You can imagine a land that rises up to 900 metres in parts, rent by crevasses and gorges, and ringed by some of Queensland's most spectacular falls.

Here, in a place of exotic beauty but with the underpinnings of danger, in a place where hundreds died in the days of inland colonisation, lies the region where Survivor II -- Survivor in Outback Australia -- was filmed.

It is here that the Ogakor (crocodile) and Kucha (kangaroo) tribes -- later combining into one tribe called the Barramundi (a type of fish) -- combined physical skills and mental strategies to outfight, outwit, outlast one another to the sombre tunes, in the screened series, of the Aboriginal didgeridoo.

No doubt the land is almost back to normal with the goannas and the tree frogs and assorted other fauna now undisturbed in their native habitat.

Ring of waterfalls

Here, in an area fanning in a wide arc from, say, Bramston Beach on the Queensland coast, is a place of rugged beauty with protected national parks and a ring of waterfalls.

The more prominent falls in the region, in a roughly clockwise fashion, are Tinaroo Falls on the edge of Lake Tinaroo close to Atherton, Davis Creek Falls in the Davies Creek National Park, Josephine Falls at the southern edge of Bellenden Ker National Park, Mungalli Falls west of Palmerston National Park, and Millaa Millaa, Zillie and Ellinjan Falls along the Waterfall Circuit Rd close to the town of Millaa Millaa. And, yes, there's Blencoe Falls.

Visitors to Queensland can motor down from Cairns or west from Innisfail for a communion with nature and its cascades of wonders.

Closely guarded secret

Understandably, there had been the strictest secrecy over the filming -- first on the location and, most importantly, the outcome -- of the second television series of reality-based Survivor.

The first and highly successful Survivor series was shown on the national TCN9 network in Australia as well as in innumerable other parts of the world.

While Survivor II was pitched against the popular NBC program Friends in the US, the series was screened on the TCN 9 network in Australia which also runs Friends.

Stranded in the Outback

What happened in Survivor II is that initially 16 persons strangers to one another were stranded, kilometres from anywhere, in Outback Australia in late 2000. Filming was completed before year's end and the screened series had its denouement in early May 2001.

Secrecy was not only part of the Survivor mystique but an essential ingredient in the development of each episode in the series.

How it all ended -- who survived and won a million American dollars -- was a closely guarded secret with, no doubt, iron-clad confidentiality agreements in force.

But we now know, of course, who the ultimate survivor of the Australian Outback is.

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