's like
drone, put it there, get the drive shot
pivot the drone
no more running back to the car
game changer the drone
game changer the drone
you would have given up
we've got three or four shots
we've got about 600 mils up there
they're trying to pull the piece out of you
all the time still about it and I was just like
don't
I'm with you, I'm in the same, I feel you
you're a photographer, you get it
a little bit more than I do
it was hard for me to understand at the time
until I saw the product
I was like I get it now
that's probably the other thing like doing photography
and videography stuff like you know exactly what you're getting
you know the shot that you're going to get
at the end and you're like okay this is worth it
but you're like no idea
this is the worst thing I've ever done
put all the 600 mils with the two times
converter
don't go, you can call one of them
just go back two or three mate
just keep going until we say stop
I was like that section there
I was like barely could drive it forward
you want to reverse back
cross reverse back down here
just go down there
low wide
thank god Dave wasn't 8 bucks
we wouldn't be doing anything
if that was the case
with those 40 minute videos
I used to go out for a week
straight about a week sometimes two weeks
film the video
come back
and edit for two weeks
straight
that would be two weeks if I got the intro right
I find with video editing
for that kind of stuff
once you get that good intro
the rest you can kind of stack on
getting that intro
sometimes I'm like man I can't do this video
because it's just not
feeling what it felt like to be out there
and I think so I was too particular
about those intros
and really wanted to
I wanted it to be cinematic
I wanted it to
be able to be put in a cinema
and people go wow this is shot really well
I didn't want it to
purely be
a YouTube video
yeah like
I just wanted to change what YouTube videos
were for me
rather than and now
it's like
there's a sign on your phone
on Instagram now turn your phone
sideways
you need to tell people this
times have changed
so you can turn the Instagram
people post videos to the portrait
and then halfway through it will just go
oh yeah by the way turn your phone landscape
when you turn your phone landscape and the whole video
rotates across
even
one's landscape
just posted landscape
and it doesn't rotate when you turn it
people have to be told
to turn your phone sideways
don't just turn your head like this
that's where we lost it
that's the point
that was
that was great video
selfie
that was
a tipping point for me
one video that stands out
to me of yours
was the Vespa
trip
so good
if you haven't seen that
go across to Salty's YouTube and have a look at the
Vespa trip that he did
when he got stuck on the rock slide
it just makes me laugh
that was done so well
and then you get like a little bit
because I think
for like forward drive
crew that you want to go and watch these videos
but then they see you
doing this on a Vespa but because of the quality
of some of the shots and then like
I find a little bit of humour in that
you bogged on a rock
I just find that it's worth a look
and you get a bit of probably
insight into what Salty's talking about here
and I like that you did all your own stunts as well
that was probably the biggest thing for me
well I like that you think I did
all my own stunts
and it all worked well
that was just
a little one night thing and I was doing
a shoot for Iron Williams and I was like
well why not I just do it on the motorbike
on the Vespa and make it full Italian
style
I was like right now
I've got this image in my head of that video
and I don't even know if it's like just
an image that I've created or it was actually
that video image but
all I can see is like you on that
and then
A.I. creating like
a little northern Italian
village around you
and like it just like
popping up around you
and it's like Salty's through
and he's like
in a cobblestone
yeah there is as you go through the hills
as an Italian
Italian country side spot
completely if you've got about it
really worth checking out though
it takes you another place
so how did that come about
Iron Williams you had to shoot with them
and you had the Vespa and you're just like
you know what I'm going to do this
or did you want to try doing something on the Vespa
I think I did want to do something on the
Vespa I was just looking for alternative
YouTube videos
and just something a bit more fun
so at the same time I was packing
I think I wanted to go camping
but pack everything
I needed just under the seat
so whatever fit under the seat
that's all I take yeah
it's only enough for just a bigger
than your helmet and so
I had all the seat of summit kind of
lightweight gear so I had my tandem
but it was such a cold night
it was like minus two camping on this granite
like camping on granite rock is
the worst idea it just
it obviously keeps the heat
you're in the day but then at night
it's like you're in a fridge
and I had all lightweight gear
and you know just this sleeping bag that wasn't
enough and the whole night I'm
in there like this I didn't even take a fly
for the tent because I didn't want to take up extra
space so I was just like
put on my leather jacket
the RM leather jacket at night and put on my boots
and like crawl back into the sleeping bag
or at the sleep in the morning
wake up and you know all the
steam coming out of your mouth and
yeah yeah great night's sleep
yeah you know perfect
what is the best night to you
it's a bullshit bullshit
comfortable gear when you eat at night
yeah
but yeah I just thought
you know I can make something fun
and you know get out of this and
sure enough like all these
got all these followers from like Germany and all these
Vespa shops started following me
YouTube I told you we can do it
not realising it's a one-off
but now we've got a Mini Cooper
as well I do I like that it'd be cool
so I'm going to do the same with the Mini
put the James Barude on top
I wanted roof racks on a rooftop
and Mrs Barude and that
you know you can get like single
I brought this to the boys the other way
you can get single rooftop tents
probably not on a Mini Cooper
but you'd leave a little bit of space
on a four-wheel drive
to have access to your roof racks still
or you just take a swag
we discovered that there was
no real point for one
but I thought it was pretty cool
when I saw one on a car on the freeway
and I was like hang on a second
that's half a tent
and then I came in with this like
this is going to be the best thing the boys will love it
and then they just shut down every single
thing that was positive about it
and made me realise that yeah it's probably just a shit idea
it's just bad
it's just bad split up with his misses
and she wanted half a tent so he put a grime
it's going to shut through it
it's just a James
the misses got a groove
it's just a James
what's that?
