Award-winning journalist Dan Clarke joins us from Kangaroo Island to talk about frontier-style journalism in a community where you’ll meet your subjects in the IGA checkout line, why satire might be the gentlest way to tell hard truths, and the long saga of a ferry called Ruwi, before Steve Davis and the Virtualosos sign off with a satirical song about a River Torrens platypus that may or may not exist.
Somewhere in an Indonesian shipyard, a new ferry for Kangaroo Island went quiet for three weeks. Dan Clarke, former South Australian Journalist of the Year, double Kennedy Award winner and Walkley winner, arrives with breaking news: Ruwi is back on the tracking signal. From there we cover his start as a messenger at The Advertiser, his move to the island, and his running of Island Independent and the Kangaroo Island News and Satire page. We also talk about why a small community needs a fourth estate even when some readers find the jokes too negative.
There’s no SA Drink of the Week in this episode.
In the Musical Pilgrimage, Steve Davis and the Virtualosos answer satire with satire. Schrödinger’s Platypus takes a $4 million pledge to bring platypuses back to the River Torrens and asks whether they are in the river, not in the river, or just useful for a press release.
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Running Sheet: Kangaroo Island News, Satire, and Frontier Journalism
00:00:00 Intro
Introduction
00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week
No SA Drink Of The Week this week.
00:03:50 Daniel Clarke
Daniel Clarke first came to Kangaroo Island as a boy on family summer holidays at American River. He returned years later with his partner, who had never visited before. She fell for it straight away, and with two young children they decided it was the place to raise a family. He expected freelance work to be scarce. Instead, he says the island has given him the best stories of his career, one after another.
His path into journalism started with storm-chasing videos and the Clarke and Dawe segments on the 7.30 Report. He missed out on the university course and got a cadetship at The Advertiser, starting as a messenger. He describes that job, fondly, as the lowest rung in the building: making coffee, handing out faxes, collecting an editor’s dry cleaning, and once buying a cabbage for an editor. On night shifts, the sub-editors began testing him with headline suggestions. He still remembers seeing his “human shields” line in print the next morning, from a story that tied John Howard to the Iraq War protesters. Steve compares Dan to A.W. Merrick in Deadwood, the newspaperman who hauls a printing press into a gold-rush camp and learns the local power brokers push back. Dan knows the comparison well. He has lost friendships over his stories and still sees those people in the checkout line. But he insists he isn’t looking for conflict. His aim is simple: to make the island “a better place and an easier place for people to live.”
Then we come to satire. After one reader called his posts “misinformation dressed up as satire,” Dan posted a reminder about what satire is for, with a photo of Valerie, the famous missing sausage dog from his Australian Story documentary. His census parody neatly sums up island debate: islanders want visitors, but not too many visitors, and want cheaper ferries, but not so cheap that more visitors come. He says the piece simply repeats what he hears every day. Another post, about a large branch hanging over a bridge at Cygnet River, shows how absurd the jurisdiction problem can be: the tree stands on council land and the branch hangs over a state government road, so a year later it is still there. Dan argues that satire is “almost the softest way of getting a message across,” and that governments dislike embarrassment enough to act on it.
The SeaLink saga is the story Dan would most like to stop writing. The new ferries are more than two years late. The contract, signed under a Liberal government, apparently doesn’t even allow a fine. Almost 30-year-old vessels carry around a quarter of a million sheep off the island each year, and a planned three-day shutdown for ramp works lands in the middle of the sheep-moving season. Earlier cancellations have already cost small tourism businesses thousands of dollars. Steve links this to a wider frustration: governments pursue MotoGP deals while basic services such as freight lag behind.
We finish with Dan’s documentaries. Lost in the Woods, now on Binge, won him a Walkley. It investigates the collapse of the island’s blue gum plantations. Millions of tonnes of timber were planted for carbon credits but had no way off the island once the Smith Bay port was blocked, so the wood is now being burnt. Dan filmed logging from the roadside while koalas were still in the trees, and the footage became a major Channel 7 story. His point was that one person with a camera found what the government’s half-day investigation missed. Island of the Dead, on ABC iview through Compass, is very different in tone. It follows death doula Heidi Grieg and three women at the end of their lives who treated death as ordinary and let him film them. Two of them did not live to see the film. Then Steve asks for the headline for Ruwi’s eventual arrival.
Additional Resources
Kangaroo Island News and Satire (Facebook): news, parody, and the GoFundMe link in the About section if you’d like to help keep independent journalism going on the island
Island Independent: Dan’s news outlet
Lost in the Woods on Binge: the free trial is worth it for this Walkley winner alone
Island of the Dead on ABC iview (Compass): confronting, gentle, and paced to suit the story
Angertainment by Ed Coper: the book Steve recommends on how outrage drives what we pay attention to
Episode 122, Kangaroo Island: A Midsummer Night’s Gin, and Episode 315, from Steve’s visit to 5KIX FM, for more of The Adelaide Show on KI
01:01:04 Musical Pilgrimage
In the Musical Pilgrimage this week we listen to Schrödinger’s Platypus by Steve Davis & The Virtualosos.
A Glam Adelaide headline promised a “major push” to bring platypuses back to the River Torrens, backed by more than $4 million. Reading further, Steve found that the river doesn’t have enough water flow, that foxes, cats and dogs would eat any platypus released there, that there is no identified source of platypuses, and that the study behind the story was from 2022. He also noticed the timing, as the government was changing parklands rules to make way for MotoGP. With Schrödinger’s famous cat in mind, and knowing platypuses spend their days in burrows and their nights underwater, he wrote this song. A cheerful chorus carries a pointed message, and the late physicist turns up in person to explain the “monotreme paradox.” The song follows Dan’s approach to the news: stay calm, state the facts, and let the absurdity show.
Here’s this week’s preview video
There is no preview video this week, however, this satire video is referenced in the chat. It is Dan’s retelling of the Sealink ferries frustrations.
SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.
An AI generated transcript – there will be errors. Check quotes against the actual audio (if you would like to volunteer as an editor, let Steve know)
440 TAS
===
Steve Davis: [00:00:00] Hello, Steve Davis here. Welcome to episode 440 of The Adelaide Show podcast, and we’re heading across the waves today to Kangaroo Island. Now, if you’ve been a long time listener to The Adelaide Show, like Alexis, you will know that we first visited in 2015 for episode 122. It was called Kangaroo Island: A Midsummer Night’s Gin, and we went over to celebrate KI Spirits and also that wonderful Fig Tree restaurant that I do want to go back to when it reopens for the summer season in November of this year.
And then we went back to Kangaroo Island a few years later. It was 2020, and that was in episode 315, where I was over on the island with my family having a, a week’s getaway, and I was invited onto Five Kicks FM with Blondie and the Geezer and had a good old chat about everything, all sorts of things. So Kangaroo Island [00:01:00] has been awesome in my lived experience on this planet.
Been over for work a few times as well. But our guest today is someone who is playing a vital role there as the fourth estate. I talk about Daniel Clark or Dan Clark. He runs Island Independent and also the KI News and Satire page, and I’ve been following his work for a while, and just recently there’s been some excellent pieces of satire, but he also copped a bit of flack for being too negative about the island.
I think we’ll find that is not the case, and we’re about to have a long-ranging chat with him about what drew him to journalism, what drew him to Kangaroo Island, the sorts of stories he deals with, the nature of being a journalist in a small community where you have to rub shoulders with people you might be writing about, his documentary work and a whole lot.
I mean, Sealink might get mentioned. Here’s the heads up. Sealink and Ruwi, [00:02:00] wherever she may be at the moment, might get a mention. I think you can probably put money on that. Uh, but lots to, to get our teeth into about the nature of living and thriving in life in 2026 with all of the frustrations and the ability to be really grumpy on social media and yet still live together in a community.
And then finally, in the musical pilgrimage, we have a different approach to satire with the latest song from Steve Davis and the Virtualosos. It’s called Schrödinger’s Platypus.
TAS Theme: Wave on wave, she’s got a bad rep
Yadel yadel lady ooh. Sing daddle soodany. Yadel yadel lady ooh. Oh, lillalay[00:03:00]
Caitlin Davis: In the spirit of reconciliation, the Adelaide Show podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout South Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
TAS Theme: Adelaide, Adelaide.
Steve Davis: Somewhere in an Indonesian shipyard, a ferry called Ruwi has gone dark. There’s no radio signal, no tracking, and there are about, at the time of recording, [00:04:00] about four days left to meet Sealink’s latest promise that she’ll be in South Australian waters by the end of September. Back on Kangaroo Island, the man who is keeping the public record on all of this is also comparing her to a runaway sausage dog.
Um, Daniel Clark, he’s a former South Australian Journalist of the Year and a double Kennedy Award winner. There are probably other awards I haven’t even found. These days, he does also spend part of his week being told his jokes are too negative for a sensitive island. Dan, welcome to the Adelaide Show.
Daniel Clarke: Oh, thanks very much, Steve. Thank you. And I’ve, I’ve actually got some breaking news for you, mate, right here. Uh, the Ruwi has reappeared on the radio signal, so it’s still in Indonesia, hasn’t got here, but it’s, uh, of, as of last night, it’s reappeared after about, oh, three weeks out of range.
Steve Davis: How long does it take to sail from Indonesia to here?
I don’t think it’s gonna quite make September.
Daniel Clarke: I don’t think so. I think the last one, the, uh, the first ferry took about 20 days or something similar [00:05:00] to that, so at least, I think at least two weeks anyway.
