-Funding for "WildSide with Nick Mollé: Australia" has been provided in part by... Additional funding provided by... -Somewhere in the wild reaches of our planet, there is a place that we want to be.

To get there, we can journey to these incredible environments and find it right where it has always been, inside each and every one of us.

It is our wild side.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The phrase "ancient mariner" takes on a different dimension when you think in terms of 40,000 or 50,000 years ago.

That's when courageous souls faced treacherous seas and God knows what else to get here.

Many, many centuries later, Europeans came and they found an indigenous culture living in harmony with flora and fauna beyond their wildest imagination.

Welcome to the wild side of Australia.

♪♪ Known the world over as a place of adventure, the subject of countless books and documentaries, Australia would seem almost overexplained, and yet it remains a mystery.

The more we learn, the more mysterious it becomes.

The top end of the Northern Territory, where the dry interior is replaced by lush tropical vegetation fed by dramatic seasonal rains, is a place of myths and legends, some as ancient as 30,000 years or so and some a bit more recent, like the mythical Crocodile Dundee and the legendary Steve Irwin.

It's labeled the real Australia by many Australians who have never been here.

No wonder another colloquial name for the Northern Territory is Never Never, a perfect name.

I still don't know what it means.

Never go or never return?

Thousands of square kilometers are threatened by changing sea levels in these wildlife-rich floodplains, as higher salinity levels reach further and further into the marshes and billabongs.

Introduced species have taken a toll on the indigenous wildlife.

Somehow, intrinsic natural beauty and life thrive and draw admirers from around the world.

Australia's Northern Territory is home to wallabies and water buffalo.

It's home to avian inhabitants in numbers beyond belief.

It is also home to snakes and crocodiles.

South Pacific beaches here can be inviting, but enter the water at your own risk.

This is the domain of the notorious saltie, the Australian saltwater crocodile.

The Northern Territory may never be considered tame... [ Man speaking indistinctly ] ...neither socially nor biologically.

This is the place of the legendary beauty of Kakadu National Park.

This is home to the original Australians now being given back their sacred inheritance in an area known as Arnhem Land.

Dedicated naturalists and entrepreneurs as well care deeply about this place as they find common ground and take aside their wild side.

Here in the remote top end of Australia, we find a city in an atmosphere where clichés are replaced by far more interesting reality.

Darwin is its own brand of civilization.

Cosmopolitan by day and untamed by night, this intriguing multinational oasis is but a few miles from Aboriginal settlements, surrounded by a vast wilderness with people who walk to the beat of their own drum, an ancient rhythm misaligned from Western understanding.

-This is our airplane.

-We are leaving Darwin in one of my all-time by far favorite means of transportation, the bush plane.

♪♪ Flying over this mostly dry land, it's hard to imagine that in a few months' time we would be flying over mostly water.

The extreme flooding here is a natural event that the environmental balance has depended upon for thousands of years.

The floodplains support a variety of life, freshwater floodplains encroached upon by rising oceans as distant glaciers surrender to rising temperatures.

No matter how much I ask, he's not going to let me fly this thing.

♪♪ As we land on an airstrip not found on any travel guide, we begin our adventure in the remote and intimidating Northern Territory.

Good pilot.

-Thanks.

Any time.

-Yeah.

I'm glad you didn't let me take the controls when... These are the last days of the dry season here, a time between March and October where rain is generally nonexistent.

When the downpours return in October and grow with the monsoon winds by December, they do not quit until radical changes occur.

Some of what we see now as dry land will be islands.

Some will be underwater.

As harsh as these changes are, life thrives here while depending on the drastic move from wet to dry.

We are still close to the northern coastline on the edge of the Mary River floodplain, just west of Kakadu National Park.

We are approaching Bamurru Plains, an idyllic setting in the most mystical of landscapes.

♪♪ As we prepare for our explorations in the wild, we see that the attributes of our lodge are exceptional.

This place is something else.

♪♪ The canvas of our front yard is a masterpiece of living art.

Wallabies, small, terminally cute relatives of kangaroos, dot the landscape.

Wild horses known as brumbies graze along with passing water buffalo.

Relaxing into an anticipation of tomorrow, I will sleep tonight to the faint but audible hops of wallabies encroaching on my tent.