it's a James roof top tent
the other YouTube video that I was
looking at on your channel was
the
salty pause
the walk that you did
how did that one come about
that was early days wasn't it
that was early days
so
I watched
Into the Wild
with Emile Hirsch when I was younger
that was also another
big influence
big influence
big light bulb moment where I was like
I want to do this but
obviously the whole storyline
is very selfish and
left everyone hanging wondering where it was
but
that inspired travel
and adventure and stuff so
I decided
after watching that film I remember
it was in the same mate's house
that I drove his car across Australia
and I said to him
I'm going to walk across Australia with a dog
the moment the film ended I was like
I'm going to walk across Australia with a dog
and he's like no you're not
and then so I went to Shender Park dog refuge
started looking at dogs
and they're like there is one other dog here
that's being fostered at the moment
like a little puppy
I was like can you bring him in
she's like yeah yeah we'll chat with the owner
and oh yeah the owner can bring him down now
and I was like amazing
bought him down and immediately he just fell in love
I was like this is the one
and I'm locking him into
a lifetime of adventure
and so adopted him
you know didn't have a whole lot of money
and I was like well it's just me and you mate
we'll just fend for ourselves
and see if we can survive
this crazy world
and
that was Morrison here and he passed away in December
unfortunately but he was 15
years old and I got him at two months
and he's just been on every single
adventure and
so we
the whole plan was to get him and walk across Australia
did everything
did all the prep for it and then it came
down to
for some reason I wanted maybe
RSPCA to like
at least have this support not
not fund it and they're like no we can't
support that I'm like why not
and they're like it's animal cruelty
and I was like excuse me
I'm like you know would you rather me leave
him in the backyard for the time it takes me
to walk across Australia you know like everyone else does
yeah
and it didn't get their support
and it really it dogs biggest dream
yeah right genuinely yeah they're like
it would hurt his paws
he wears shoes
there's dog shoes
he wears dog shoes
so anyway it for some reason
it really disheartened me and
put me off so you know years went by
and we were kind of doing all these
adventures and camping and everywhere I went
he went and then I was like
let's still try and raise
some money for the dog refuge
where I got him from because they're forever
getting an influx of dogs and don't have the money
to support them
and so I decided oh I'll just
walk from Perth to
Augusta and we'll just like
you know raise money along the way
somehow I don't know how we get money on
something like this
and then yeah so we ended up
getting dropped off at Segar Harbour
and then just started walking and
yeah over
the course of I think 10 days
got to Dunsborough
and you know got news channels
picking it up and all the local
Bumbry and Mandarin
all that we're putting in their newspapers
and people were phoning in money
and I was like this is sick
I can just walk and raise money
for some you know some dogs
that need it and that was
yeah that was our first
kind of big kind of walk
adventure together
that is unreal
how long did it take you to get to Augusta
didn't end up making it to Augusta
we finished in Dunsborough
ankle blew out because I lost my shoes
and so
we were barefoot the whole way
except for when you get to
just north of Bumbry, Augusta Linde
you got to go all the way
through Bumbry on the bitumen
and I had a massive heavy pack
and that's when my ankle blew out
cause it was like 25Ks
of just bitumen and barefoot
and after that
and then when we got to Dunsborough
there was also two massive storms coming in
back to back and I was like I'm not putting my dog through this
like we've done enough
and yeah
went to Shannon Park and gave him
the big jack and all the photos
so have you got plans
to walk across Australia still?
I don't know if my buddy joints will handle at least
at least
so maybe Doug if he's
post-curial
yeah today is my joint scan
but we might get a cow golly
and be like both our necks
blown out
don't call it
couple of hours out of Perth I'll be done
one thing I do want to throw in
is one of my first trips up to
the Kimberley
I was just reaching out to everyone
I had Corona in the car and they wanted
one of these journey pieces
and Instagram like I was saying
was kind of only just starting out still
I was
just seeing who was in the Kimberley
I didn't even know where Broom was
in regards to Kananara and all that
and something popped up
in the feed and it was like these cowboys
in the Kimberley I was like
sick like you know helicopters
mustering and coming from the farming background
I'd never been on a cattle station
but I was like I want to be part of this
whatever this is get me there
and so I heat them up
and now like what do you mean
like you want to come up and like yeah
can I come up and like you know just film
the master or you know help you guys on the master
and they're like oh
yeah I guess so
and I was like I've got a couple of cases of Corona
and they're like alright two cases of Corona and you're in
and I was like
sweet so I headed off
and it was just in land of
Kananara on El Questa station
and so
you guys heard of Ringers Western
so this was the Ringers Western boys
but they hadn't started yet
that was when I was there
they were like well funny coincidence
we've actually just started a clothing line
do you want to take the photos for it
is that that nav?
that's a nav yeah
so is that Ringers Western his
his and family
and couple of friends
and so got up there
and met Nav and Hawkeye and all the boys
I mean Hawkeye I'm like
this guy's six foot six
like hands twice the size of mine
and just a unit
oh shit okay
and then you know we camped
on the river under these Boab trees
swam in the
in the little river
didn't know if there was crocs they said there wasn't
so I was like oh what a bit
so we're up there and you know
camping out for ten days and helping them
do this muster and
it was just wild
and it was like everything I could imagine
the Kimberley to be and you know
you're in a bullcatcher and someone's driving
and you know there's the old Land Cruisers
with no roofs on here and
you've just got a lasso or like a bit of a metal
arm that goes over the bull's head
and you're driving along flat stick and then
this bull comes out of the bush from nowhere
and just hits the side of the car and I'm here
and like you know the bull's head
here and just smashing the car
and I'm like
what the fuck was going on
and it was
that was
I think that's what really got me into
loving the Kimberley like
and then there was a farmer down the road
they're like boys you know have been missing some cattle
they're going missing
I think it might be a crocodile
and so like we went looking for this croc
and then you know this is
five days in and then it was
Navani and we found this
hole and we realised there's a croc in it
and this croc was three and a half
maybe four metres
there's a pretty long
big boy in a small puddle
and so we're like
whacking the puddle with a stick
trying to like you know get it to put its head up
and then Navani
like in trying to put a
rope over this croc's nose
I mean while he's just thrashing
then we'd go under
and I'm trying to take photos at the same time
I'm trying to like grab his tail to stir him up
to get his head out
I'm like where am I
I'm like this is right away from New York
he says yeah yeah
take me back to the bed
for the shoes
I'll say
a bit easier than crocs
and then you know jumping in
doing all the mastering with them with all the balls
in the backpins and that
and then that was the start of
Ringers Weston
meeting those crew
So have you been part of that ever since then
Ringers Weston because do you go up there every year
to take photos and help with the
musters and all that
No, so that was actually
their last year on El Crestro
The lease was
expiring and the government was giving it back to tourism
So
unfortunately they lost it, they had it for
40 years
and just insane country
El Crestro is unreal
But
they've just
sold their place in Kalanara
so their whole family's moved over
to Brazil or something
That might be even nice
because
now your work
you can explain that
and go into as much detail as you want
but I'd love you to connect it to
how your sense of adventure
is still
a perfect story of how your adventure mixes with
what you do for a living
Now
even these next four weeks
is a perfect example of what that looks like
I don't know
if that's a standard month
for what
Salty Davenport does now but
this sort of stuff mixing
your livelihood with adventure
and getting out and exploring
remote places
How does that all work for you right at this moment now?