Steve Davis: Okay. I, I wanna come back to this tracking too ’cause it’s an amazing part of what you’re doing on KI.
But talking of KI, before we go any further, I, I should declare my own history. Um, I have been a guest on KIX FM on one of our family holidays there, which was great.
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: Yep.
Steve Davis: And in the early days with Adelaide Show, KI Spirits, um, chipped in to help pay us to come across to celebrate them and also go to the wonderful Fig Tree restaurant.
Mm. Uh, so I’ve had a taste of how good the, the island is. Yes. Visiting is one thing though. Living there is another. Mm. So what was it that drew you to Kangaroo Island, and when did it stop being a place you visited and started being home?
Daniel Clarke: Yeah, well I always visited with my family as a young kid for every summer.
Came over and just loved the place. Always stayed at American River, a lovely little fishing town there, and, um, always just loved, always stuck in my mind about how sort of free and beautiful and calm it [00:06:00] was, and relaxing. And, um, my partner had actually never been over here. One of those, uh, you know, a lot of Adelaide people have never been to KI, and there are a lot of reasons for that we might talk about later.
Steve Davis: Yeah.
Daniel Clarke: But, um, but yeah, she’d never been here and then she… I brought her, her over and she just fell straight in love with it as well. And at the time we were just starting a family and we thought, “Well, what a great place to, to bring up ki- kids.” And we thought that was the perfect time, just after we’d had our first two kids and, well we’ve only got two but, um, we stopped it there.
But, uh- … look, uh, it’s been great bringing them up here and, and the lovely little school at Penneshaw.
Steve Davis: It’s not dissimilar to pre- growing up in a country town area because- Mm … you’ve got the freedom and the cleanliness and- Mm … people knowing people for safety, but you are remote from emergency medical interv- This is, this is a parent brain going here, but-
TAS Theme: Mm.
Mm-hmm …
Steve Davis: I guess at some point, humans have survived for thousands of years on this planet. At some point you have to put your penny down and, and go for it, don’t you?
Daniel Clarke: That’s right. You do. You do. It’s always a bit of a risk I think with, with work as well, it was [00:07:00] always a bit of a worry. Uh, you know, how much work was I gonna get over here, and kind of relied on my freelance stuff to keep us going.
But, um, but no, I love it. Yeah. Uh, like you say, it’s, it’s isolated, but it is funny how close it is to Ad- You know, it’s a 20-minute flight, or sorry, it’s probably a 40-minute flight. Yeah. Um, and you get on the ferry and you’re in Adelaide by, by one and a half hours, two hours. So, um, we still, still feel close, but we’re, we feel nice and separated as well from from the mainland.
Steve Davis: Now you mentioned you’re freelancing. Let’s get into journalism because- Mm … you said on the public record that you decided at the end of school that you wanted to be a journalist. Agreed. This is at a time when most 17-year-olds don’t even know what they’re having for lunch yet. Was there a story or a person or a moment that planted that seed?
Daniel Clarke: Uh, that’s an interesting question. Yeah, it probably wasn’t a moment. Uh, uh, funnily enough, I was always interested in, um, ironically, storm chasing when I was a kid. You know, I loved the, the videos of chasing tornadoes and big, big lightning, and maybe [00:08:00] that’s what contributed to it, you know, being part of the action and, and the adrenaline.
So that kinda came into it. And I think I always liked writing. I always liked English as well and, and being part of the story. But, um, you know, it was what led a little bit, I guess the, the, the satire as well, which we might talk about later, but, um, you know, it was the John Clark, Brian Dawe show, um, segments on, uh, the 7.30 Report back in the day, if, uh, everyone’s old enough for that.
TAS Theme: Yep.
Daniel Clarke: Um, absolutely loved those and saw it as a way of, you know, showing… telling news stories in a comedic way, but getting a message across as well. So maybe that all, all contributed to what… So yeah, not a exact moment, but I guess a buildup of things, and I was very lucky to actually get a cadetship straight in at The Advertiser.
Um, so I’d- Mm … just missed out on the uni course, so that’s how I got into it.
Steve Davis: So the adrenaline, before we leave, move on from that, ’cause when I started in radio, I was at 5MU, and I started their newsroom with Rod White, who was a former Advertiser journalist who’d moved to Victor Harbor. And I [00:09:00] remember the adrenaline getting the better of me so often.
There was a little grass fire out of town, and I drove there in my stat- my own Hyundai, which the station had put a two-way radio on, drove across the paddock to go and chat to the CFS boys, and was told in no uncertain terms to go away because- Get out of it … it’s a p- it’s a c- consumer car. A spark could set it on fire, and then they’d have to focus…
Wow. Yeah. But that- Yeah … I get the adrenaline, though. That… When does that change? Does it ever change to- Mm … a more, if we like, grown-up approach of seeking the story versus that rush of blood? Does it, or is it an ongoing- Yeah,
Daniel Clarke: I don’t know. I don’t know if it does, because I don’t think if you’re a, if you’re a journalist chasing a story, I think you still need that adrenaline.
I think you need the, the motivation and, you know, what’s gonna, what’s gonna drive you to get there. So I think that’s always there. I think you probably obviously become more experienced over time and know what’s gonna happen and understand it a bit more and [00:10:00] like, like you say, with driving across the paddock, you wouldn’t do that now.
No way. So you learn, you learn things along the way, and things are a lot more controlled, I guess, on the, you know, on, uh, events like that as well around emergency services. So-
Steve Davis: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: um, there’s limits to, to where you can go and what you can do, but
Steve Davis: yeah. Is there, is there still adrenaline when you’re doing a story that might involve neighbors?
I mean, it’s a different… It’d be a different thing, wouldn’t it, when
Daniel Clarke: you- Yeah, when you’re talking about Kan- Kangaroo Island. Yeah. Well, yeah, well, that’s… And that’s, I think that’s the big issue, and I ca- I guess it’s a hard thing to deal with as a journalist when you’re working in a small community. You do really know everyone.
Uh, you know, y- the relationships that go on, the people that work in certain places, and that can be a really tough thing to sorta get your head around, ’cause you’re gonna write things and say things that people aren’t gonna like. And I’ve, uh, that’s obviously played out a fair bit over the last few years with, with what I’ve been doing.
Um, but I think you g- just kinda have to stick to your guns and, and, you know, if you’re just trying to tell the truth, that’s, that’s all you can really push for. And, um, you gotta hold the line with that, I guess. And, um, it’s not always easy, and there are things that maybe you don’t [00:11:00] write in certain circumstances that you that you might if you’re in a city reporter where you don’t know anyone or nobody knows you personally.
Steve Davis: Yes, that anonymity, uh, it can embolden you. Mm. Although you said some interesting things in an interview, uh, as you were getting a Kennedy Award for your journalism. You mentioned about the time in the newsroom, how it taught you about- That toughness that you need. Mm. Uh, I guess a thicker skin. Mm. Um, but you also are one of the last of the old breed, because you started as a messenger, didn’t you?
What was that like- Oh, that was- … at the bottom of the bottom
Daniel Clarke: in- Very bottom. The, the making a coffee and, uh, handing out faxes and, uh, being clipped over the ear continually. Taking the dry cleaning of the, the editor, all those types of thing. Actually, it was even, um, going out and buying cabbage for one of the editors as well.
So these are really important jobs that you had to do as a messenger. But essentially they call it, if we, if you don’t mind a little bit of … The shit kicker, if that’s okay. Yeah. [00:12:00] Um, and look, it was great because, I think it was excellent because you got to see how it operated. That’s really what they had you there for.
They generally, as a messenger, they saw some kind of future for you or hoped that you, you might turn into a good journalist, so they brought you in and, and let you see how it all operated. And, um, got a really close, especially with the sub-editor’s desk, we’d get, you’d do a n- night shift, and you’d sit there and watch how they put it together.
And, you know, they started to s- like even ask me, you know, “Oh, how, what about a headline for this, mate?” You know, and just that, those kind of things. So, you know, just to, to sort of test the waters with you. So it was great, great fun to learn that. And those, all those guys were the most experienced, you know- Yeah
you know, guys and girls, are most experienced in the, in the office. So, uh, it was great to learn from them. And it was a good job. It was, I, I liked it and, you know, pretty easy as well, just walking around doing those types of things and getting paid for it.
Steve Davis: And then of course you start work- working up the ladder where it gets harder because you’ve gotta apply that gumption.
Mm. Did, did any of your headline ideas as a [00:13:00] messenger make it into print?
Daniel Clarke: I did remember one, one stands out specifically. Um, a guy called John Wislow, who’s, is a great, great headline writer at The Advertiser. Won a lot of awards, I think. I remember him asking me about… I don’t know if you remember the story about the human shields who were going over, which war?
I can’t remember the wars. There’s so many bloody wars go on.
Steve Davis: Was it the First Gulf War?
Daniel Clarke: Yeah, I think it was. I think, yeah, was it the Iraq after, um… Mm I reckon it was after 9/11 with the Iraq War, I got a feeling. Oh,
Steve Davis: okay. Yeah.
Daniel Clarke: Pretty sure. And there was, um, the, uh, yeah, and so locals were heading over there to be human shields, basically putting themselves in the line of fire to stop the bombing or stop the invasion for, I can’t remember the exact details.
