Wind & Sky Productions

09/12/2025

Dive deep into the ancient world beneath Bass Strait with the Land Bridge podcast — where grassy plains once stretched between mainland Australia and Lutruwita/Tasmania.

In this episode, palaeoecologist Professor Simon Haberle reveals how tiny traces of charcoal and pollen preserved in old lakes, lagoons and swamps across the Bass Strait Islands help uncover 40,000 years of human history on the Bassian Plain.

Curious, surprising, and perfect for a road trip or beach day. 🎧🌊
Listen now and journey back in time!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2275846/episodes/16466137

19/11/2025

We’ve been developing something new that we’re excited to share more widely.

As part of The Land Bridge project — exploring the deep human and environmental history of the ancient land bridge between Australia and Lutruwita/Tasmania — we’ve launched a companion podcast series.

It's a science and culture deep dive into the ice age world of the Bassian Plain.

Each episode features minimally edited depth interviews with researchers and cultural custodians who help us explore the now submerged lands under Bass Strait.

The first six interviews are now uploaded as part of Season 1, along with a short introduction "Episode 1" by our producer Lucinda Horrocks.

You can listen here:
thelandbridge.au/podcasts/

Or search for 'The Land Bridge' in your favourite podcast streaming platform.

Listen to The Land Bridge podcast. Long-form interviews exploring the ice-age Bassian Plain beneath today’s Bass Strait with researchers and custodians.

18/11/2025

Thank you to everyone who has watched and shared our film The Land Bridge — it’s been wonderful to see such interest in the deep time ecological and cultural story of Bass Strait.

If you’d like to explore further, The Land Bridge website includes more material about the cultural connections, people, plants, animals, environments and changing coastlines of the Bassian Plain, including species that once spread between Victoria and Lutruwita/Tasmania over land.

The site features short articles, podcasts, and education resources for anyone curious about this ancient landscape which now lies beneath the sea, produced in consultation with First Peoples and scientific experts.

You can explore it here:
thelandbridge.au

Please feel free to share with anyone interested in Australian culture, ecology and deep time — the website is free to access and enjoy. 😊

11/11/2025

Every year on 11 November we pause to remember those who served.

But what about those who were never found?

The Missing follows the untold story of Australians who searched for the lost — and what it means to live with unanswered grief.

Watch the film:

When WW1 brought Australians face to face with mass death a Red Cross Information Bureau and post-war graves workers laboured to help families grieve for the...

24/09/2025

Did you know fur seals in Bass Strait were once hunted to the brink of extinction?
Two hundred years later, their playful presence on our coasts is a reminder of both human impact and nature’s resilience. Read Kiah Berglund’s essay on the fur seals of Bass Strait

Bass Strait’s playful fur seals are now recovering from a close call with human commercial hunters who almost caused their extinction two hundred years ago.

23/09/2025

New podcast explores the history of first human arrival in Tassie https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/why-dont-koalas-live-in-tassie-new-podcast-explores-the-ancient-history-of-first-human-arrival/news-story/acb5d408e57f5c6f6416892ea13bad66 [Paywalled article]

Tasmania has its own Atlantis story of a hidden and ancient land drowned beneath the sea.

19/09/2025

Language carries memory across generations. In this article, cultural custodian Wayne Thorpe explores how the Gunnai language of dance, stories and song preserve links to a time when Gippsland connected to Lutruwita/Tasmania. Though the land is now under the sea, the stories remain. Read more

Within Gunnai language there are names and stories which are evidence of connections to the land bridge which have never been lost, just submerged by the waters.

16/09/2025

We've released the first series of long form interviews about the Land Bridge as a podcast!

You can listen on Apple, Spotify and all major streaming platforms. Search for 'The Land Bridge Podcast'.

Science Podcast · A science and culture deep dive into the ice age world of the Bassian Plain in southeastern Australia. The series features interviews with experts and cultural custodians who tell us what is known abo…

15/09/2025

If you’ve explored our digital story The Land Bridge, you might enjoy this newly published research "The palaeogeography of the Bass Strait land-bridge, a vital zone of human and biological connectivity across southeastern Australia". It traces 100,000 years of sea level change in Bass Strait using updated bathymetric data, shedding new light on the rise and fall of the Bassian Land Bridge.

Some of the authors are among the experts we spoke with during production of The Land Bridge!

Read the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379125004263

(Visit The Land Bridge digital story www.thelandbridge.au Photograph of wetlands with swans and brolga by Ed Dunens )

12/09/2025

Birdwatchers, here’s one for you: the mistletoebird takes centre stage in Chris Johnson’s article on reimagining the Bass Plain. Learn how this tiny songbird’s unique diet and droppings actually help shape ecosystems. Fascinating stuff! Read more: https://thelandbridge.au/bass-plain-bridge-or-filter/ (Photograph by Patrick Kavenagh. CC BY 2.0.)

10/09/2025

Was the Bass Plain a bridge or a filter?
https://thelandbridge.au/bass-plain-bridge-or-filter/
Why could wombats and kangaroos cross the land bridge but not koalas? We can tell a lot about the ancient Bass Plain landscape from the types of animals that made it to Lutruwita/Tasmania from mainland Australia, writes Chris Johnson.

Why could wombats and kangaroos cross the land bridge but not koalas? We can tell a lot about the ancient Bass Plain landscape from the types of animals that made it to Lutruwita/Tasmania from mainland Australia.

04/09/2025

Charcoal and pollen from old lakes
https://thelandbridge.au/charcoal-and-pollen-from-old-lakes/
Collecting sediment cores from Bass Strait island lakes provides insight into life on the ancient Bassian Plain, and provides evidence of First Nations People effectively using fire to manage these landscapes over thousands of years, write Madeleine Bessell-Koprek and Simon Haberle.

Collecting sediment cores from Bass Strait island lakes provides insight into life on the ancient Bassian Plain, and provides evidence of First Nations People effectively using fire to manage these landscapes over thousands of years.