Yeah, now
a few years ago
I was
filming something up in Kalanara
and someone saw an Instagram story
and then they reached out and were like
oh I see you're up this way
can you do a shoot for us?
and I was like sweet what is it
and they're like it's just north of Broome
it's for the Kimberley Land Council
and it's basically all the indigenous ranges
all the salt water ranges
up there they all get together
and like share knowledge about how
they might be looking after country
or how they're managing feral animals
and
then everything else that comes with
these kind of forums
and so I was like yeah absolutely
like this is my dream you know I've always
loved the whole bushucker side of things
the try and survive off the land with what you've got
that for me is everything
and so then to get
that call up I was like this is it
this is like my in and
did that shoot for them
and just had the best time
when we were there they also had this
cast iron cook up
and so every ranger group
I think there was 12 had to cook up
something from their region in the Kimberley
and then they all bring
it together at the end of the night and then
judge each other's food
man some of the shit
that was getting cooked
so at one point so when we finally
got to dish up your own plate
at one point on my plate
I had
dugong, turtle
crocodile, bush turkey
kangaroo
goanna
fish and beef
all on one plate
just a little bit of protein
I've heard turtle and dugong
quite fatty
turtle was pretty intense
depending on what part of the dugong
you have
it's like a massive
pork belly
or I actually had the dugong awful
so like the guts
and then they cooked that and diced it up
and it was really nice it was kind of like squid rings
oh there you go
and then turtle, turtles pretty
strong on the nose
same with bush turkey if they stew it
yeah right
what a plate
just the half
time once for the west coast diggis
it's brighter
so
did that job
made the video then another company
saw that video
and were like hey can you do some stuff for us
and that was the indigenous desert alliance
and they're just in west Perth here
and they look after 80 different
ranger groups
across all of the Australian deserts
so out back south
Queensland, northern territory, WA
everywhere
that's a cool
that's a cool
company or corporation
I'm linked in
I followed them
and I check it
very rarely but every time I do
I always have a look at what they're doing because it's pretty
interesting stuff
I probably found them through you
to be honest it was probably the connection
we're linked in? don't know
maybe I saw you and then he was doing this
the one social media is on
once a fortnight
he's doing the poking
but
I don't know
don't even check this one
buddy
just because you're active on it
so yeah my first job
was to go out to a place called
Kirikara and that's on the WA
northern territory border
and go out there for two weeks
two different shoots
and spend time with the
Kirikara rangers, the desert rangers
that is the most remote community in Australia
isn't it?
there's one other just north
but yeah
they're both just stupidly remote
yeah
so you've got to fly to Alice and then drive
nine hours back into WA
to get there
and
got out there and this was my first
proper experience of
camping with mob out there and
these people just hunt
whatever we have there
they went out there with
20 kangaroo tails
that was the snacks
so they took them out there
and then while we're out there we'll get in bush turkey
kangaroo
we'd be doing kind of
fire research and also
feral animal management so they've got
camera traps and stuff to work out
where
camera traps above bilby
homes and tunnels
what are the issues out there, is it cats or dogs?
cats, dogs
dogs aren't too bad
they're actually finding like dingoes
and dogs are killing cats
oh okay
so they've caught them on camera traps
these dingoes with a cat in their mouth
yeah right
getting there
and so yeah they're working out
these how to
manage all this and other traps
where like they'll
if a cat comes in a certain proximity
it can actually fire
a poison at the cat
and it lands on it and that cat
will eventually die
so because there's a massive cat issue
but you know we're out there
and we're gonna go light some fires
to burn off some spin effects country
and the elderly women are like
pull over pull over pull over
alright sweet and they're like go on a hole
and we go back there
and we walk in there and she's like
you know she's dressing this like ruggy
at a snuggy
she's in a snuggy right
no no joke snuggy barefoot
she's got this big crowbar pole
and she's like he's on holiday
I'm like does that mean he's in there
or he's away
I'm like no she's like no he's in here
and so he's like poking along poking along
poking along
this is like 20-30 seconds
boom
sits down digs three like
scoops with a hand
pulls out a goanna
I'm like what
how did you know it would be there
you know the hole is like 20 metres away
really she's like
pulls it out and she's in 80s
so three of these women were known as
the pin to be nine
so three of them
were born on country
and didn't actually go into western civilization
until they were
15, 16
so three I was camping with three of them
and they've still got all the songlines
about all the distance they used to walk
with their parents and everything
and
there was a story about
when they were younger they found this
because people were starting to drive out
remote places to look for them to bring them in
get the church
involved all the rest of that stuff
and
and they found this
like big rock
and it was cold and they're like
you know in the desert
if you can find water you're going to survive
and so they found this big rock
and they're like there must be water inside
and some of the men
and one was her father
cracked it open and then they quickly
started drinking it and it was
a big 44 gallon drum of diesel
and they were all throwing up
and sick for days
and she remembers that vividly
and they thought it was
because they hadn't seen anything like it
wow
that's insane
I don't know if it was the
Pintaboo
Pintabee 9 or
another story that I've heard but
they were saying planes go overhead before
they'd actually seen a white person
like crazy to think like what would be
going through their minds
it would be frightening
really frightening
the story of that when they were
actually discovered
and cause
like
I hope I'm not getting my stories mixed up
is the last Nomads the book on
I can't say it but is the last Nomads
or is that a different crew
different crew yeah so they all came in
the Pintabee 9
7th day 9 came in
2 decided
they were like nah
and then went back out and they were never seen again
and then the last Nomads I believe
is a different story
of about the same time
they walked
into civilization
I do know of both but I reckon
maybe the last Nomads one
who I'm not sure of
what mob they were from but
they didn't want to get in the car
their family
actually sent some
like some people out to be like
we haven't heard or seen of these guys
in a very long time
it hasn't rained out there in God knows
how long we're worried about them
can you go and find them for us because we
actually think that they might be struggling out there now
and so when they were
actually found they tracked them for ages
like we're hard to find
yeah a couple of them didn't want to go in the car
they were like shitting themselves
to get in because they just put the first time
they've ever seen them
in Venice if you've never seen a car before
you just be
it's mind blowing to think that that was the 70s I reckon
yeah it was
late 70s early 80s
crazy
and they're just like
the knowledge they have like we're going up in a helicopter
and they're looking for different