But, um, yeah, I remember he asked me what the headline was for a, a story that was about John Howard, a separate story, and anyway, it involved human shields. I came up with the human shields line, and then I saw it in the paper the next day and I thought, “Oh wow, that’s, that’s cool.” It kinda gives you a little bit extra motivation to go, oh, maybe I can do this and, and, uh, you know, get things printed online, in, on, in publishing.[00:14:00]
Steve Davis: And look, you just reminded me of headlines. Of course, you can’t talk headlines in this game without thinking of the NT News up in Darwin ’cause they’ve- Yes … they’ve had some rippers. Um- They’ve had some rippers I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but there’s only one show on the ABC I’ve never missed in my entire life- Yeah
a single episode. It’s Media Watch.
TAS Theme: Oh, yes.
Steve Davis: Yes. Um, have you ever crossed paths with Media Watch?
Daniel Clarke: Or have you not? No, fortunately , fortunately I haven’t. Um, I remember getting a call one day when I was at The Advertiser. I can’t remember the exact subject, it was too long ago. But, uh, it w- it was a very suspicious call that made me think, and someone confirmed it later, and thought, “Yep, that was probably Media Watch asking you to see if they could paint you into a corner with something you’d written.”
But, uh, nothing came of it, so
Steve Davis: And do you- I’m fortunate not to … do you like the show? Uh-
Daniel Clarke: I do, I do. I used to l- I haven’t watched it… I’ve, uh, I’m coming in out of it now, but I used to watch it continually when I was working at the paper, obviously, to, to stay up to date with, with what was going on. It’s a very…
Yeah, it’s a [00:15:00] great show. I enjoy it. And we need more of that, I think. It’s co- could be longer than it is. It’s always sort of 10, 15 minutes, isn’t it?
Steve Davis: I agree. I could watch longer. Uh, however, when you were there, you mentioned John Whistler. There would’ve been other people as you walked, worked up through the, uh…
I think you were environment reporter. You covered some other- Mm-hmm … rounds as well.
Daniel Clarke: Yep.
Steve Davis: Now, of course, you’re solo. You’re running your own ship.
Daniel Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Steve Davis: Is there… Who’s your editor? Who, who’s your subeditor? Who… Have you got- Yeah, look,
Daniel Clarke: that’s the scary thing. That’s me. So , so it can be, can be a little bit of a worry.
Look, if I- What I’ve, I’ve actually applied for some funds through, uh, a government fund that’s coming up, uh, the News Innovation Fund. Hope, hoping to get it, although already delayed on the, on the announcement of it, so who knows when it’s gonna come through, which is sad in itself that the government actually has to keep money, give money to journalists to keep, um, regional journalism alive.
Um, which is… But it’s great that they’re doing that. That’s a, it’s a really good thing. It’s just a sad part of the internet and Facebook taking over and, and losing jobs from the regions. Um, but yeah, [00:16:00] so if I can get that fund, it would be great to have someone on board who could look over things. But, um, I sort of have to trust my, my judgment and I guess my experience in editing and, um, you know, I’m sure it’s not, you know, all totally exactly perfect, um, as you would hope with when someone’s overlooking.
But, um, I feel like enough experience has, has got me to this point where I can ensure I’m not stepping on any of the overlap- any lines.
Steve Davis: Yes. Yeah, well, uh, I guess your public let you know if and when you do. Yes, that’s
Daniel Clarke: right. They certainly are. They’re not shy in letting people know.
Steve Davis: And, and we’re gonna come back to some of that with some of your documentary work, but just on this funding, you’ve received a couple of meta grants- Mm
in the past. Yes. For this last one that you’re going for now or the next one, is there anything we can do, or is it out of everyone’s hands now, you just have to wait for the news?
Daniel Clarke: Yeah, just have to wait ’cause yeah, the, um, I think it was the end of July or start of July I think it was handed in, so had to be submitted.
So no, unfortunately can’t anyone… And no one can do anything. But, um- Yeah … fingers crossed ’cause, uh, would be great. What I’ve [00:17:00] done… I have to say thanks to the community obviously, because to get it to this point, it’s been community funded. Um, which you find is happening around Australia a fair bit, where local towns will…
are losing their papers, they’re losing their journalists, but they actually, um, crowdfund to keep the newspaper alive and keep a journalist, um, employed. Which shows that, you know, there’s a lot of criticism of, of journalists and media around the place, but I think what it does show is that, you know, how important it is to have a voice that can tell the truth, that’s not conflicted, um, and can get to the bottom of issues that need to be talked about.
And, uh, I think, I think it’s vital for a democracy, isn’t it?
Steve Davis: Absolutely. Are you saying it’s mums and dads and local businesses chipping in?
Daniel Clarke: Yes. They have. They’ve chipped in… I’ll, I’ll give their number. They’ve already… They’ve chipped in about 10 grand to, to keep me going for sort of for four, five months.
Um, so, uh, huge thanks to them. I’ve been, I have been thanking them online obviously for the, for the commitment that, to get me to this point. Um, there was a feeling there was a bit of a sort of a hole in, in journalism over here in terms of the investigation and, and taking on [00:18:00] the big issues. So, hopefully…
I’ve had to drop off on the, on the news stories lately in the last month or so and just- Yeah … stick to that eye ’cause, uh, yeah, we’ve sort of run out of the funds now, but-
Steve Davis: It, it- Fingers
Daniel Clarke: crossed on the grant …
Steve Davis: is interesting. In 2016, we, um, recorded for the Adelaide Show, uh, an event called Digital Futures, uh, in Daily and Umbrella ran it in Adelaide.
Eric Beecher was talking, and he talked about a French model where, if I remember it correctly, the government actually funds If not whole journalism organizations, but journalists within all of them with no callback on editorial values. So they’re paying to have that voice there.
Daniel Clarke: Yes.
Steve Davis: I really like that because it dodges some of the issues when you have to take money from the same people you might be criticizing.
Daniel Clarke: That’s right. Exactly. It’s a hard, it’s a hard thing, and you don’t know if there’s gonna be try and influence from certain people to in terms of, uh, the, where the money’s coming from, um, or [00:19:00] if there’s a whole bunch of money from, say, a, a company or someone like that. But I mean, it’s kind of ironic ’cause those two grants, like you mentioned, the, the Meta grants- Mm
which are f- which is Facebook, obviously-
TAS Theme: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: um, came to make the documentaries over here, and that was, that money was given to the Walkley Foundation to hand out to journalists across Australia because of Facebook’s, um, ruining of journalism in a lot of areas of Australia. So it was kind of ironic. It was like, “Here’s some, here’s some pittance money to, to keep some journalism going,” but unfortunately, that’s dried up, that, that funding now.
So it’d be nice if they tipped in a bit more.
Steve Davis: I, I wanna deal with the last of my philosophical questionings around the role of journalism because I felt jaded by the way it has, because of Meta and Facebook and that draining of funding- Mm … because of the coziness and the, uh, out of kilter power that Murdoch had- Yeah
uh, which made things wobble. It… When I think of you, though, I hope this is not going to be insulting.
Daniel Clarke: No.
Steve Davis: I think of a TV show called [00:20:00] Deadwood. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it.
Daniel Clarke: Yes.
Steve Davis: Yes. Yeah. Yep. Uh, a superb series in the American frontier in the 1870s. Um- Mm … Jeffrey Jones played A.W. Merrick. This guy hauls a printing pla- press into this mud-soaked gold rush kind of camp.
He sets up the Black Hills Pioneer.
Daniel Clarke: Great. Yeah.
Steve Davis: And- Good
Daniel Clarke: character …
Steve Davis: he’s a great character. Then he discovers that you might wanna print some news stories, but you’ve got someone like Al Swearengen, who runs the local saloon, who really holds the power. Mm. And so there is pushback if you go too far. To me, and I wonder if you could r- expand on this, ’cause you’ve really been at the, the, the sharp end of all of this, there’s bravery at that style of journalism bec- And it’s based on, A, I think a hope that people actually want to hear the truth.
There’s got to be a trust that’s what they want, not just what they say they want. Mm. There has to be a, [00:21:00] a, a gumption to pursue the truth even over and above loyalties and friendships.
Daniel Clarke: Mm.
Steve Davis: But at the same time, to not have relationships can remove your access to get stories, and if someone really gets the, the shits on, they can withdraw funding from you.
Daniel Clarke: Mm.
Steve Davis: What am I missing? What is it like? How, how do you see this dynamic?
Daniel Clarke: Yeah, well, I mean, I’ve had perfect examples of people who were close colleagues and people were sort of… We had a good friendship, and I’ve written or produced a documentary where they didn’t like what was written, they didn’t like the, uh, the, the subject or how it was presented, and it was, it ended sort of like
So I have, uh, essentially, so I just kinda lost some of those contacts. I mean, there’s not many of them, but, um, it, it has happened. And, you know, in that, in that way, it’s kinda understandable. I get that. But I agree that, uh, I think you have to keep a level of uh, you know, professional [00:22:00] relationship in that you hope that what, they can see what you’re trying to do in terms of telling the truth, and that they can come back to you with another story, a different issue that they would like covered in the future.
And I think that, I think that can save the relationship, I guess. And I, I’m not here to, you know, I’m not one, I’m not one who likes a conflict. I don’t like people not liking me. That’s not Yeah I think people th- that might be the case, but it’s really not. I’m just here to basically get to the bottom of the truth.
And, and really at, at the end of the day in a community, I’m working… I feel like what I w- want to do and, is work for the community and make the community a better place and a, an easier place for people to live. Um, and so if I see a, you know, an injustice, I’ll, I’ll call it out. And, you know, if that’s gonna worry people and hurt people, well then so be it.
