Batty's Bush Bible

David Batty’s career spans more than 40 years of writing, producing, directing and shooting documentaries in Australia and, more recently, Papua New Guinea.

He helped establish the TV production unit at the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), for which he made a wide array of films and videos, all of which were predominantly in Aboriginal languages and often made with or featuring pre-contact people.

Later, in Broome he teamed up with producer Jeni McMahon and wrote, shot and directed documentaries and TV series, including Rodeo Road, Sisters, Pearls and Mission Girls, Jila, Desert Heart, Inventions from the Shed and Going Bush. With a long history of making programs with and for Aboriginal people, he is well known for his multi-award-winning series Bush Mechanics, which he co-directed with Francis Jupurrurla Kelly.

Batty’s recent projects include directing Coniston, the story of Australia’s last massacre of Aboriginal people in central Australia; the web series Black As, which tracks four young men and their wild adventures across Arnhem Land; and the eight-part series Truck Hunters for Network 10, which follows the adventures of two rat truck-building enthusiasts as they scour the countryside in search of old American trucks.

Batty lives off grid on the New South Wales south coast but heads north in winter.