♪♪ ♪♪ Pre-dawn finds us being rousted from our tents.

With barely time for good morning, someone has loaded us into our vehicle and is hauling us away in rapid fashion.

♪♪ We are hurrying to get somewhere.

Our driver is intent on getting us to our destination at sunrise.

♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] As daylight reveals her face, meet Kat, our guide extraordinaire.

When it comes to airboats and safari trucks, she can outpilot and outdrive most.

She is both naturalist and mechanic, and word has it that she can fight off an angry croc.

She can identify every living native species and she's from Scotland.

Just my luck.

After I study colloquial Aussie accents and phrases, I have a Scottish guide.

Just when I mastered g'day, I'm confronted with "squidgy," a Scottish term for mushy land.

I heard a new term back there.

You use the word squidgy.

Is that Australian?

-It's more likely to be Scottish, I think.

-Yeah?

What's it mean?

-Oh, it's a technical term for, uh, rather soft underfoot.

In this situation, mud mostly.

There could be a little bit of buffalo excrement in there as well.

It's mostly mud.

-You put these boats out here.

You have to move them around?

-Yeah, absolutely.

At the beginning of the year, we have them way further north on the floodplain, much closer to where the lodge is located.

And by about June, after a couple of months of no rain, that floodplain has receded back about five or six kilometers.

Well, not quite so much, but we move them further around from the lodge.

Uh, and then about a month ago, we moved them down to this location here, which is pretty far south in the floodplain.

-So this location, but it's not an exact location either.

-No, not at all.

No.

We go with how it rains.

Yeah.

And we move it fairly regularly.

We have to keep shifting this spot.

-Okay, so this is where you launch your boats out of.

-Yes.

-And it moves around.

You said something before about having the first person down after you move them to a new spot has to shoo the crocodiles away or something.

-[ Chuckles ] Well -- -I mean, it's kind of muddy right now.

-Yeah, it's pretty shallow and pretty muddy.

But, you know, in an area like this, anywhere where there's water in the top end, there could potentially be saltwater crocodiles right out here.

So we see them on this floodplain fairly regularly.

So the first job is to move the boats out and do some circle work we call it in Australia when you, uh, make a bit of a mess and make sure to try and scare all the crocodiles away, and then we take your boots off and get into the mud and move it.

Yeah.

-Okay.

Mushy mud.

Pulling on your feet is one thing.

Chasing away crocs, well, that's another.

Did she say circle work or sucker work?

Alright, forget the crocs for now.

We are savoring every moment of this stunning Australian morning.

The wealth of emerging birds adds to this mesmerizing moment.

♪♪ Airboats are a transportational mixed breed.

The water here can become less than shallow, and this boat travels easily over grass or squidgy ground, and is relatively gentle compared to an underwater propeller chopping up the vegetation.

This is one of Australia's primary bird sanctuaries, both in numbers and variety.

Massive flocks rely on these waters, waters that naturally expand and shrink with the seasons.

One third of Australia's birdlife, more than 280 species, live in this part of the Northern Territory.

The list includes magpie geese known in local Aboriginal language as bamurru.

Thus the name of our outpost.

It's a lot more intriguing to write home and say that you are staying at Bamurru Plains rather than Magpie Geese Mudflats.

Is this considered the place in Australia where there's the most diverse bird population?

-Australia's bird population is fantastic throughout.

Um, there are certain pockets, and this is certainly one of them, where you have a real broad spectrum of wildlife to see.

And specifically birdlife.

So you have fantastic array of birdlife because you've got this volume of water here, which as we sit here, it looks really extensive.

But if you consider in the wet season, that's all over, you know.

Everywhere, even in the woodland areas, all the dams are full.

All the -- You know, lots of puddles and billabongs are bursting.

So now, at the end of the dry season, before the rains start again and the monsoon, they flock to areas like this.

-Bamurru have one interesting adaptation.

Their webbed feet can also grasp and roost on branches.

-Most of the melaleucas that we see here, more commonly known paperbark, are called a weeping paperbark.

You notice the formation of the leaves is all sort of dropping down.

These guys like to be in water, have their roots in water all year round.

Like to be saturated.