country to burn they're looking for spots
to ensure that they're not
burnt near to keep them sacred
and we're looking for water holes
and you go up in the helicopter and it's just
literally like
with a macro lens looking across
a pair of corduroy pants
real close just like that as far as you
can see like just sand
sand dunes right
and that's where the canning stock route goes up
not far from there
it passes and
you know she's
we're looking for these water holes and she's like
go this way you know and we're
flying that way for like five ten minutes
so a little bit this way
goes that way so
land here
and like she hasn't been there since
she was a kid right she hasn't been
to this spot we land the helicopter between
these two sand dunes
hop out
and she's like walks along she's like dig here
start digging and the sand just gets wet
straight away I'm like
all of these sand dunes look the same
there wasn't any marker
it's just the song lines in the head
yeah wow
there's water in the desert
that is incredible
I love it I love it I could talk all day
about this stuff
yeah so over the last kind of two or three years
it's just been sent out
to outback South Oz
Kimberley
Balgo
Bidget Anger
Birr-la-Buru
Outwell Luna Way
and so like the next couple of weeks
is
on Sunday I'm flying to
Alice to go out
east of Alice
to do a ranger forum out there
and then
come back
and then I go straight up to the Kimberley
to do a documentary for Nat Geo
off the Kimberley coast
like a bit of old school navigation
all that kind of stuff
I can't say too much about that one but
then
then another one I got to drive
out to the WA border after that
to do another one of these
desert mob
because we were out
when we were on the gum barrel and coming down the Conny Sue
you were just to our east
I was out there
because we obviously hit some weather out there
that we were pretty frightened by
because we hadn't really
we hadn't like Jayden and I hadn't sort of been
in amongst at the time
so I think we were trying to
we were almost trying to message you like hey mate is there weather down there
because where we're currently escaping
and trying to look for a safe place
to hide
there were big storms I remember seeing the sky was black
like oh yes
I just love a good desert lightning storm
it actually like every crack
you feel it
I did love that aspect of it but I didn't love the file
didn't like where we were
positioned I think
I feel like looking back on it and some of the feedback
that I've probably received is that
we probably would have been okay
yeah it's just at the time
I had no idea if we were going to be or not
so it was like what we did at the time felt right
to like
the environment out there changes so quickly all the time
you'd rather be safe than
sorry like I would probably be fine
and then you wake up in the morning
you don't wake up in the morning
you can also get flooded in really easy out there
that's probably a good point too
the flash floods that run down
you don't think you're on well you think you're on flat ground
but you're not you know gentle slope
there's no water retention
it just runs straight off
we were probably south of where you were
because what was the community there
I can't remember the name of the community
where I was there's been effects ranges
yeah that's the one
because we were almost
at the
the trans line
and we had literally
three minutes of rain not hard
and it just turned absolute slosh
and I was like how
it shocked me
we caked our cars so quickly
this is incredible
literally the sprinkler water
different country to where we were
five hours before
even where we were it was like
it looks filled with water
all the potholes and everything
it looks bone dry and just rugged and just
desolate and then it just
we were almost sinking
and if there's
a little bit of clay on the road
all of a sudden it's like
sliding everywhere
it's like ice skating
ice skating in a four-ton car
in the trippy hey good
that you're taking it ice skating
you did have
in my research
you didn't interview with Cedar Summit
and you said moments like slipping down a glacier
almost disappearing into the abyss
of a deep crevice are the best and most testing
moments but also the ones that live on
is there a true story behind you almost slipping
into a crevasse
just disappearing forever
I was in London
on my way I was
I went to London for a couple or a month
to try and like get in that
photography game there
and I was on my way to New York
and might have been
two hours before I left London someone goes
oh you're flying over Iceland
why don't you stop there
I'm like that's a good idea
like what's in Iceland
and so I started researching Iceland and all that kind of stuff
it definitely wasn't on the map then
you know wasn't Chris Burkhardt or anyone
shooting it doing all those amazing
shots and
I just I was like sounds great
like you know never been to a place like this
so
talk to the captain yeah mate
yeah just drop us in Iceland
anyway got to Iceland
had no camping gear no hiking
gear I was pretty much just prep for New York
so they are
the converse is on
Converse, your leather jacket
feed ready
call up the Russians
and
got there and then
someone said oh yeah my brother's actually
living in Iceland and I was like sick
like he's like just hit him up he might be able to
like lend you some you know hiking gear
whatever like sweet hit him up
and he's like uh
I guess you can borrow some stuff
like who the hell do you
call me on a Tuesday night
and
and they also said that a lot of people
in the Reykjavik
which is the capital there a lot of people
leaving will leave their
camp gear if they're not taking it with them
in the campground for other people to use
and stuff oh yeah oh that's cool
I grabbed a bunch of stuff from there
and then grabbed whatever I didn't have
from my mate's brother
and then just was like okay cool
now I need to get to this hike that I've found
on the maps and it was like
a three day hike and
I had nowhere to get there so I was like
I was just trying to hitchhike and so
the next morning I woke up and
just walked out to the main road
and started trying to hitchhike
and no one was really speaking any English
so I was like
you know I think I was saying like
Thor's Mork or Paul's Thork
or something like that and they're like
hmm yeah and we just start driving
driving for an hour the landscape's
changing I'm all of a sudden pretty remote
and middle of nowhere
and then he's like
here I'm like oh okay like looking around
like this isn't it
this is black country yeah so I jump out
I guess like he had to turn off somewhere
soon so I'm standing on the side of the road
for an hour and there's all these horses
over there and they've all got full emo
hair like it's so funny
real long it's probably to keep them warm
but these two just had this
little bit of crosswind coming and I was standing there
straight opposite some horses
long road nothing else around
and these two just sitting here
like this and so I went over there
I just parted their part of their hair
I'm like it must be emo
it was like it was funny at a time
funny now yeah I agree
I was just trying to find the beauty
and the small things you know
waiting for the next car
and anyway like
about four more trips four more
hitchhikes and I finally got to this spot
and
you know I can't below this insane waterfall
never seen anything like it in my life
I told the girl at the restaurant
cause I didn't have a phone told the girl at the restaurant
I was like hey
no one knows where I'm going
can I
can I write my details down
and I'll call you
in three days time
and if you don't call me send for help
and she's like
what do you mean
I'm like no one knows where I am
