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Discovering Wombats for NHK Japanese TV….
2016 The Examiner Newspaper – Toli Papadopoulos….
North-East bush extraordinaire Craig Williams has successfully landed his third international documentary, which plans to exhibit Tasmanian wildlife to students in Japan. Last year, Mr Williams was the star of a documentary on the bare-nosed wombat, created for Japan’s national public broadcasting organisation – NHK Japanese TV.
Mr Williams said the documentary was filmed throughout the North East, including his cabin on the eastern side of Ben Lomond. “They actually brought a robotics expert in from Japan who designed and built a robotic camera – called a snake cam. They put it down the burrow, filled with mothers and babies,” he said. “It’s (the documentary) to educate the students in Japanese schools about the wildlife in Tasmania.”
He said he was in talks with the production crew on which species would form the basis of the next documentary. “We’re looking at a couple of options…echidnas and a few other species, so we don’t really know yet.” While the documentary is still in its planning phase, Mr Williams said the production crew could commence filming as early as October.
Two years ago, he said he worked on a documentary called Leaps in Evolution – focusing on the evolution of animals in birth, including the short-beaked echidna. He said he scouted out the habitats of wildlife in order to ascertain where individual species lived and the periods they were most active.
“We do a lot of legwork prior to the crew getting here, so when they get here everything has been placed and we get straight into the filming.” “That will take place over the next few weeks probably.” He said the production took about two weeks to film last year, and was also filmed at Upper Blessington on the North West Side, and on properties owned and managed by forestry company Forico.
“We talked about their lifecycle (wombats) and it’s about how they live and their burrow systems, their babies, and where they keep them.” A segment was also filmed at Trowunna Wildlife Park. Mr Williams is co-owner of wildlife tour company Pepper Bush Adventures, which operates out of Scottsdale. See The Examiner article here
A slideshow of Bushie’s photos taken of the NHK and Oceapro team is below. Blog feature photo by Richard Cowling.