-Melaleuca, also known as paperbark trees, come in hundreds of varieties.

The ones hanging over the water here are known as weeping melaleuca.

With hundreds of uses for ancient as well as modern civilizations, we would think that this tree is somewhat of a hero, and it is.

Yet this is the same tree -- pardon my sarcasm -- brilliantly introduced to Florida, where it has decimated sections of the natural environment.

-It's Australian melaleucas that they stabilized the Everglades with, which unfortunately now is causing them problems as, as we're all too familiar in Australia with introduced things, then, you know, the locals realizing, oh, maybe it wasn't meant to be here in the first place.

-Here, where they belong, these trees provide a lush habitat for one striking bird species after another, including the eye-catching radjah shelduck.

Sea eagles commonly commute between the coast and these floodplains, a coast where rising sea levels contribute to rising levels of salinity, affecting sensitive species and the ecological balance.

Before we embarked on this adventure, we spoke with our friend Scott Denning, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University.

-Oceans are rising everywhere in the world, really.

The oceans rise with climate change for two reasons.

One is the warm water actually swells up.

It takes up more room, so it encroaches on the land.

And the other thing is that the ice, both in the Arctic and the Antarctic, is melting, and that extra water is actually running into the ocean and filling it up, so as the water rises, the salt water comes in to the land farther and farther.

On a flat plain, coastal plain, six inches of sea level rise could be miles inland.

If you're on a floodplain, typically it's where a river is flooding seasonally.

That's very flat because the water finds its level and where floodplains meet the ocean, a little bit of sea level rise will change the boundary between the freshwater and the salt water.

The higher the sea comes, the farther inland that salt will penetrate.

-The pattern Scott spoke of is exactly what is happening here.

The jabiru, also known as the jabiru stork, is an impressive animal, standing 1 1/2 meters tall with a 2-meter wingspan.

It is Australia's largest wetland bird, quite at home in these floodplains, dining on everything from insects to fish, frogs, and reptiles.

Although seen in many parts of Australia, this area and Kakadu National Park are the best places to spot them.

Of intimidating size with a heavy black beak, they are engineered for predation yet somehow manage graceful flight.

Scanning for birds, a sudden quick glimpse of a couple of critters catches my curiosity.

As if a climate-based altered environment weren't enough, Australia, perhaps more than anywhere, suffers from the introduction of non-native species.

Pigs are a factor in habitat destruction because of competition for food, as well as damage done by their hooves.

Indigenous critters, like the wallaby, have feet designed not to dig up the land.

Speaking of hooves, with bigger feet than a pig, one animal has been a part of the big picture for generations.

With their propensity for opening water passages where expanding vegetation follows its own path through a changing ecology, buffalo are touted by some as assisting the wildlife environment, but unquestionably an invasive species.

These are the most intimidating mammals sloshing through here.

Water buffalo roaming wild but rounded up for market once a year contribute to a Wild West atmosphere.

Though relatively accustomed to human visitors, These are the same animals with a somewhat cantankerous reputation, so any close encounter should be tempered with caution.

Living up to the aquatic half of their name, these one-ton beasts make themselves quite at home in these water holes.

Introduced in the 19th century as working animals as well as to provide meat in these remote areas, they became feral and prolific.

Buffalo are the area's most intimidating mammals, but the critter that takes top honors in the overall intimidating wildlife category is a reptile, and it eats buffalo.

Changing salinity is not a problem for one species infiltrating further inland, the Australian saltwater crocodile.

A floating log conjures up a momentary image of a croc.

Anticipation is the mother of imagination.

The saltwater, also known as seagoing or estuarine crocodiles of Australia, have been growing in numbers since protective status has been granted.

One list of correctly accepted names even includes "man-eating crocodile."

-We've got two species of crocodile.

We have what's generally known as a saltwater crocodile and a freshwater salt-- freshwater crocodile.

The saltwater crocodile is more correctly termed the estuarine crocodile.

It can live in fresh and salt.

This is freshwater here.

Most of the crocodiles we see are the salties.

-So they could be here now?

-Absolutely.

Yeah.

And if they would have heard us come into the area, maybe decided to hunker down and wait.

Um, if they're moving.

-Wait for what?

-Absolu-- Well, wait for us to leave or wait for us to come.