you're now my safety
you're my best friend now
I'm not going to pay for this
anyway so she's like okay
and then I
camped under this waterfall
and I was like alright well I guess I'll start walking in the morning
and then when I went to sleep
I was like having these thoughts
I'm walking into the wilderness
I was like are there bears here
I was like I didn't know
I hadn't researched if there was bears in Iceland
I know in Greenland
there's polar bears and stuff
I'm like shit
yeah great
good research yeah
anyway in the morning
in the morning
I walked off and
all I had with me was
one packet of wraps
jar of peanut butter
and one little packet of muesli
don't ask me why
it's just all I could get
because in the
supermarket there
the only other food I could see was like
whale
and I was like well
I'm not going to cook that up
you add that to the plate for your turtle
you've got everything
and so I started walking
and yeah walking along
and then at point so
I knew I was passing over the volcano
that erupted in 2012
and you walk right over the crater
because it's all filled with ash and snow
and everything now
and so you can feel the heat still under your boots
and it was wild
and you're walking over all these different landscapes
and I decided
that I wasn't going to do it in one day
in three days I was going to do it in one
because
I didn't have enough food
and all of the huts along the way
the trail had officially closed
for winter and so I was about two weeks
after it closed
and so there's a few huts along the way
you can stay out for safety and whatever
and yeah walking along and then all of a sudden
I'm walking across this glacier
and it's like super slippery
and I'm just in normal boots
I'm like shit like I'm not ready for this
I've got nothing like to hold myself in
and I could see this water
going past me
and then into just this black hole
and you can just hear it
like a waterfall and I'm like
alright no one knows where I am
I'm trying to walk across this thing
I'm not going to go back I have to go forward
I've still got like 150 metres across this glacier
I'd seen more holes along the way
I didn't know how thick the ice was
pretty stupid but I was like
I'm here for it
and then yeah at one point
I'd slipped and it was like
just fingers into the ice
and just like sliding
I was like if I fall in here
there's it
I just freeze to death at the bottom
or hopefully knock myself out on the way down
and yeah
managed to
stop myself from sliding
and then get up and then keep walking across
and then just try and like
end up finding the real softer kind of snow
to walk on because it had a little bit more grip in the tread
and yeah there was a bunch of that
jeez
I'm getting sweaty here
I'm just like imagining that
I find it hard to take myself to a moment
where that is like
that's terrifying
and I've never really had experience with ice or snow
except for Hawaii
on top
at the top of a monarchy on the Big Island
was the first time I saw snow
it was a funny place to see snow
and then you're just slipping down this glacier
wow
so true
I knew it was true
I was like
if there was a bit of mail on it or not
and it's like not at all
there's less mail on there
I'm mindful of
the time we've taken off salty here
I do one thing you probably should have touched on earlier
the boat
I know that's probably
regressing a little bit but
become a big part of what you do now
as well I suppose this year
offshore stuff so the boat
is stabby craft
it's
the perfect boat
it's like the same length of the car
it's like 5 metres
and you can kind of tell
anywhere I can beach launch and retrieve
anywhere
I love my surfing
love my diving, getting crazed
beer fishing
and then fishing up in the Kimberley
it's like the ultimate size craft for it
you're big enough to feel safe
in big crock country
and you can still get way
up the back of creeks
and so now that's
that kind of
I kind of plan my trips around that
if I can take that
that definitely has a different effect
because everyone that started following me on YouTube
originally loves the Troopy and the Outback Venture
and now having a boat
not everyone's an ocean baby
so
that's kind of
a different audience now
for people that love that kind of thing
is that where you took
you did a barramundi expedition
you tried to catch the biggest barramundi you could find
did you go in that boat
or was that a charter kind of thing
no no I went on that boat
I wasn't actually out there trying to catch barrels
just out for trying to find cool spots
in the Kimberley
and then happened to get some big barra
and barra in places where
people didn't think there was barra
just found them
taking spots
so
yeah there's um
for the Kimberley man it's a perfect boat
it really is sick
small fits up there
what's been your most memorable trip
something that jumps out
top of the top of the head
whether it is like adventuring
or like New York as well
I don't have to keep New York in that separate
because
just yeah
whole different thing
but I think
these indigenous desert trips
that I do and the dockos I'm making
for the IDA
they're wild
man they're raw they're real
they're kind of everything
and you're out there and you're filming
amongst like massive fires
that we light sweeping across spin effects
country and next minute you're hunting
goanna
or chasing down turkey
or up in the helicopter
searching for sacred sites
and finding caves that no one's been in
since
the last indigenous person that was in there
lighting a fire
and riding on the walls
that kind of stuff is sick but
for me it's
going out with the dog
complete isolation
out somewhere
parked up no one around
and
just feeling that silence
I think not many people get to experience it
because as soon as there's someone else there
it's gone
you fill that with conversation
or even just their presence is different
so yeah probably those desert trips
where you're out by yourself
massive moon rise
like over the red
yeah
yeah
can't really put a finger on one of them
Kimbley's always wild though
there's always exciting
Ronnie wanted me to ask
he just asked me about salt lakes
Ronnie said
he loves salt lakes
was that where the salty name comes from maybe
the salty name came from the surf industry
but salt lakes
Ronnie
he's always wanted to ask me this himself
salt lakes
I find them
the kind of silence
the first time I ever went out to a salt lake
and went camping was on Lake Ballard
which is out north of Calguli
you know where they've got those sculptures
a bunch of different sculptures
so I pulled up to the side of the salt lake
and then there's like massive
gravel car park and I was going to camp
just in the car park
and these french backpackers
came along and parked right next to me
there's no one else there
I'm talking like me to your weight
yeah right
are you kidding me
a bit of space I mean I know it's
culturally different and all that
and it's a safety thing but I was like
no way am I camping here now
with you guys right there and there's a whole van full of them
and so I just got my stuff
got Murray my dog
and just walked out
as far as I could on the salt lake
and camp next to one of these sculptures
and just had like
all of a sudden the flies disappeared
it was a little bit cooler out there
got like
as the sun was setting you get all these crazy colours
because you got a white palette
and then just everything's reflecting
and it was just silent
you know
I haven't experienced anything like it
like I hadn't
and after that I was like
well how can I not camp on these things
like they're like the hidden camp spot
you know you walk out
especially if they're rock solid
you walk out and you're camping on
it's like West Australian snow right
