Ray Martin: Mysteries of the Outback (SBS Sunday 9 April 2023)

TV icon Ray Martin goes on an exciting adventure in Ray Martin: Mysteries of the Outback to locate a mystery rock structure in the Outback that he noticed and photographed from 37,000 feet in the air.

He calls this enigmatic figure from the Dreamtime the Running Man Rock. While travelling the 5 000 km of breathtaking landscapes, meeting fascinating personalities, and investigating the peculiar mysteries of this ancient and entrancing region, Martin is accompanied on his journey by famous landscape photographer Ken Duncan.

William Barton, an Indigenous musician of international repute who has played for Queen Elizabeth II, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Midnight Oil, meets them when they approach the legendary Running Man Rock. The Kalkadoon man from Mount Isa composes original music for the film, and his didgeridoo performance on Running Man Rock at sunset is emotional, symbolic, and motivational.

Martin doesn’t gloss over the sombre past of these remote parts of Queensland on the border with the Northern Territory. He travels to the sites of two horrific massacres: at Hanging Tree, where white police massacred dozens of Native Americans, and at Battle Mountain, where as many as 900 Kalkadoon were killed by settlers in 1884. Don Rowlands, a park ranger in Simpson Desert, assures him that people are beginning to speak the truth.

Airdate: Sunday 9 April 2023 at 7.30pm.