No [laughs] no.

You know, they are known to jump, crocodiles.

They have a very big, powerful tail.

They can angle themselves in -- in the water.

They can push themselves up out of the water.

So because it's very shallow here, it's not so much of a concern.

Earlier on in the year when the water level is up to, you know, here in the trees, yeah, it's more of a concern.

-Oh, good.

So there's not much of a chance of one jumping up and grabbing John here, for instance.

-Not too much of a chance.

No.

Might lick his ankles but might not grab his whole posterior.

-With John somewhat safely perched on his tiny island, we have a visitor.

♪♪ -Saltwater crocodiles in Australia are known to get between about five and six meters in length, but there's a lot of stories of much, much bigger.

Most of the young crocodiles will stay near -- in the shallows near the edge and will take things off the edge.

Large crocodiles might do the same as well.

But of course they will take much bigger things off the edge.

So the things like the feral pigs, even the buffalo here.

-They take the buffalo?

-Absolutely.

More likely to go for a younger one, but maybe they'd have a go -- You know, a big crocodile might well have a go at a bigger one, you know, just looking for a bit of thigh, but take the whole thing down.

-Patrolling the coastline, they are some of the most aggressive predators in the world and are extremely territorial, therefore turning up in more and more inland places.

The one we see here is relatively small at about three meters.

Kat has reminded us that with crocodiles, it's not the one you can see that is the problem.

It's the one you can't see.

She claimed there's always another lurking nearby.

And there he is.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Nymphoides indica or water snowflake.

-After a bit of a botany lesson featuring water snowflakes, ferns or, as Kat would say, "fairns," and the impressive lotus flower, along with a look at everyone's favorite little critter, the lovable leech, we are headed back to dry land.

Except for one minor detail -- my desire to commandeer the ship.

[ Engine revs ] Safely back at the lodge, Kat now understands our fascination with crocodiles.

She has a plan to help get it out of our system and us out of hers.

♪♪ -It's all sedimentary sandstone.

It's been laid down, they say, about 1,750 million years ago.

Shallow lake or a sea... -We are now destined for Kakadu National Park.

We have met up with Hamish, a genuine tough guy with a soft heart.

Hamish would be just as at home expressing his knowledge of biology and geology as he would be brawling in a local saloon, defending someone's dignity.

His sensitivity and concern for indigenous Australians provide us with insights far more profound than any preconceived notions.

Hamish has a plan.

Fully aware of our desire to see crocs, he has a deeper awareness of the effect of what we are about to experience.

We are fortunate to be among the few to enter this ancestral world.

-We go through between these.

-I'm about to be taken out of myself to slow down and listen.

-Bush hops.

No one will cook with -- rock wallaby, actually.

-Meet Wilfred, an unimposing man with a powerful knowledge of the ancient survival of a people, his people.

-Especially their ancestors.

During the wet, they used to come up here and use these shelters everywhere for living camping areas.

They used to go hunt these ones, as you can see now, which is... -Here I am about to see the connection between the artwork and a civilization.

And I asked the oh-so-American question, "How old are these?"

[ Needle scratches ] -We don't see a date written down here.

[ Laughter ] -Sorry.

-Actually, what we're looking at is so many layers and layers and layers and layers.

Actually, my guess is 20, 40, somewhere, a thousand years, some hundred years.

Some are recent ones.

-So there's everything from 1961 to thousands and thousands.

-Actually the one which is the lace and lace, yeah.

♪♪ It could be somewhere a thousand years.

So roughly.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -These curious depressions we find here represent generations of mixing paint.

♪♪ Whoa!

This is, uh... This whole wall is absolutely beautiful.

-What I see and looking at, which is a sorcery figure.

They're sorcery figures.

These ones.

Them ones.

Those ones.

These ones.

Sorcery figures.

The one they live at the -- the hollow log tree.

In my language I call [speaking native language] They live.

Those hollow log trees all the time.

Or sometimes when it's during the wet, just a bit of sprinkling.

And then sometimes when you see lightning, main spirit striking trees, dead hollow log trees.

He see those figures, like these ones.

Sorcery figures.

So could be they both enemies.

That's why, yeah, when the lightning comes, we just keep walking, hunting.