you know you're camping
on this white salt lake
and the colours are always different
the flies never seem to make it out there
because they're like I'm not flying across that
you know hot buddy surface
like reflective surface
yeah so
now I've got a bunch of salt lakes
on my maps that I'm like
if I really really want a peaceful night
and just some silence
I'll go there
and you know you light a big fire
out there and it's
pretty sick
and everyone that has
watched my videos except Ronnie
and seen it has gone out
and gone man that was the best thing I've ever done
best camp spot
you know they've just fanned their own
and gone out there and camped in the middle of a salt lake
that's why Burning Man exists
you know it's out on a salt lake
it's something about the flats
you are right though
it does look very unique
salt lakes have just got that
we did that one on the way back
a couple of years ago from Adelaide
we were standing on the side
and we got there late
but we did a podcast
out in the middle of one
the next morning and stuff like that
there is a different experience there
even though we were on the edge of it
we were on the salt lake
but we did
we walked out in the middle of the night
and there was some
I don't want to say it was a phenomenon
but we couldn't explain what was happening
with these light circling
someone explained it
to us I forget now
everything around you is almost magnified
because there's just no disturbance whatsoever
it is wicked out there
you've definitely found a hidden gem there
I'd never think to go out there and camp on it
we're going to start a caravan
that's an easy...
you'd have to convince people to come
they'll come
if they listen to this they'll come
last thing before we go to Around the Fire pit
Tough Dog
big sponsors of us
love a bit of Tough Dog
quality suspensions
Tough Dog tip, thank you
if we get a tip from you
what tip would you give people who are starting out
for driving, adventuring, youtube
do you have a tip for people
who are just getting into it
I guess
probably do it for you
do it
don't go out and try and make
make it big on youtube
if that's going to happen it'll happen
film stuff for you
film your weekend
as a good memory
or going out bush
and kind of like how I
was doing it and still do it
don't go out there and find a camp spot
and just get pissed
and cut some nuts in the gravel
car park
go out and explore where you're going
or at least park up and go for a walk
in the bush and see what it feels like
there outside of where everyone camps
but yeah
film it for yourself
I think it's got to be authentic
because everyone's out there
you know
trying to just cut some stuff together
and if you're not happy with what you're producing
then it's not going to work
right yeah I like that a lot
so you do a lot of solo camping
and travelling and that kind of stuff
don't get around that as much
as I should
there's something pretty unique about
solo camping
I mean even having a dog
adds a different layer to it
when you're just you
I think everyone's got to do it once
to see if it's for them or not
because some people
they need comfort in other people
they need conversation
or they're just self implode
but some people I think will find
a lot of value
in just being out there solo
even if it's just going to the hills
you know you go to the hills camp one night by yourself
see if it's for you or not
I don't have to find a salt lake I think
so I'm going to do
find a salt lake nearby
that's the one
perfect
I'll actually own all the salt lakes
salties campgrounds
that's his business
that's his business now
that's my name
didn't even come up for me in the race
in my notes
I've got nothing
around the fire pit
I do have one sort of overarching question
which I will ask at the end
but this is around the fire pit
there's a few that have been obviously
sent in from listeners or viewers
so I don't know
what this says but it is a
the name
it's Isaac Pearce
oh
yep
it's hard to read
it's all eyes and eyes
it is Isaac Pearce
it's all eyes and eyes
handle
handle
that's not a word it's got a red line under it
next big trip
in the Troopy
next big trip
is
I think Dirk Hartog
in a few weeks
obviously that's in the Troopy
so we're going to go up the coast
like
Calbarri
and then up to
Danum Shark Bay
I've actually never been to Dirk Hartog
I've been to other islands around there
but never put a car or a foot
on Dirk's
not sure yet I've decided
because it's only there for a few days
but I think I'll probably try
and make a little video out of that
yeah
Rowan Smart
is my iPhone camera good enough
as long as
as long as you're not
oh yeah it's iPhone
what model
let's say above a 14
mate 100%
and look
you can either shoot on your iPhone
with the colour
a lot of iPhones you can also shoot
log these days which is
means you shoot flat and then you add colour
in later so you can
colour grade your footage
so phones
a lot of phones can actually do that these days
so you can shoot 4k professional
and it still looks really good
the only thing with iPhone is you don't get
what's called compression
so you don't have a lens on it
that can make things
I guess the closest thing to it
would be portrait mode
it kind of blurs out the back
kind of bit of depth to it
it's the only thing you don't get and won't get
with an iPhone
and obviously if you don't have a drone
then everything's handheld
but like I said there's a lot of people out there
making YouTube videos
and making a lot of money
just with a GoPro so same tech
does it amaze you now
where the phone like an iPhone
or the latest Galaxy
Samsung
does that amaze you where that's gotten to
you've been in photography now for quite a while
and these probably
were on their way up at the time
the point where they are now
I think we're all a little bit amazed
with how good it can be from such a little device
but does that shock you a little bit
it shits me
as a photographer filmmaker
someone's like
what used to be a profession of behind the scenes
with an actual camera
someone's just standing there now with a phone
like this
that was someone's job once
it makes sense
and these iPhones
now a hundred times
and some better than
my first camera
the old 2 megapixel
way better
I don't know how they're doing it
if you do 32 times zoom it's still better
than my old camera
this camera
it impresses me
and I wonder where it's going
and I'm just waiting for
someone like DJI to bring out a phone
because I reckon that's not far off
the tech they've got now
with
they're now getting into cinema cameras
they wear just drones now they're action cams
the DJI action cams
in my opinion are way better than GoPro's
I'll never buy a GoPro again
even the microphones that DJI have got
unreal so good
and I love that
they just made all of their connections
GoPro compatible
so everyone that transitions from GoPro to DJI
you can just use your same
mounts and everything
it's kind of like a little
it's good
DJI know what they're doing
smart people
we're the ones
go away
so we've got Luke
longkarrick9 here
sorry if I've got that wrong Luke
but favourite part of your stabby craft
1450
I've recently just got
the Simrad Recon
so the drop down
basically like a
what are the other versions of them
the little trolling motor at the front of the boat
that you can buy on BCF
got one of those
and that's just insane
I could be outfishing
deep water currents moving
wind moving one way, currents moving the other
and that thing would just hold me
in one position without moving at all
it'll hold you
and I'm just a small boat
it'll hold about three times bigger
I always wondered how well they would do that
it's wild
but I could probably go jump
how big is the little propeller on it
oh really?