I just have to, have to move on with that. So
Steve Davis: E- even though you’re then standing next to them in the checkout line at the IGA.
Daniel Clarke: Yes, that’s it, especially a place like KI, you can’t avoid seeing people. So-
Steve Davis: No …
Daniel Clarke: yeah, you know, you get the old non-response or turn away and that happens. But a- [00:23:00] at the same time, you’ve got a lot of supporters as well who will say, “Well, good on you, keep going.”
There’s a lot of, a lot of encouragement, um, from people as well. So you kinda gotta take the positive to, to keep yourself motivated, I guess, it’s… But I’m not sitting here saying it’s easy, but I’m also not gonna sit here and whinge and complain- No … ’cause it’s my decision as well to, to go do this. And, and that’s m- that’s, that’s my career, that’s my-
Steve Davis: Yes
Daniel Clarke: passion.
Steve Davis: And if you’re listening in Kangaroo Island to this, I’m leading Dan down this path. I mean, he has Uh, although I remember when I worked a- as a young news bloodhound i- at 5MU in country area, I read The Carpathians by Janet Frame. Amazing novel, and there’s a line that has stuck with me for more years than I will admit.
And it said, “It was a typical country town with its factions, frictions, fictions, and fractions.”
Daniel Clarke: And it
Steve Davis: works on every level.
Daniel Clarke: Oh, yeah, it does. It really does. And a place like… I think it’s funny in a place like KI, it’s, because [00:24:00] it’s this unique area, how it’s, you know, it’s surrounded by water, and we, we don’t like to think ourselves as part of the mainland.
It’s got this sort of extra, extra passion that goes with it. And a lot of, um, you know, you know, there’s been people here for five generations, so there’s a lot of families who, who will say it how it is and how they want it to be and, and that’s fair enough.
Steve Davis: Mm-hmm. And look, now, uh, uh, part of… I mean, I’ve been following you for a little while, um, on, on Facebook, and in- intrigued by some of the comments that you get from some of your stories where- There is a overwhelming support, and then every now and then you’ve got some naysayers who are pushing back.
You did a post just recently in which you said, “Hey, guys, it’s satire. It has a role.” And what made you publish that post? Well, I- It was a picture of you with your dog.
Daniel Clarke: Oh, yeah, that’s with… Well, actually, it wasn’t my dog. That was actually the real Valerie- Oh, was that- … the missing cottage dog of, of famous storylines.
Okay. [00:25:00] So, um, the re- reason why I had that picture is ’cause, ’cause I did the documentary for, um, Australian Story, ABC Australian Story, about Valerie. So, um, it was a bit of an older pic, but I, I brought it back to I always like to… I think in my posts, you know, I like peop- making people laugh. Whether they laugh or not, I don’t know.
I can’t tell, but they, it’d get a lot of laughing emoji, so I’m assuming people are laughing. Um, ’cause I think we live in a world that is, you know, certainly lately has, um, is fairly depressing in many ways, and, um, I think the, you know, the only way to get through it is to have a bit of a laugh, in my view, um, to keep it lighthearted.
Um, but yeah, no, I posted that because I had, I had a few comments about people saying that my, uh, posts were misleading and, um, you know, this is… Yeah, this was, um, misinformation dressed up as satire, was one of the comments, and a few people taking things seriously that didn’t pick up the satire. And I don- I’ve sort of thought over that, you know.
Am I not making it clear enough? I think the post for me, it’s clear that it’s satire because a lot of the time it’s quite obviously so stupid and silly that it is. Um, [00:26:00] but I get that people could be, you know, uh, get the wrong idea. So I just wanted to put out there that, yes, it, it is satire. I do news and satire, and I try and make it kinda clear what is news and what is satire, but maybe I have to be a bit clearer.
If I get the grant, um, maybe I do, but it kinda defeats the purpose of satire then if you make clear, if you announce, “This is satire,” and then write, write the line. It’s not as funny then, is it?
Steve Davis: No, it, it does take the sting out of it. Uh, was it Shakespeare who said, “Many a true word is spoken in jest”? Right.
I actually, I, I have a very impoverished news diet these days. I’ve lost respect for most media organizations. Mm-hmm. Where I find I get my bearings, uh, well, I used to from The Chaser when they, in their heyday on TV. I think they, they really cut through big issues in a funny way. Um, The Daily Show in America and the others like it, um, the BBC, the News Quiz on the BBC.
Mm. These are satirical comedians [00:27:00] who are saying, “Hey, the emperor’s got new- no clothes.”
TAS Theme: Mm.
Steve Davis: In one hand, on one hand it’s actually sad that we need- Mm … a satirical news. To do. Because… But we do, because it’s just so frustrating. Like, the piece that you put up, we’ll put this in the show notes, I think it was you behind this, that- Mm … um, stitch-up of different British sitcom- Yes … segments to express frustration over SeaLink and the government.
Comedy spoke the truth. Yes. Is that what… Is-
Daniel Clarke: It
Steve Davis: is. I- Is that what drives you? Is that what the core is? It
Daniel Clarke: does. It drives… And there’s been, um, quite a lot of comments lately that some of the best journalism in the last few years has actually come from comedians, which is probably not far off the mark.
Because I think it comes down to being able to say the truth, um, instead of… Journalism is great, but it is limited in the fact it has to present, you know, if it’s good journalism, it presents both sides and it, you know, it doesn’t essentially say, [00:28:00] “This is what I think, and this is the obvious truth, and let’s just be honest about it and talk about it for everyone to see.”
So, um, yeah, look, I, that, that’s where it came from and I guess, like I say, I, I was inspired by, um, the early days of satire, even The Chaser as well. Yeah. I was, you know, probably see some influence in what I, what I do with those, with that, from those guys as well. But, um, but yes, that, uh, that video of the British comedy that I did have some help from, from someone who, with an amazing mind, who wants to stay anonymous, but, um
Steve Davis: Okay
Daniel Clarke: uh, kept all those clips for me, and I basically paced it together into a story. And, uh, it seemed to get a good response, which was good.
Steve Davis: Well, well, it is. But also, I think satire isn’t so much always going for the punchline. Mm. It’s the dry delivery of- Mm … almost just stating the truth, and letting it hang there to- Hanging there, yeah.
That’s right … see how ridiculous… And-
Daniel Clarke: To make up your own mind. And also, you know, it’s a, it’s a mirror, isn’t it? It’s a mirror to, to us and, you know, some of the stupid things that go on, and how, you know, governments [00:29:00] operate in different departments. And, um, I think, you know, it’s, uh, you know, like you say, it’s a strip- stripping it back and, and, and leaving it there.
And, and perhaps, you know, it’s an instigator as well. It’s, it’s, you know, getting people fired up, I think, about an issue, rather than just sitting there and taking it, so.
Steve Davis: Well, there’s so much. It, um- Mm … I just read a fantastic book by Ed Koper called Angertainment. If you haven’t read it, it is, it, he, he hi- holds an x-ray up to the dynamics of our intercourse, our social intercourse- Mm
in this world. It’s Angertainment. Mm. And he talks about you need to, uh, generate emotion and anger to get cut through, ’cause there’s so much flooding. I guess satire’s the bet- I think the nobler way of doing that, because- Mm … it gets us in laughter. And when hopefully- We’re not as defensive about our position and we can, we can take it.
I could just be too pie in [00:30:00] the sky with that, I guess it-
Daniel Clarke: No, no, I think it’s a, you know, I think, you know, if you can show a bit of, a bit of comedy and, uh, you know, a little bit of humor with it, I think people take it a little bit easier as well. You know? It’s a … Well, that’s one of the comments we’ve been having online is that, “Oh, you know, you, y- you are too negative.”
But I think satire is almost the softest way of getting a message across in many ways. Like the client will, you know, you’re using comedy as well to get that … You’re not sitting there absolutely just slamming them with a essay of how much you hate them and how terrible they are. It’s just a quick message, and it gets the message across.
Yeah.
Steve Davis: I’ve got the perfect example. It was published four days ago at the time of recording on Kangaroo Island News and Satire. It said, “Exclusive: Census results reveal islanders want people to visit, but don’t want people to visit.” And then there’s a quote, “It’s important for ferry prices to be cheaper to encourage tourists to come, but we don’t want them to be cheaper because then lots of tourists will come.
Sure, change is needed for our survival, but we certainly don’t need change to survive. Got it? [00:31:00] Now piss off with your questions.” I like that. That got some feisty comments.
Daniel Clarke: It did. That got some feisty ones and, uh, I think I wrote that one because that’s exactly the, the discourse that goes on, on the island.
That’s what I hear day after day. It’s different people with different opinions saying, “Well, we need tourists. No, we don’t need tourists. We want them to be cheaper. We don’t want them to be cheaper.” I was literally just laying out what I’m hearing and what everybody hears on this island. So, um, you know, that’s, and that’s the
And in a way, that’s what I’m putting it up there for, to get th- those conversations going and keep, keep them moving because I think that is important, having, having that discourse. I’ll leave the comments open to, so people can have that argument together. So, um, you know, in some ways it is just a little instigating factor.
I mean, the good one I just put up the other day as well is a perfect example of, you know, um, the, the stupidness of, of government departments as well. We’ve got a massive branch hanging over a, a bridge on the road at Cygnet River, and the council have been told about it about a year ago, and it’s still sitting there and they say, “Well, that’s, it’s a department, it’s a [00:32:00] state government road, so we can’t cut it down.”