But we don't stand nearby the tree.

-Of course.

Don't stand next to a tree in a thunderstorm.

Practical folklore.

What do we have in here?

-Well, I've got a lightning man up here.

Lightning-man spirits up here.

Perhaps you heard about Mimi spirits.

They had lots and lots and lots of knowledge here.

Stories, knowledge.

A clever people who used to see good spirits.

Bad spirits.

Just like traditional witch doctors.

Well, they saw a lightning-man spirit, exactly like this.

Then they paint it exactly like this.

The one we hear sometimes or see flashing and making thunderstorms during the wet coming.

Or sometimes when we see a cloud forming black, then we hear or see flashing and making thunderstorms.

So this is the fella here, lightning man, Mamaragan.

In our language we call Mamaragan.

-I'm spellbound by history, folklore, and practicality all here before my eyes.

This is what art is, the classic definition of art.

We see sorcery figures.

We see a kookaburra, the Tasmanian tiger, probably drawn when they were still around, now famously extinct except in rumors.

It was replaced in the food chain by the introduced dingo.

Westerners always seem to need to know how old, how big, how tall.

Now I'm learning.

Old enough.

Thank you, Wilfred.

It's just a nice view.

Having expanded our minds, Hamish will now get us back to our crocodile obsession.

He's taking us to a fascinating, if not infamous, river crossing.

-This is Cow's Crossing.

-It seems as though the Alligator River received its name because in 1820, the explorer Phillip Parker King saw alligators here.

But he was wrong.

They were not alligators, just crocodiles.

Huge numbers of huge, aggressive crocodiles.

-Coming from our right and going up upstream.

-This crossing on the Alligator River is today one of the most dangerous places on Earth for human/estuarine-crocodile encounters.

In one instance, someone lost his head caught up in the excellent fishing here.

Literally.

-Back in 1986, there was a fella who was fishing down here.

He ended up slipping into the water and had his head taken off in front of a group of onlookers.

I think there's some people up there on the lookout up there.

-Watching him fish.

-Yeah, more or less.

Or just watching the river go by and just happened to see that.

-I remember times when my passion for fishing circumvented caution.

But I think I'll pass on this place.

Even when the tide is out and conditions indicate no apparent reptiles, Hamish assures us that they are there.

Then they begin to appear.

♪♪ We will film them from the shore, not the bridge.

One frightening tale tells of a woman who mistook the nearby boat launch for the beginning of the partially submerged bridge.

-Just down the road there's a downstream boat ramp.

And there was this lady that ended up driving down the boat -- downstream boat ramp, thinking she was going across.

Just you get a bit worried as the water was coming in.

And yeah, so, saw the picture in the paper and you saw the top bit of her car poking out of the water, and they had to get down there.

Mate was down there with his shotgun.

He was a policeman, had to sit there as another fella went in to get the chains under the diff to pull it out.

-Frightening.

Humorous but frightening.

Drinking in the tales.

I am pressing him for more information, and he has decided to take us to meet someone who knows these crocs by name.

We are at a place called Yellow Water.

Why it is called that, I don't know.

The water is crystal clear.

-I have a passion for not only just the fishing, but -- and teaching people how to fish properly.

-Our host, Dean Jackson, knows this place intimately.

We are chatting about the cattle periodically falling victim.

Is it a danger for the cattle?

Dean grew up here.

He knows every resident croc and knows when new ones arrive.

He is also quick to point out the various species of birds.

The rufous night heron standing here next to a group of whistling ducks is exquisite looking.

With its short neck and long beak, this strikingly colored bird is perfectly adapted for the pursuit of prey in its specific hunting spots.

As we watch a splendid display including egrets, Dean shares with us how each day is different, and he never is exactly sure of what to expect.

This place is spectacular.

And I immediately became aware that no matter how many times Dean has cast off in this boat, he loves every time, still a kid showing off his secret spot.

-...the geese was a very good mud crab boat.

-Where I grew up, hunting and fishing regulations were different than they are today, and the same is true in this part of the world.

Central America has its Jesus Christ lizard, but Australia has the Jesus Christ bird, properly known as the comb-crested jacana.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ As a fishing guide, he takes people out to catch the popular barramundi... -Little barra, mate?