and that holding me
in the swell and the wind
it was only using 15%
really?
fire out that's gnarly
so you could sit in the middle of a
outgoing tide in the Kimberley
sit right on a spot
and literally hold a lure out the back
it will hold you there and just hold a lure
like you're trolling and wait for the fish to smack it
I spoke to
Lecker
and he was like
he didn't know much about it
but Rothy did
and Rothy's got a different model
and once Lecker got one
he's like man, why is it taking me so long
to get this thing
how detailed is Rothy
on all these technical stuff
I love it
they both do
he's just taking to it
I love that
and I just upgraded
to a 60 horsepower Suzuki
on the back
so it just got a bit more up and go
wow
the way
sozzy
what do you think makes the perfect shot
big question
sitting around the campfire with red wine
would be pretty damn good but
I don't know it depends on
what you say is a perfect shot, right?
yeah
I guess one that tells the story
the right story
you can have beautiful big drone shots
but if you've got 30 drone shots in a row
you kind of get sick of them
and they lose their kind of feeling and their mood
but if you've got one shot
of
you walking through the bull shore and
a salt lake or a climber of something
doesn't have to be much
but yeah it's a hard one
I mean what would you
think is a perfect shot
anything with his car in it
that's me
I think you could get so deep on this
because
I don't know
the saying is beauty is in the eye of the beholder
like that
I don't know
I really don't know what would make the perfect shot
would have been your favourite ones from our trip
all the ones with your car in it
a film shot
I mean the lightning is hard to beat
from our trip
that's pretty good
just mint I love when all three
I think
because I'm such like a I'm a bit of a noob
like all this stuff like
a drone shot for me is really
I love drone shots because it gives
it gives just a great understanding
of where you are
that's a unique perspective
you never see that
that's been a helicopter you just never see that
I love some of the drone shots
where we're all in the shot together
and not in line
side by side
because the quality
is so good that you can see the bumps
in the road so I love those moving shots
I probably don't know
what makes the perfect shot but for me
as like a
not much of an understanding in this
space I was just thinking in terms of
photos though I love
and I don't even know if anyone does it
but I love seeing on
maybe they are more of a documentary
sort of style film where you might be out on
Alquestro and you're filming all the ringers
you know doing their day's work and then
there's just a three second still shot
of a black and white
with them all having a beer around the fire
and cooking a steak and it's just in amongst the
it's just like that moment where it pauses
and it gives you that
bit more raw
I don't even know
it's in my head so I'm sure I've seen it before
more like doco style
where it's almost shot from the hip
like in the middle of an action
and there's someone
leaning over the fire
there might be someone chatting to you about
the day's work and then overlay
voiceover
there's like a still of everyone
having a great time together and talking about the day's work
that's just an example of what it might be
it might be any video but any form
and it just pauses for three seconds
and you get to see
everyone
I think
I wouldn't say there's a perfect shot
but because
the more you look at it the more you're like
damn it should have been just this way
or this lower
or different lighting
but
the shots I do love is
around a campfire
maybe one or two cars
and straight above with the drone
is always really really nice
not showing too much
just showing 40-50 meters around
and just that scene
that slow pull out and revealing
where you are
that's pretty special
actually it was one of those shots
I saw in your notes
the monster children
it was actually one of those shots directly above
that won me five grand in the monster children
lifestyle photo competition
so that was 2017 you won that
yeah
ten years ago
a long time ago
that was my mate Cameron and I
and he was
we were both in Tassie for the first time
and we were camping in the snow
and they'd all told everyone to get down the hill
big front coming in
and boys from Perth were like
absolutely west end here
this is why we came here, Windsor
yeah
we were like no west end in the snow
and they were like oh okay it's going to be really cold
like minus seven or something
and we were like bring it on
and the lady down the road in a shop
was like I will leave the door unlocked
if you get too cold you can come sleep on the floor
and we were like oh thank you very much
anyway camp there that night
next morning took a photo from directly above
and it was just our snow laden cars
and just one single set of footprints
walking around the car
and that was kind of it
it looked sick it was
oh wow
it was um
that is unreal
just kind of revealed where we were
we got like this much snow on the top of the bonnets
yeah that's deep
I didn't even know Tassie snowed that much
and I walked around
and Windsor he slept
I was in the rooftop tent he slept in the swag
walked around
I was like wind dog you alright
nothing
Windsor
and there's no movement nothing
I'm like shit
it was cold last night
I don't know if his sleeping bag is that good
like some scrape in the snow off the top of his swag
and I'm trying to undo
and I finally hear like this
I'm trying to undo the zip
and the zip's frozen I'm like spitting on the zip
to try and warm it up
and just trying anything to
get in because he couldn't get out
and got in
and he's just like
I'm never doing that again
and he reckons he slept half an hour
and I was like man what's your sleeping bag
we had look and it's like
Kmart sleeping bag with like cotton
or something not even close to being good enough
yeah and it was like good for plus 4 degrees
bro
like why don't you come up the rooftop tent
I told you if you get cold
couldn't get out
couldn't try
winds the stands up
and he's like you know like in a potato sack
when you're like jumping along
he's just seen the whole swamp
that's good
I was up in the rooftop tent with hand warmers
you're just living the best life
I was up there
this is good
cold was it? not I think so
not here
so it might be that one but
so Rory has asked what's been your favourite
most memorable experience that's come from
your work
or is there a shot you just knew you had something special
the second you pressed the shutter
maybe it is that
maybe there's another one that stands out
I knew that one was cool
I didn't think it would win the comp
because there's some competitions
from all over the world people
some of my biggest idols put photos in that comp
and so when I won it and I saw some of their photos
in there I was like