The branch is hanging over the state government road, but the tree is actually on council land. So, so it’s this split of which government, which level of government actually takes the action and protects people from possible death and injury because of a couple of meters of, uh, you know … W- where, where does the government line fall?
So it’s that kind of stuff I’m just like, “Well, the, here’s an easy way of getting this across and trying to get some action,” you know? And a, a lot of the time the government’s are pretty adverse to, to, uh, embarrassment, and I think- Mm … that’s where the media can come in, and, you know, action often, often happens from it.
Steve Davis: Yes. And so that’s a great example. But on that one we just read out before, what I find is Truth is messy. It’s rarely black and white Yeah. Two things can be true at the same time. Yeah. And to me, I mean, Kangaroo Island is the jewel in the crown for Tourism SA. They hang their hats on it. Mm. The government relies on it.
But [00:33:00] then people have to live there and deal with the, the swarms and then the emptiness- Mm … and the back and forth. It’s just, it’s, there is a gray zone.
Daniel Clarke: There is a gray zone, especially when you gotta deal with, you know, how do you upkeep the roads? Do we have enough accommodation for these people? What happens to the environment when more people are coming across?
Mm. But then you got the other argument where our economy falls apart if we don’t have tourism. You know, the island just doesn’t survive. I mean, farming is a, farming is a big thing, and farming and tourism sort of bring in the same amount of dollars, I think. Um, but, you know, it’s still a vital, obviously a vital piece to keep us alive, and so it’s a balancing act, and it always has been, and, you know, it always will be, I guess.
Steve Davis: And of course, the ferry service is a, a, a vital part, and it has become a staple in, in your news channel. Not that you probably- Definitely … wanted it to be. But-
Daniel Clarke: No. See, I, I think people think I have a thing, like, you know, have some personal thing against them. I’m only writing this because this is just continu- con- continues to go on.
It never stops, this story. I’d love it to finish. It’d be nice, ’cause I’m [00:34:00] kinda sick of it. Yeah. But like everyone else.
Steve Davis: Uh, there was a wonderful… You’ve done some Willy Wonka stuff with it, which was fantastic, but, um, one thing that I thought was interesting, tell me if I’m wrong, if I’ve read in between the lines the wrong way.
Mm. But you have been putting pressure on the fact that Sealink’s been promising these new boats for a while. Mm. They’re eventually, they’re here, they’re not here- Mm … like Schrodinger’s boats. Um, and it was actually one of your readers, was it not- Mm … who worked out how to look at the tracking beacons and track…
Or was that you?
Daniel Clarke: Yes, no, that was, uh… I, I didn’t realize that either when I first started, but yes, there’s been a number of people who have written, um, saying, “Yes, you can actually track a ship,” um, which, uh, now we’ve got a lot of people who are, who are on it. And that’s why the news came through last night where someone had obviously been watching and clicking on it.
You just update it every, every day and see if Ruwi exists. And Ruwi’s back, but still in Indonesia, and he’s got four days to get here now, I guess, looking at the, looking at the date. [00:35:00]
Steve Davis: Well, luckily it’s downhill. Uh,
Daniel Clarke: you know. It is. It’s quick.
Steve Davis: So what is… I mean, how, how vital is Sealink, and what’s, at your heart- Mm
what, what needs to happen? What, where-
Daniel Clarke: Well, it would be great, like everyone says, it would be great if it wasn’t a monopoly. That’s where the problem comes in. We’ve got, you know, one company running this ferry. Um, you know, at the end of the day, it’s an essential service, and that’s what I’ve been really pushing.
Like, how is it that a company can run one essential service but at the moment, for me, uh, run it pretty badly in, in terms of the delivery of the new ferries? And obviously, mistakes were made and, and a lot of it may be out of their hands as well with, with builders and, and whatnot. Um, but that’s the decision they made.
So, um, it would be great if there was another company who could come in. There was for a little while, a little passenger, uh, boat that, uh, ran from American River and, and Penneshaw over, but that doesn’t help the car situation. You need a ferry-
TAS Theme: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: that can carry cars as well. So that has always been the issue, and I don’t think there’s a way around it because then you’d have to total [00:36:00] refigure the ports and everything.
So my thing is the government’s gotta hold these guys to account a bit better. Uh, they seem to be, with the contract, very limited in any sort of punishment, which is amazing to me that it was signed by the Liberal. We can’t blame the Labor for, Labor for that. It was signed by Liberals back in the day. Um, but to be not be able to, you know, hand out any…
They can’t even hand out a fine is what we’ve been told. Can’t even fine SeaLink for, for this. It’s getting up to, you know, we’re over two year delay now for the delivery of them. We’re probably gonna reach three years by, by the sounds of it, but we’ll see what happens over the next few months.
Steve Davis: So what’s running at the moment?
Daniel Clarke: So it’s still the old boats, and there’s a boat that’s almost 30 years old. Um, so they’re still running those, and, you know, they’ve been great. They’ve done a great job. But there is a worry that they… How m- how long they’re gonna last for. Um, and we need the new ferries very quickly, and it’s, it’s hopeful that it’s gonna happen, but, um, there’s been so many delays and so many worries with these new ferries that, uh, nobody…
I don’t think anyone believes anything anymore that’s, that’s being said, so
Steve Davis: And there must surely be a [00:37:00] low-level anxiety for islanders because that’s a lifeline to get to and from the mainland. Like, get your produce out that you’re producing, as well as get people in and out.
Daniel Clarke: Exactly, and that’s, I think that’s the other problem, that it would be great to have a freight service on its own because now, you know, this ferry’s gotta take all the produce.
The main thing is the sheep. Huge amount of sheep. I think it’s a quarter of a million sheep over every year. Um, so, and so you sort of, you’ve got this juggling act of, uh, you know, how, how many bookings you can get on and, and, you know, when things do go down, it’s a, it, it’s a huge cost to everyone. Um, and we’ve got this, have to have this three-day shutdown that’s coming on now with the, the ramps have to be installed, and so the whole island has to be shut down for three days, and that’s right in the middle of the, the sheep moving season as well.
So, you know, farmers aren’t happy, and they were hoping if they were delivered on time, this wouldn’t have happened. But, um-
Steve Davis: Ah …
Daniel Clarke: that’s what they’re doing. So it’s a it’s a really d- you know, and not to mention everyone’s, you know, we got people with medical appointments, people needing to get into hospital, visiting [00:38:00] friends and family.
You know, it’s a, these are really serious things. It’s not just a, “Oh, I’ll jump on a ferry for a holiday.” Yeah. This is a sen- ‘
Steve Davis: Cause when they’re shut down, of course, then you can just fly because there’s no way the airlines would hike their prices- Yes … to take advantage, is there?
Daniel Clarke: No, certainly not. We ha- we haven’t gone through that at all.
Not, uh, what, well, it got up to about $600, $700 that Qantas chucked their flights up to, but they have fortunately, with a bit of pressure from, uh, the Kangaroo Island Tourism Association and council and a little bit of media obviously, we, we put the pressure on. I’m not sure it had anything to do with it, but, um, they did put on extra flights and slightly cheaper I think.
I haven’t checked lately, but, um, at least there was a couple of extra flights to, to get us on and off at that time. But We’re still unsure if it really is gonna go ahead though, to be honest, the, the three-day shutdown on the date they say. What, they s- they’ve already delayed it once, and now with the delay with Ruwi, we’re not, no one’s totally sure.
So we’ll see if it happens.
Steve Davis: See, this is, this is my [00:39:00] deeper concern as a South Australian. Mm. We, uh, I hear what you say about the contracts with SeaLink and some hands being tied. That’s one thing. Mm. But the focus on getting a MotoGP and running roughshod, changing the laws around the parkland so they can do what they want- Mm
focusing on things where, you know, the premier and others can get to wear their chinos and sip champagne. Mm. But the little things, the f- the fundamental things just don’t seem to get the gumption, the focus, whether it’s algal blooms or whether it’s- Mm … this supporting element, the freight for our agriculture sector.
TAS Theme: Mm. Yeah.
Steve Davis: And then, of course, we’ve got the tourism businesses, and there are some rippers on KI. Ripper. Absolute … Our family has had the most joyous time when we’ve visited Awesome, but I would be so nervous. Fig Tree Restaurant, for example, I’m looking at… I’d love to book when it reopens in November this year, uh, because that was mesmerizing.[00:40:00]
But will I be able to get there?
Daniel Clarke: Mm. That’s, that’s, that’s the sad thing. And, and it has cost already. We, you know, had the three-day shutdown set for, uh, it was September, I think, early September. Um, and so all bookings had to be canceled. All, this is accommodation, this is tour trips, this is all, um, tourism, and these are small businesses that, that had to can- And so, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars have been lost.
Um, so it’s not just a case of, “Oh, you know, whatever, we’ll just change the date.” This is, this is people’s livelihood. So-
TAS Theme: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: it sort of got to the point of, you know, people were happy to, to be patient for a while. Everyone knows that it’s not easy- Yeah … to run a big company, and things can happen. Um, so, you know, you give them that.
But it be- g- comes to a point now where this, this ongoing delays and, and promises that aren’t being met, it’s, it’s become too much for people. So that’s where the frustration comes.
Steve Davis: And hence we need a fourth estate. We need that group- Mm … of journalists willing to just keep this, the light shone-
Daniel Clarke: Yes …
Steve Davis: in the shadows.