G'day.

-...the very fish that caused the fella to lose his head at the river crossing.

♪♪ Dean grew up here, and we want to tap his experience, see crocs, and hear his stories.

That'd be a shock.

Circumference.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-So what we have learned is that there is practically no water up here that doesn't have crocs, every river, every billabong, where it is wise to look around before you settle in for a roadside picnic.

♪♪ ♪♪ We're headed back to Kat, but not without a visit with a few, actually, more than a few, critters kind of hanging out.

Bats, lots of bats.

Fruit bats, to be exact, the big ones that make Bela Lugosi jealous from his grave.

As scared and repulsed as some people are of these large flying mammals, they do not attack and bite your throat.

Well, I suppose they could if you got one mad enough.

They could be considered harmless, except for documented cases of spreading certain diseases.

Critical to the disbursement of seeds, these red flying foxes, with an uncanny resemblance to Chloe, my Chihuahua, will gather in huge numbers in selected trees.

While I do not recommend standing directly under the tree -- we don't want to be in the seed dispersing line of fire -- we've gotten fairly close without disturbing these guys.

[ Bats chirping ] Leaving our fine un-feathered friends behind, we have gratefully returned to Kat.

Well, not sure how grateful Kat is.

-We've got a green ants nest here, which we've already disturbed by touching it.

And look, they've all come out in defense mode on the hind legs, looking very agitated.

And now we're about to agitate them a little bit more.

-Ants all over the world are amazing.

Their complex colony organization methods baffle even the most erudite entomologists.

-They've got this awesome green bum.

Come on, little fella.

You see him there?

-Yeah.

Okay.

What you want to do, you don't really have to kill them for it.

Just hold them there, and you stick the tip of your tongue out and rub the tip of your tongue across his bum.

-Are you kidding me?

-No.

Lick his bum.

-Um... ♪♪ Wow.

-Come on, properly.

Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Is it strong?

-Uh-huh, very.

-Really strong citrusy sort of a flavor.

-Okay.

I've licked an ant's bum.

-It's almost numbing, don't you think?

-Uh-huh.

-It's so strong.

-It's loaded with a very sour and sweet chemical concoction.

Some locals use them to sweeten their tea.

Well, that would solve the problem of worrying about ants in the sugar bowl.

Some locals eat them by the handful for medicinal purposes.

Fortunately, Kat is only asking me to lick its bottom.

-You can eat them.

I've seen some guys that grab the entire nest and crunch it up in their hands, and you give it a sniff, and it's that really intense, citrusy sort of acid-y stench.

But whenever you do that, you have all these runaways that go up your arm and down your sleeves, and it's not pleasant.

-Oh, yes.

Another characteristic is that they fiercely defend the nest.

-Very nice, don't you?

-Ouch!

What's that?

-That's just grass now.

-Something bit my leg here.

-He's on edge.

He's on edge now.

We'll get him in the car.

-Okay, I'll stop.

I promise not to lick anyone else, I promise.

-Hey, we got some really attractive red bush apple here.

It's what we call this tree with the big, glossy leaves.

They're fairly common in the woodlands around here.

There's some new fruit on this tree, as well.

You get the young green fruit and some ripe red fruit, which we can eat, as well.

There's some on the ground, so they're probably pretty ripe.

-We can eat?

-Absolutely, a bit of bush tucker.

-100%?

-Definitely.

Look how beautiful and red it is.

It looks a little bit like an apple.

It does.

-I'll show you.

The flesh is a little bit crunchy like an apple as well.

Nice, clean, white flesh.

No bruises on this one.

Kind of tart, but quite sweet as well.

And it's crunchy, you know, just like an apple and sort of an outer flesh like an apple.

So you can see how it got its -- -Tastes like chicken.

-It doesn't taste anything like chicken.

-It doesn't taste like chicken.

Chase it down with an ant.

-Yeah, it's absolutely an ant chaser.

-It's good.

-It is pretty good.

So lots of the wildlife like this, as well.

You often find them nibbled by the parrots and all sorts of things.

It's not bad, is it?

-It's not bad at all.

If there were ever a contest to determine animals that are illegally cute, a wallaby would definitely be in the running.

A wallaby is a medium sized macropod marsupial with a cute name and a face to match.

