It’s been a hot little while since Australian TV had a good, honest bloke hosting a show. These days? Too many trumped up lunatics running things. Private school boys. Inner city types. Weak as water. All think a sheepshank is the Sunday roast.
But for a glorious couple of years, back in the early 2000s, we had our hero. Our man amongst men. Our keeper of traditional bush culture and survivalist knowhow.
Russell Coight‘s highly revered and supremely informative travel/documentary series All Aussie Adventures was your absolute go-to for all things pertaining to Australia’s bountiful natural plants, animals, flora, and fauna.
The series might have been off the air for more than a decade (probably due to some fat cat bureaucratic claptrap, most likely) but its legacy remains vivid in the minds of fans and followers of the Coight way of life.
Thanks to the majesty of the internet, All Aussie Adventures devotees have been able to band together to share their boundless love and admiration of the great man, and their numbers are such that now – all these years later – a push to get Rusty back on TV screens across Australia is being made.
The Russell Coight Appreciation Society Facebook group has launched a petition, imploring Network Ten to reignite the fire and passion for bush tucker in the hearts of viewers nationwide by breathing new life into All Aussie Adventures and putting it back on the air – its rightful place.
Whilst other petitions we’ve featured in the past may have been made in jest, or with tongue firmly planted in cheek, this one is far more serious. In the 14 hours since the petition was started in the dead of night yesterday, some 4,000+ signatures have already been acquired. This is a movement that has serious momentum.
The letter attached to the petition says it all.
“For 2 wonderful seasons, our televisions were graced with someone who held a true connection to the Australian outback while being able to convey his vast knowledge to the everyday Aussie, a true man from the land.
This man was Russell Coight.
We watched as he taught us the importance of gun safety, the best way to arrive at a wedding, and even how to create a dead simple camp chair. His immense wisdom has informed a generation of Australians on the finer workings of life in the outback, however this knowledge is at risk.
Russell has been absent from our television screens for over a decade, and in that void has fallen lifeless, life-sapping reality TV shows that corrode our minds, while ignoring the beautiful land which Russ so lovingly shared with us.
The current generation are unaware of the dangers of salt-water crocodiles in dark alleys, or the fact that they can grow up to 20 feet (although most of them only grow 4). These important outback facts are vital to the upbringing of a generation who so desperately need someone to stand up and show them the right way to live.
Network 10, please bring back this great man and his All Aussie Adventures for another season.”
And if those words alone aren’t enough to get you well and truly on board, the stirring AAA theme song surely will be.
