Actor Mark Coles Smith takes viewers into one of Australia’s most remote regions in the new natural history series The Kimberley. Premiering May 13 on ABC, the show looks at the vast landscape and its unique wildlife through the lens of the local Indigenous calendar.
Here’s the Lowdown: Airing Tuesday, May 13 at 8 pm on ABC TV and ABC iview, this three-part series follows Mark Coles Smith, a Nyikina man, across the expansive Kimberley region in North-Western Australia. Spanning over 400,000 square kilometres, the area features savannas, gorges, rivers, and coastlines. The series structure follows the six distinct seasons of the Nyikina calendar, highlighting the efforts of Traditional Owners and ecologists to protect the area’s biodiversity, home to rare animals like the world’s smallest marsupial.
What This Means Now: Viewers get a guided look at a vast and wild part of Australia few get to see. Led by someone with deep connections to the land, the series presents the region’s natural wonders and the conservation work happening there, using advanced filming techniques to capture animal behaviour.
The Bigger Picture: The Kimberley puts Indigenous knowledge front and center by using the Nyikina seasonal calendar to frame its narrative. It details the challenges of conservation in a remote area and uses new camera technology to film wildlife sequences previously unseen. This production represents a significant natural history project for the ABC, Screen Australia, and international partners like Love Nature and Arte France.