Despite certain technical differences, their design is basically small kangaroo.

Hopping around with kids in their pouches, they seem undeterred by the vegetarian competitors, buffalo and brumbies, wild horses with a cute name.

Out of the 30 or so varieties, these are called agile wallabies.

-Yeah, they have a bit of a shorter nose, very small face.

The snout of the agile wallaby is quite a bit shorter, and very distinguishing features on their face, these wallabies.

They have a dark patch and a light patch right down their face, which you can actually see as skin coloration rather than fur pigmentation on the very young joeys when they pop their heads out.

And that's a distinguishing feature for these guys.

There's also a paler patch on their hip, as well, which helps you.

-After a gestation period of 30 days, joeys will hang out in the pouch for 7 or 8 months, eventually beginning to venture out while remaining close for a quick return to safety.

Gregarious as they are, they are very skittish around us and for good reason.

Some farmers view them as pests and treat them accordingly.

These very watchable wild critters spend their days munching on native grasses while keeping an eye out for predators or angry farmers.

As I noted on my first night's sleep, after dark, they will move in closer to peaceful human campers, perhaps for a degree of protection from nocturnal predators.

-Yeah, with all the leaf litter on the ground, you can certainly hear them.

And they've got a very distinctive boing.

You know, you can hear, "Oh, it's a wallaby."

Definitely.

-It's kind of relaxing.

-Yeah.

Lulls you to sleep.

-So I have a question.

As a guide, I know you see lots of wallabies, but as a guide, have you -- You see many wannabes?

-[ Laughs ] Many.

Many wannabes.

Usually in the car behind me.

Not so much in the -- in the bush.

-What's it like being a guide here?

-Oh, it's great fun.

It's a fantastic lifestyle.

We're pretty lucky to live and work in a location where you're seeing new things every day.

It changes a huge amount throughout the year, you know, because of the water level and the location of the wildlife, as well as, you know, the seasonal temperature changes.

You know, we've got clouds in the sky this time of year.

Middle of the dry season, it's just blue sky every day, you know, but it changes.

The wildlife, as I said, locality changes quite a bit because of the water, and that keeps it interesting for us for sure.

And it's nice showing people things that I enjoy and are new to foreigners or even locals, you know?

It's a good experience, because everyone appreciates it.

Everyone's on holiday.

Everyone's having fun.

We get to live in a beautiful location.

It's great.

♪♪ -As our final night in this land of wonders is drawing to a close, we are gifted one more of my requests.

In the darkening light, a long stick seems to be changing shape on the road home.

Australia is known for its poisonous snakes, but this is a non-poisonous olive python, perhaps on her way out for an evening of hunting.

Pythons are one of many Aussie critters attempting to outlive the onslaught of the invasive species of cane toad.

In a nutshell, adult pythons eat the poisonous toads, and adult toads eat baby pythons.

To even get to this size, this snake would have had to survive more than a few attacks and a toxic meal or two.

Kat has a fascinating story of how one morning she awoke to find a snake had crawled into her bedroll.

She had to remove herself without losing her cool before determining that it was a harmless python.

Although possessing rows of sharp teeth, with no threat posed and left unmolested -- Okay, a little molested -- this resident reptile remains only moderately concerned by our presence.

♪♪ Tonight I will sleep not just to the sounds of hopping wallabies, but with another hopping critter in my tent, a big yellow frog common around these parts.

Although it has no problem sharing accommodations, it is quite shy.

♪♪ ♪♪ On our last day with Kat, I'm still thinking about my wannabe question.

I'm sure Kat would appreciate my skills.

♪♪ ♪♪ We have taken our cameras to a part of the world any explorer would be grateful to visit.

We have been lucky enough to have shared our time here with the knowledge and wit of some remarkable naturalists.

Australia is a land of wonder, with a mixture of evolutionary life, bigger and stronger crocodiles, intense bird life, unique marsupials, horses, buffalo, and of course, snakes, all enriching that oh, so important part of our existence, our wild side.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Funding for "WildSide with Nick Mollé: Australia" has been provided in part by... Additional funding provided by... For more information about this and other "WildSide with Nick Mollé" with documentaries, visit wildsideproductions.net.