Daniel Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Steve Davis: With satire or without [00:41:00] satire. Um, which is why I think it’s so important that I hope you get this grant, uh, to keep the voice because at least that’s one community in SA that knows that it’s got some buffer against the government controlling all of the narrative and vested interest likewise. You wanna be that little bit of sand irritating in the corner for the greater good.
Daniel Clarke: That’s right, yeah. Well, thanks-
Steve Davis: For the pearl of wisdom.
Daniel Clarke: Few people have said that, a thorn in the side.
Steve Davis: Yes. Uh, c- can we just talk briefly about some of your documentaries? Because I’ve seen some of them. Um, I don’t have a binge account, so I haven’t seen Lost in the Woods yet.
Daniel Clarke: Oh, yes. That’s-
Steve Davis: But-
Daniel Clarke: That’s a gl- I love that one.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Uh, look, this to me There are some of us who are journalists who have done our bits, but we don’t have the, we haven’t had to put everything on the line at great risk to really pursue the truth like you in the way [00:42:00] that you brought that story together with the logging and the koalas and all sorts of things happening.
Can you just give a brief synopsis, you’d do it better than I would, of Lost in the Woods and why it’s probably worth me using a free trial on Binge just so I can watch it?
Daniel Clarke: I would say everyone, you can get the free trial. You don’t have to pay. Everyone can jump on there and, and do it. It’s been up there for about, oh, it’ll be three years now.
So I’m, I was actually thinking about it the other day, when the contract ends and I can put it up myself, but still a couple of years I think. Yeah. Um, but look, it’s, yeah, it was probably in terms of an investigative journalism piece, it’s definitely my, my strongest one that I’ve done. Um, you know, the story had every element.
This is the, the failure of the plantation, uh- Yes … industry on Kangaroo Island. So it’s s- such a huge story, and the waste, the money waste, and the environmental, um, uh, catastrophe that’s happened with, right, yeah.
Steve Davis: Uh, Dan, just for, for non-Islanders, when you mention the, the waste, the lost opportunity of the plantation, can you underline that key point?
Wasn’t it the case that we didn’t know how [00:43:00] to actually get the wood?
Daniel Clarke: That was the problem. So where they put in a huge, like, what is it, uh, oh, I can’t remember how many million tons of wood there was grown, but there was no way of getting the wood off the island. So there’s no way you could get it off on sailing.
It’s just a huge amount of wood. And then it sort of got within a few years and they started think, saying, “Oh, actually, we need to build a port. We need to have a port.” Um, and then, uh, you know, some people in, uh, uh, in Adelaide more across South Australia will remember the Smith Bay controversy with, uh, Vickie Chapman, who was Deputy Premier at the time.
And, um, she ended up voiding the build of sh- of Smith Bay, and there were a lot of environmental reasons around that and, but also some, uh, s- uh, alleged conflicts with, uh, certain people within the community, certain, uh, powerful people. Um, and so the Smith Bay port was never built, and what it left is a case of this, all this wood that is now going to waste and is now being burnt back up into the atmosphere.
So in an ironic development, you know, the, the company built, uh, [00:44:00] planted these trees for carbon credits, and now they’re being burnt in the atmosphere So this is the exact opposite of- it is unbelievable. Not to mention, uh, we’ve obviously had the issues with the koalas that are bred up in these, um, forests that have now been m- mostly logged, um, which, you know, have killed a lot of koalas and, uh, you know, koalas now moved out into habitat that can’t handle it, this na- native habitat, so there’s a lot of starvation going on.
Um, we’ve got spreading of, uh, blue gum wildlings, which is the little seedlings of the wildlings that take over, um, the, the native vegetation and has spread like, you know, spread like wildfire, excuse, excuse the, the term. Yeah. Um, so it’s, it’s just one problem after another that’s going to continue on for, for many, many, many years.
And, um, yeah, look, it’s been… It was a, it was a hard one to, to do because there was so much sensitivity and I, you know, I even, I did get threats of defamation threats, and I’ll take you to court and all that kind of stuff. But, uh, you know, you gotta stand your ground and, and I, I did run it past [00:45:00] a, a lawyer in the end, obviously to get, get that all signed off.
And I think what it came… I think the feedback that I’ve received is that it was a very balanced film. It gave everyone’s point of view- Mm … which was the most important part about it. Um, and it lets you decide at the end, and people have come out with different views, um, at the end of watching it. So, um, yeah, look, it did get…
It en- ended up winning me a Walkley Award, which is the, the highest- Yeah … award in journalism in Australia, so I must have been doing something right, I guess.
Steve Davis: No, congratulations on that. That’s why I curtsied before the interview began.
Daniel Clarke: Oh, thank you.
Steve Davis: Uh, but the, the thing that staggers me as, not as an Islander, is do they have to cut them down without knowing- Yeah
they had to?
Daniel Clarke: Well, the, so this is the other complicating factor. So they were bas- a lot of them were burnt, so they were damaged in the 2019- In the- … fires. Right. So there was still an opportunity to get a lot of them off, um, immediately after, sort of within the first year or two after, um, and they still would’ve been worth something.
But when Smith Bay Port, um, idea fell down, um, then- Yeah … there was no other choice. [00:46:00] Uh, there was a, a call to turn them into biochar, and there was a company that was trying to, to, to turn it into biochar.
Steve Davis: Yes, I’ve seen your reporting, and that’s not had a happy end. Yeah.
Daniel Clarke: That’s not happening either. So that fell down, and they didn’t get the investors that they needed, and so, so that was kind of the last hope to actually utilize the trees for something, and this product is now not…
It’s been logged and will be burnt for probably another couple of years to burn all this wood, um, back into the atmosphere, and that’s not what the world needs right now. No. What- whatever you believe in terms of climate change, uh, more smoke into the atmosphere is not a good thing.
Steve Davis: And I’m assuming it’s not gonna feature in the Tourism SA Kangaroo Island ads, is
Daniel Clarke: it?
Yes. No, you will never see them in that, and, and not allowed to in- Yeah Don’t mention it, otherwise you-
Steve Davis: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: get some bad feedback.
Steve Davis: But on that, can you just take us, standing there with your camera, something you’ve, you were annoying, I believe, as a high schooler with your camera all, all the time.
Daniel Clarke: Yes. Yeah.
Uh, uh- That’s hard years, years of experience.
Steve Davis: But when you actually, from what I, I haven’t seen [00:47:00] it, but I’ve heard there’s footage of koalas in great distress.
Daniel Clarke: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Steve Davis: You must have known The editorial value of that footage as you were taking it, and people would’ve seen you taking it
Daniel Clarke: Yes. Well, it’s quite an isolated place out there.
There aren’t a lot of people around, which is, um … So there were, the company did see me, a number of the company workers did see me a number of times and try to, you know, get in my way and tell me to piss off, basically. Um, but look, this was… I, I did it only because there were complaints and reports coming through to, um, the, the KL Wildlife Network that there were koalas dying, koalas injured, and nothing was being done.
Um, and questions about how it was being operated. So the government came over. They sent their investigative team apparently.
Steve Davis: Mm-hmm.
Daniel Clarke: Half a day or something spent there and went home. Nothing happened. I went, “But that’s not what I’m hearing.” So I went out, literally stood on the side of the road, and watched them chopping the trees down with the [00:48:00] koalas in them.
So it wasn’t… It’s not a hard thing to do. You can just go out and find where they were working and see it happening. So for the government to stand there and say, “Oh, we did everything we could. We did an investigation,” when I was just one bloke standing on the side of the road with a camera that captured it, and then, then channel…
I gave it to Channel 7 obviously in the end and, and, uh, it turned into a, a large story. So as, you know… And there was a lot of… That’s o- one of the big things about KI. Obviously, a lot of people don’t like koalas over here, which is because they are a pest, and yes, they do damage the environment, and that is a big issue, and it’s what the government has to, um, get in control of as well in terms of controlling population numbers of the koalas to pr- to protect them and the environment.
Steve Davis: And yet again, the truth is somewhere in the middle there. Mm-hmm. There is-
Daniel Clarke: There
Steve Davis: is … all these things can be true at the one time.
Daniel Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Steve Davis: But there’s still that thing that we, yes, they’re a pest, but there’s humane ways of dealing with them, and they’re a pest partly for what we’ve done to you.
Daniel Clarke: Yeah, and, and not to mention how important they are for the tourism [00:49:00] trade.
So there’s the other, the other mix you’ve got in there of tourism wanting them protected, but also they don’t want them eating all the trees either, ’cause then where does that leave the, where does that leave our other animals and, and wildlife? So again, ano- another really tough issue. It’s actually something I’ll probably cover again soon in terms of where we’re at with that, because the government promised a koala management plan, um, to get control of numbers, and that has not happened, of course.
We’re two years down the line since they said it was gonna happen, and we still don’t know anything. Haven’t heard it, haven’t heard anything anyway.
Steve Davis: And now of course, with the ferry disruptions and the airport, the, it’s gonna be hard for them to have another half-day investigation, isn’t it?
Daniel Clarke: It’s, they won’t be able to get…
They’ll have to fly. They might have to pay $700 a flight. Not the government, surely.
Steve Davis: Uh, I do wanna actually talk about one of your other documentaries, ’cause I have, I am in the process of watching this at the moment. Mm. And it’s called Island of the Dead.
Daniel Clarke: Hmm. Yep.
