
10/05/2025
Remote Broadcast Reality Check
We recently did a live cross for The Project with Dr Charlie Veron, widely known as “the Godfather of Coral” speaking about his lifelong work and his connection with Sir David Attenborough.
Charlie lives out near Palmerston, QLD, right on the edge of nowhere. No 5G, barely a whisper of 4G. We were having trouble, trying everything, home WiFi, Starlink, we finally got enough signal by running a 30m SDI cable outside to the Dejero and mounting the Starlink dish to the roof of the Caddy. Cable running everywhere, Bush tech at its finest.
Just as we were ready to go live, Charlie’s son was flying a drone… which lost control and crashed into a stand of bamboo right next to the Caddy. My first thought wasn’t about myself, it was about the drone hitting the Starlink dish and killing our signal right before the cross. I went to help retrieve it, made eye contact with the pilot, and just as I reached for the drone, it flew straight at me, hitting my head and slicing up my hand.
Three minutes before the cross, I was bleeding from 17 cuts on my hand and a few on my head. We went inside to grab the first aid kit, then went outside patched me up quickly, away from where the others were working, so Ben and Charlie could focus on the cross. I told them, “We’re good, let’s get the cross done. I’ll deal with this after.” Ben got the job done.
Afterwards, we tried to find a local ambulance at Mila Mila, no one there. Then we came across a traffic accident near Malanda and realised that’s where the emergency services were. We decided to just head home.