gotcha
salty
messaged him
yeah that was me that won
let's let you know I won that one
I think
the
time we on El Questro
with the Kimberley with the rings western boys
that was pretty wild
that was pretty special
eye opening in all facets
it was
yeah
the shit we did in 10 days
it's just so epic and
made mates for life as well
but
I think it's hard to beat that first trip
in Kirikara going out there
with that mob
and just seeing
how true
survivalists can survive
there's no
I mean
I love the bush tucker man but these people are on
a whole other level
and
for me that was probably
big highlight
that's all
what's that
I just said hell yeah
I thought you were telling me to look at something
I needed to get him out on one but
I know
I am very fast
I love indigenous culture
and I think what you get to experience out there
is like
I'm not
a very small percentage of
Australians get to experience
that
and I'm
I'm oddly jealous of that experience
I reckon that's incredible and I've had mates
working in communities remote
in WA
and I've
visited some but not
within a couple of hours around Newman
we went to war but
and stuff like that but I haven't been able to immerse myself
with the people there as much as I would love to
something we look into doing
post footy
I reckon that stuff is really cool
and do talks out there
or like that anthropology
anthropology side of things
but
human landscape I've always had a fascination
about
who shapes who in a way
does the landscape shape who that person
becomes in these places
or even anywhere like down
even Marn's or Denmark or something
does that you know the landscape
the weather and everything shape that person
or is the person
kind of shape themselves
based on the landscape
around them if that kind of
there's a difference there
what have you come up with as an answer for that
I think the
obviously the landscape definitely makes
I think the landscape makes you who you are
inside
like
can create
you tough or it can create
you vulnerable or
scared
depending on how you face all those
yeah
you can go kind of deep with that but like
you imagine someone
in fun North Russia on a little island
where all they do is live to fish
and that's it
they go out no matter the weather
because they have to bring fish back in
those kind of people
it's like
probably you know those kind of people
make the toughest people on earth
because it's like you don't get a choice
you're not going on in the office
the office is like
fight the sea work with it
brave it and hope you come home
to feed your family
wow
I feel like
as we're nearing the end here
we've tried to put 20 years
of a bit of a timeline probably
together here in whatever it's been
and then I feel like
he's next four weeks
we could do a whole another just
two hours on and then like
we haven't even gone into like the
emotion and the feeling and the understanding
of any of this stuff which I think
there's a whole another chat too but
which is good and just leaves us for part two
and it won't take three years to get back to the next one
might take six
might be a six hour show
before we wrap up
so Salty Davenport on Instagram
Salty Davenport photography
on Facebook SaltyDavenport.com
to jump on your website
just to throw in at the end there
I do want to ask you now just before we tie
it off actually websites probably
Hammersley Productions
Hammersley Productions
that's good he had one thing
one wrong
next time there's a little bit of improvement
pretty good I would say
no Salty Davenport websites still there
still there you can still look at the portfolio
of work there's a Harlem photo
of the two girls
I really like that photo that's a wicked photo
I reckon you see so much personality
just in a look
that both of the girls are giving
now you know the story those are the girls
there you go
I really like that photo
you want to say that
that's got some New York and model stuff in there
on the Salty Davenport
Hammersley Productions or more doco stuff now
Hammersley Productions
is that your company now
Hammersley Productions
so what's next for you mate
as we tie this off what's
yeah we obviously we've got a little insight
into what the next month looks like but what does
the next year the next five years
I don't know how far you project but
what's on the cards
probably never really think
too far ahead
yeah
yeah I haven't
I mean I haven't thought to summer or anything yet
yeah cool
I think for me
definitely want to get the YouTube
rolling again and
I've got a few plans for that and a few places I want to go
so this next month
Chockers with Epic Little Adventures
but after that
then June, July, August, September
I'll be
Flat Stick exploring on the road
see where I can get up to
hit up you know the new kind of
Ringers Western mob
up in Cummers and see
what crazy shit they're up to
oh that'll be wicked I can't wait
yeah it's a lot of stuff
I'd love to tag along somehow
even to New York or something
hahahaha
seriously
can we go back
I do want to go back
just to see what it's like
mate thanks for coming on today
yeah we really appreciate that
we've taken way more of your time
but
yeah we appreciate you coming on and having a chat
yeah I feel like the stories could flow for a lot longer
than what we've actually done it for
yeah thanks for coming in
that'll be us mate the forward drop podcast
power type hour obviously thanks to Tough Dog
I forgot the tips so apologies there
we've got one out though in the end and obviously type hour
Patreon sticker and
if you've got five more minutes mate
have a quick chat to our little community
but thank you that's it for us
Stoke to anything you want to plug at the end
no
just
Stoke to be here and have a chat with your boys
until the next one
thanks so much
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About this episode
Salty Davenport finally joins the show to map his winding path from WA farm kid to freelance photo/film storyteller and Troopy adventurer. He covers growing up with big-sky freedom, chasing surfing and footy, then pivoting into cameras—starting with a J1 to New York where he assisted and shot high-energy fashion work. The conversation then shifts to his Troopy build, long-form YouTube approach, solo camping, and the “silence” of salt lakes. Salty also shares raw desert and Kimberley ranger shoots, including indigenous land management, bush tucker, and survival-style experiences.
Original notes
A very special guest this episode as videographer, photographer and wanderer Salty Davenport joins the boys to talk working in photography in New York with models, a wild crevasse in Iceland & why camping on a salt lake is one of the best experiences you can have. Salty chats about the Kimberley's hold on him, his work alongside Indigenous rangers and the journey that brought him here.
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