Steve Davis: It is on ABC iview, and I gotta say, I found it [00:50:00] confronting- Mm
but in a very earnest way, because in this doco, amazing, doco even sounds wrong to call it that. Mm. Death is not treated as a tragedy you tiptoe around. It’s actually just a given. It’s there as a given, and we’re in sort of invited to sit at the grownups’ table to reflect- Mm … with people-
Daniel Clarke: Mm …
Steve Davis: at the end of their lives, and this wonderful doula, uh, who, uh, Heidi, who is- Mm
so fascinating. Mm. You were there filming some very intimate conversations that most of us in polite society would not normally allow to be filmed.
Daniel Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Steve Davis: How did, how did you manage to craft this? I believe the Compass program on ABC was part of the mix, but- Mm … this is the exquisite end of trust in your craft, surely.
Daniel Clarke: [00:51:00] Mm-hmm. Well, it is. It is. It’s sort of the, I guess, the, the most intimate you can get in a, in a situation when you know that, that people are on death’s door and they’re, they’re willing to let you in to talk about it and be honest about it. Um, uh, look, to, to go back to Compass, Compass only jumped in at the end when I actually presented it to them.
Um, they sort of supported, they knew I was making it, but, um, they sort of jumped in the end and, uh, y- saw the, the product that I’d produced. So it was, um, done all ind- independently, but mainly with Heidi, uh, Greggs, who’s the… Or Gregg, I should say, the, is the death doula, who’s amazing, and she, she wanted to get the message across o- obviously how important it is that we actually talk about death and we’re open about it, and we, we sort of try and move past this taboo, um, where, you know, family doesn’t wanna talk about it, friends don’t wanna talk about it.
But, but here, here we can present it, um, from three really… And I would just, I think at the end of the day, to make a good documentary, you have to get lucky, and we had three really beautiful women-
Steve Davis: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: going through this situation, [00:52:00] and they’re all so honest, so open, so brave, and they could all see the importance of what, what the story was gonna be.
Um, and I hope I sort of honored that because, um, you know, two of them didn’t get to see it, obviously, which is, which was quite sad. But, um, at least, at least what their message has, it lives on, which is an amazing, amazing, powerful thing, I think. And, um, and look, it has led to people, you know, thinking outside the square of, of, of death and how funerals are done, where you’re buried, and all those types of issues.
And, um, I think that’s, that’s really vital ’cause I think we’re, like Heidi says in the film, we were, we’re stuck in a bit of a traditional way of how these things are done, and it doesn’t actually have to be that way anymore. We’ve, we’ve sort of moved past that, and there are other, other options. But yes, powerful, power…
Really, I really, really enjoyed making it ’cause that’s the kind of, um… That’s a, that’s where a journalist, as a documentary maker, that’s where I wanna be in, in having access to people where there normally isn’t that access, so. [00:53:00] A-
Steve Davis: and there’s just something about the women who were the subjects- Mm … of this documentary disarmingly talking about where they were.
Mm. And I’ve actually noticed this with some of the interviews I’ve been doing recently. For another one called This Medical Life, we interviewed… I better not give too much away, but he’s a very well-known medical researcher, much loved, and we, he did the filming with us w- just for audio, but he was in his dressing gown in a holiday home, and he said, “You’re not using the video?”
I said, ‘No.’ But he said, “I don’t care even if you do.” He’s… Just there’s something when people get to a certain stage in life-
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: Mm …
Steve Davis: where they, they have not got time for the- Yeah … petty stuff that we’re so involved in. They’re focused on what’s real. And sa- I mean, it shouldn’t take us to be facing mor- our mortality for that to come across, but I think this is just one of those little reminder moments that is the joy.
And it’s a beautifully made documentary. I’m, [00:54:00] I get frustrated with the slow pace of documentaries, but the, this seemed to be paced in harmony with the story. Amazing stuff.
Daniel Clarke: Yeah, no, no, I appreciate that. And so, yeah, it’s, uh… Like you say, I think it’s a re- there is a release. There’s a, you know, there’s a moment where you, where they say, “Okay, well, I haven’t got much time left.
Now I can release and just be who I am and not give a crap what people think about me.”
TAS Theme: Yeah.
Daniel Clarke: Um, I think that is, that is really powerful, and I think, um, Heidi’s work is so important for the island in terms of providing that-
TAS Theme: Yeah …
Daniel Clarke: um, when, you know, there’s an absence of, of a lot of these health sort of, um, systems that need to support these people.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Mm. Uh, so… And look, and even their partners, uh, or partners you interviewed.
Daniel Clarke: Yes. Oh, they’re great, aren’t they? Yeah. Great men. They still have
Steve Davis: to live and work around the town with people having seen them bare their souls- Mm … in a documentary. That takes a level of guts and trust as well, surely.
Daniel Clarke: It does.
It does. And I think that’s the thing. I think it’s the trust. You, to let someone in… [00:55:00] I mean, s- they might have seen some of my earlier work, but, um, I found on, on Kangaroo Island generally there is a level of trust, and I think once people have seen your work and see what you can do, then there’s, you know, they, they see there’s a level of professionalism there, and you’re not gonna present them in some horrible way.
Um, I think that is, that is the big thing to, to have, yeah, full trust, full access, and, and that’s where the truth, that’s where they really bare their feelings. And that’s where the… Yeah. Like I say, we’re back to truth again, but the truth comes out.
Steve Davis: It does. Now, talking of being truthful, if there was another young couple like you once were pondering where to live Would Kangaroo Island still be something on your shortlist for them to consider with how things are at the moment?
Daniel Clarke: Yes. Well, and this is the, this is one of the comments that I received online. Let’s not be negative, because we’ve gotta give hope to people. And yes, it is still a beautiful place to live, and you should, if you’ve got the opportunity and you want to, [00:56:00] um, well, firstly visit is a good thing Yes … but if you wanna come and live, I think it’s a beautiful place, and a great place to bring up a young family.
Um, we, we have had no regrets whatsoever, ’cause we’re, we’re so blessed and, you know, you can walk on a beach, and especially in wintertime, you just walk on a beach and nobody, you won’t see anyone forever. So it’s that kind of place. Um, and for me, in terms of career-wise as well, it’s actually amazingly, I came over here thinking, “Oh, I’m not gonna get many, much work,” but there has just been story after story.
Um, and it’s been pretty much the most important thing for my career to be here. The best things I’ve done, the best things I’ve made, uh, the best stories have all been here. So g- interesting, isn’t it?
Steve Davis: It’s, look, h- it, uh, it, it’s- Uh … I just don’t know how to put a finger on it, because there are people that we both know who seem to have this philosophy that, uh, some things are meant to be, and, and you trust that.
Mm. I don’t subscribe to that at all. Mm. I subscribe to the fact that we are where we are. Mm. And we have a choice [00:57:00] to apply curiosity and try a few doors and see what happens, and then we will see things we might not have seen before. Mm. And it is amazing how you then see patterns and things can fall into place.
Mm. That’s what you’re basically suggesting. We can actually know that or think that we’re not gonna survive if we go to KI now, and- Mm … and by not doing anything, well, that’s confirmed. Or we can give it a crack and be surprised.
Daniel Clarke: That’s right. Give it a crack if you’ve got the opportunity. I, I totally agree.
I like, it’s the old saying, if you, you make your own luck. If you, you put yourself out there, you give it a try, and there’s plenty of small businesses on the island who have gone out and done it and, you know, many people ne- never even run a business before, and it’s become the, so successful. Um, so… And I think that’s the great thing about the island.
There is, there is a freedom there. You’re not actually up again- you’re not actually competing with, with everyone in Adelaide. There’s, there’s a less c- competing sort of ma- if, if we’re talking business, obviously.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Daniel Clarke: [00:58:00] Um, so yeah, I think that’s, go for it if you want to. And, and like you say, great place, great lifestyle to live.
A lot of people come here to retire because they wanna stay healthy, and that’s, this is a great place for it.
Steve Davis: And so we’ve got Island Independent
Daniel Clarke: Mm-hmm
Steve Davis: Uh, we’ve got KI News and Satire page.
Daniel Clarke: Yeah.
Steve Davis: We’re waiting to hear if you get this funding. In the meantime, what is the mechanism? Do people know how to support you?
Daniel Clarke: Uh, yeah, so on the, um, the Facebook page, Kangaroo Island News and Satire, there is a link in the description, in the About section, um, on the GoFundMe page. So I haven’t been calling for funds lately just ’cause I’ve been waiting for the, the government grant, but now it’s sort of like dragging on and on. I don’t know how long that will go for.
So if, if people want to give, certainly not stopping them, um, and it will give me a chance to, to get back into some news writing. Um, but I did sort of wanna hold off and hope that I wouldn’t have to rely on people giving their hard-earned cash because as we know, there’s a lot of things going on in the world- Yeah
that, uh, money is important for as well.
Steve Davis: Last question, last question. [00:59:00] Mm-hmm. When Ruwi finally ties up at Penneshaw, what’s your headline going to be?
Daniel Clarke: Oh, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a huge question. Uh, I’ll have to come up with a good line on that one, but, uh, I’m worried there’ll still be issues after it’s tied up there at Penneshaw, so I’m not gonna fully celebrate that.
Steve Davis: Yeah.
Daniel Clarke: But, um, it will certainly be a cele- I’ll, I’ll have to go down and do a video, I think, ’cause I do little, you know, satirical videos, so I have to welcome it, and party poppers and streamers. We’ll have to do something like that and
Steve Davis: Wouldn’t-
Daniel Clarke: No longer R- no longer ruing. Perhaps something like that.
