1[Deer Wars] The Last Great Adventure Red deer run rampant across the high country in New Zealand, causing extensive environmental damage. A 50-year effort to control the invasive animal gets underway. By the 1930’s the deer population in New Zealand was out of control and causing serious environmental damage through grazing, severe soil erosion and slips from the thousands of hooves ripping up the ground. Even today you can find deer trails several feet deep crossing major passes. The Department of Internal Affairs creates an ambitious program to drastically reduce the deer population, run by World War I veteran Captain George Yerex, aka “The Skipper”. The programme hires men, mostly experienced shooters, as cullers. Their job is simple; to kill as many deer as possible, leaving the bodies where they fall and cutting off the tails as proof of kill. There are no huts. Cullers stay in tent camps or rock bivouacs, spending up to nine months at a time in the field, often without seeing another person. This is some of the toughest, most remote country in New Zealand. The men are working above the bush line in snow and ice, fording dangerous rivers and negotiating ravines. With no radio communications, they have to be totally self-sufficient. The job attracts a mixture of applicants. Some are experienced bushmen but others are enthusiastic teenagers and overseas immigrants with no idea of New Zealand’s harsh, mountain conditions. All of them are thrown in at the deep end with very mixed results. [Season 2023, Episode 01, Friday 20 October 2023, 05:00]

2[Sporting Witness] 1964: When surfing came to Australia How Manly Beach in Australia hosted the first official World Surfing Championships. In 1964, Australia hosted the first official World Surfing Championships with surfers from France, USA, South Africa, England and Peru. Around 60,000 people watched the event. Nearly 60 years ago, New South Wales in Australia hosted the first official World Surfing Championships. The competition attracted around 200 entries, including surfers from France, USA, South Africa, England, Peru and New Zealand. The event was held in May at Sydney's Manly Beach and pulled in a crowd of up to 60,000 people. Australian finalist Mick Dooley speaks to Patrick Kiteley about competing in the competition and how the weekend heralded a new wave of surf lovers in his country, making it a catalyst for the phenomenon the sport has become there today. Released on: Saturday 14 October 2023