Steve Davis: You could channel the early Chaser and- Yeah, yeah
put on high vis and put a little thing on the, the road that leads down to it saying, “Closed for maintenance.” Uh, “Harbor closed for maintenance.”
Daniel Clarke: That’s exactly right. It’s like there’s endless, endless opportunities. You do a, do a t-
Steve Davis: Well, let’s hope it is- Do a t- Let’s hope there is a happy ending, and let’s hope it happens in 2026 [01:00:00] and not 2070.
Well,
Daniel Clarke: that would be great. Yeah. And we could all, then we could, and we could all move on with our lives then. Yeah. Then we can focus on something else would be nice.
Steve Davis: Literally, you can then move on with your lives.
Daniel Clarke: That’s right.
Steve Davis: Yeah.
Daniel Clarke: That’s
Steve Davis: right. Uh, Dan Carr, absolutely amazing to have this chance to chat with you.
I’ll be lurking. I don’t feel like I’ve got the rights to comment ’cause I’m not an Islander, but I’ll be lurking there and watching from a distance, and more power to you. We need jour- journalism is good. It has been tarnished by recent history- Yeah … but it is such an important thing that if it’s not there, we pay the price.
Thank you.
Daniel Clarke: It is. Thank you very much, Steve. Appreciate it, and thanks to everyone who reads and comments and engages ’cause that’s the most important part.
Samela Harris: Hello, everybody. This is Samala Harris having the extraordinary experience of being on quite rather superior radio with Steve Davis. And Steve Davis is a little bit above the, uh, the average interviewer, and I have to tell you, he’s a bit on the articulate and well-informed side.
I don’t know why he’s not in the mainstream, but [01:01:00] here you are. A bit of class here, and I’m rather glad to be part of it.
TAS Theme: And now it’s time for The Musical Pilgrimage
Steve Davis: Finally, in the musical pilgrimage, the song we’re gonna finish off with today is, in its own way, a piece of satire. It is the latest song from Steve Davis and the Virtuosos. It’s called Schrödinger’s Platypus, and it was inspired a couple of weekends ago when I just happened to be scrolling on social media, and a story from Glam Adelaide, uh, popped up in front of me.
The headline read: Over four million dollars pledged to restore the health of the River Torrens in major push to bring back platypuses. Well, that caught my attention, uh, ’cause, you know, who wouldn’t want to see platypuses in the River Torrens? So the main spokesperson was someone from Green Adelaide who was [01:02:00] interviewed about the whole process, and it didn’t take long for my optimism and curiosity to be soured and become quite disappointed and then a bit angry at the cynicism of the whole story because early on, there was a free kick for the government with the reference of the four million dollars, uh, to rewild the river and the parklands area.
And then when the facts got drawn out of the Green Adelaide person by the writer, we learn that, yes, there’ve been some studies, uh, to see what platypuses need in a river, and it tends to need a bit more water flow than we’ve got. In fact, there are parts of the Torrens where there’s no water flow at all.
We have foxes and cats and dogs, and they would basically eat platypuses, uh, nonstop, uh, my words, interpreting what they said. Uh, one method they said in the article that could help is to plant more vegetation to create a barrier. If you’ve ever tried to [01:03:00] keep a cat out of your backyard, I think you realize you need more than a plantation.
You need a platoon. Uh, then it went on to say when the writer asked, “Where would we get the platypuses from?” They said, “Well, we actually have no sources. We don’t know. Uh, that’s gonna be another project. That’s gonna be many years.” And so when I heard all that or read all that and then saw the fact that the study being referred to was twenty twenty-two, that’s four years ago, the old cynical part of the journalist within me said, ‘Hang on a minute here.
Is this a green puff piece?’ Because the government has been muddying the water with the way it’s rewritten all the guidelines and taken control back of the parkland, so it doesn’t have to do due process or listen to the public, so it can rip things up and lay down, um, track and, you know, seek this deal, uh, for the MotoGP, et cetera.
Is this timing suspicious? We’re only hearing about it [01:04:00] now. And that reminded me because with my daughters and I, we’ve been talking about Schrödinger, Schrödinger’s cat, uh, which is the wonderful thought experiment about quantum physics when, uh, Schrödinger said, “Look, you can imagine a cat in a box. At that point, it’s both potentially alive and potentially dead.”
We don’t know, not until the lid’s opened. I thought, you know what? This is like the platypus that we’re talking about here, because they kind of live in burrows through the day and they’re underwater at night when they’re hunting food They could tell us that they had, uh, platypuses and we wouldn’t really know the difference.
And hence, Schrödinger’s platypus was born. Here is a comedic tongue-in-cheek retelling of the story.
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: I wanna tell you a story about Schrödinger’s platypus. It was in the river and not in the river when it wasn’t in the bush. You might ask how this can be. Have I finally lost my mind? But this story was spun [01:05:00] here in Adelaide by a sinister mastermind.
Do you know about the famous cat owned by the famous physicist? He said if it was in a box, you couldn’t know whether it exists. Well, swap the cat for a platypus, and the River Torrens for that box, and prepare to hear a story about a monotreme paradox. If you’ve seen Schrödinger’s platypus, you’re one of the lucky few.
It spends all day in its burrow, away from the public view. Politicians sing its praises and claim its saving was a must. To believe in Schrödinger’s platypus is to pledge your civic trust. I came across Schrödinger’s platypus on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was scrolling through the social networks, such a shameful thing to do.
But then a story caught my eye, four million dollars being spent to make [01:06:00] our river wild again instead of filling it with cement. This story was from the same government that took our parks out of quarantine, so they could legally take away trees by turning on their chain machines. But could this be a brand new start?
Could it bring our parklands alive? But then I read past the headline, and my joy did not survive. If you’ve seen Schrödinger’s platypus, you’re one of the lucky few. It spends all day in its burrow, away from the public view. Politicians sing its praises and claim its saving was a must. To believe in Schrödinger’s platypus is to pledge your civic trust.
The headline said it was a major push to bring the platypus to our town. But then it said “could,” and then it said “might,” and that’s when I started to frown. The government man said they did some tests to see what a platypus [01:07:00] needs, but our river didn’t have enough water flow and was swamped by excessive reeds.
And that’s when he dropped the bombshell about the foxes and the cats. He said they’d be feasting on platypus if we ever did bring them back. But he wasn’t too concerned. He said there’s nothing much to fear. We don’t even know where to get them from. That search is gonna take us years. If you’ve seen Schrödinger’s platypus You’re one of the lucky few.
It spends all day in its burrow, away from the public view. Politicians sing its praises and claim its saving was a must. To believe in
TAS Theme: Schrödinger’s platypus
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: is to pledge your civic trust. I fainted at that confession, and then I fell right off my chair. Then I swore I saw Professor Schrödinger. He was in front of me, standing there.
I apologized to him for my puzzled look. [01:08:00] I said, “I thought that you were dead.” He smiled at the subtle irony, and then this is what he said. “Did you know this story was based upon a study done four years ago? Do you think it’s a bit suspicious that only today they are letting you know? They’re cutting down trees and laying down track and disturbing the natural scene.
So they flash a round of platypus to convince the world they’re green.” If you’ve seen Schrödinger’s platypus, you’re, you’re one of the lucky few. It spends all day in its burrow, away from the public view. Politicians sing its praises and claim its saving was a must. To believe in Schrödinger’s platypus is to pledge your civic trust.
I said to Professor Schrödinger, “Would our government really lie? If I walked along the River Torrens, wouldn’t I see one with my eye?” He said, “A [01:09:00] platypus story is made for spin, because it sleeps underground all day, and at night it swims underwater when it goes hunting for its prey.” And that’s when I saw the cunning plan, and we both shared knowing looks.
It could be both alive and not alive. That’s why it’s, it’s Schrödinger’s platypus
Few. It spends all day in its burrow. Way, way from the public view. Politicians sing its praises and claim its saving was a must. To believe in Schrödinger’s platypus is to pledge your civic trust. If you’ve seen Schrödinger’s platypus, you’re one of the lucky few. It spends all day in its burrow. Way, way [01:10:00] from the public view.
Politicians sing its praises and claim its saving was a must. To believe in Schrödinger’s platypus is to pledge your civic trust.
Steve Davis: There we are. Schrödinger’s Platypus, Steve Davis and The Virtual Osos. I would love someone to take that song and make it their own. Be awesome. But there we go. What a fantastic chat with Daniel Clark or Dan Clark.
Really appreciate it and what he’s doing, and a little bit of a barb in the back foot for that song, uh, about Schrödinger’s platypus. Perhaps not so much what the government’s doing, but what the people like Dan Clark are doing, that is how we restore our civic trust. Until next time, it’s good night from me, Steve Davis.
Good night, Don.
AJ Davis: The Adelaide Show podcast is produced by my dad, Steve Davis. If you want to start a [01:11:00] podcast or get some help producing creative content, talk to him. Visit stevedavis.com.au. Thanks, AJ. I’m Caitlin Davis, and I agree with everything my sister said, but there’s one more thing to say. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating or a review, ’cause that will make my dad really happy.
Oh, and one more thing, if you really, really liked it, please help a friend put The Adelaide Show on their phone. Thanks for listening
Buzz, buzz, I wanna be Adelaide, Adelaide,
TAS Theme: Adelaide
Adelaide, Adelaide