it's been a while now since australia officially reopened its borders to tourists and it's been so good to see so many people heading there. and today, we'll be looking back at some of my favourite travel show moments from the country i still call home. of course, australia is a vast country and we can't possibly attempt to cover the whole nation in just this one program but hopefully, we'll give you a flavour. one of my favourite stories saw me back in my home state of victoria way back in 2016, when i headed to phillip island to see the efforts that were being made to look after what were undoubtedly some of the cutest penguins i've ever seen. it's a place that attracts millions of tourists every year and this year marks the 185th anniversary of a sea voyage that changed the world. it was december 1831 when charles darwin set off on the hms beagle to see sights that would lead to his radical theory of evolution. and a key moment came when he visited australia, when he was struck by the oddness of the country's animals. kookaburra laughs. at the time darwin was exploring australia, there were ten penguin colonies all around phillip island but by the early 1980s, there was only one left — here on the beautiful and very blustery summerland peninsula. a radical conservation effort was required so, in 1985, the victorian state government began a mass buyback of land from people who were living on the peninsula, demolishing their houses and creating a largely human—free habitat for the penguins. it's a conservation effort that has continued to this day, thanks to phillip island nature parks — a not—for—profit organisation that carefully monitors the health of the penguin colony. penguin squeaks. each day, researchers come outjust after dawn to check on the birds. morning, ladies! good morning! what are we doing here? we're checking penguin boxes to see who's home and how healthy they are. okay, so what's the process? so, i'll be taking the bird out, giving them a scan for a microchip, putting them in a bag and getting their weight. fantastic! do you want me to show you? yes! 0h! ok, there we go. she seems pretty placid, pretty calm. you see, she's been shoved in the bag. some of them can be. oh, no. there you go. most of the time they are quite aggressive. they are wild animals, so they can be very aggressive. 0k. so, she is 1150, so she is a very good weight. there you go. growls. oh, go ahead. they even offered me the chance to help. i was not going to pass up an opportunity to get up close and personal with a penguin. so, scan him... squeaks. oh, well, i'll hold on to him. penguin attack. squeaks. great. oh, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. we'll be really quick. and i can report that these little guys are not as light as they look. he's a big boy! oh, look at him! look at him go! all of this cutting—edge research doesn't come cheap but luckily, these penguins have some powerful friends when it comes to funding — tourists. not surprisingly, a lot of people want to come and see this very cute penguin species and each year, just under 700,000 tourists come to the centre here, contributing around aud$400 million to the state economy. now, while attracting so many visitors no doubt provides an economic boost, but it also presents a challenge. how do you host thousands of people here every night without making life unbearable for the little penguins? certainly, there are some challenges with an attraction such as this. the penguins are our number one priority, of course. without the penguins, we don't have an attraction, so there's no point in not looking after them. some of the measures include these boardwalks, which allow the birds to walk freely beneath, and no photography at all as flashes can damage sensitive penguin eyes. to light the way, there are soft yellow led lights — just the right colour for minimal impact. the time to see penguins is at dusk, when scores of them come out from the sea and make their way to burrows on the hillside. this penguin parade draws most of the visitors here, and it's not hard to see why. crowd coos. oh, they're so cute! despite all the challenges, the future certainly looks bright for the little penguins. if all of these researchers and tourists have anything to say about it, phillip island's smallest residents will be around and very well protected for a long time to come. well, i really enjoyed spending time with those penguins down in victoria, but there are so many different landscapes and experiences to explore across australia. so, let's set our compass for the dead centre of the country and look back at the time when henry golding headed to alice springs. if you drop the marker right in the middle of australia, you'd probably land not too far off this point right here. north about 1500km, you're going to reach darwin. head over south same amount, you'll reach adelaide. and in that direction, as the crow flies 2500km, you're going to reach sydney. the remoteness of the town means that it's not a common stop on the australian tourism trail with numbers far below those of rival towns in australia. between 2007 and 2013, visits by international tourists to the northern territory fell quite drastically year on year, down by nearly a quarter. the high cost of internal flights has been blamed but in the town of alice springs, fear of crime has also been a big factor in putting people off. but numbers are starting to creep back up. part of that fight back here in alice springs is all to do with this. yes, alice springs has launched a plan to turn itself into a world—class mountain biking hub. the combination of beautiful landscapes and fantastic weather has made the trails around alice springs a local favourite for years, but the town wants to attract more international visitors. the territory hopes to bring in nearly $70 million a year through biking tourism. ow! clarke petrick from outback cycling leads tours throughout the trails here. there's some of the best riding in australia is here. there's 200km of beautiful, natural single track that you just don't find anywhere else. mountain biking is a key component of the adventure tourism market, which is growing. people are less sedentary and don't want to just view these sites, they really want to interact with them, experience them, and challenge themselves. we have amazing trail already. the environment lends itself to really good single trail — lots of small rides, lots of challenging rock gardens — but now, we're just really going to market that, show people what's available, let people find this undiscovered mountain biking scene. tourism bosses want alice springs to gain international mountain biking association ride centre status. and they've developed a five—year master plan to try and achieve it. alongside mountain biking, the town is trying to improve its image and reinvent itself for the tourist market. and helping tourists understand more about the unique outback environment is another way the town is shaking up its image. the earth sanctuary was set up by former neighbours star dan falzon and with his family he teaches visitors about the outback. dan, what are we up to? what are we doing? ijoined dan to make some damper — a traditional aboriginal bush recipe for bread that's made with their newly created beer — the red centre devil. i hear this is the first craft beer in central australia? it is the first craft beer in central australia at the moment. it's also the only beer that we have in central australia. so craft beer is becoming really popular around the world. the difference with this one is that we've infused some of our beautiful fruits that grow here on the property. they're called quandong, they're a bit of bush tucker out here. really high in vitamin c, just a really small fruit with a large nut, which we call a brain in there. but we collect the fruits and we can make chutneys out of it. beautiful syrups which you can go and desserts and all sorts of stuff. pour your beer in there. the recipe for making damper is incredibly simple. a bit of beer in first, self—raising flour and some raisins. mine is not too far, and yours is getting there. that looks good. that's perfect. so as long as there's enough flour in it that saves, it's getting a little bit burnt in there. that's lovely, mate. well done. after 45 minutes in the fire, the damper was ready to eat, and dan and his team prepared a feast of bush tucker for me to enjoy, including camel, kangaroo and croc. i have to say, the damper didn't taste half bad. and what we do is we just dip that in. and as you've done there, dip it in some beautiful virgin olive oil. and with some wattle seed, some outback wattle seed dukkah. this is amazing. it's fantastic. this is really good. it's lovely to be in a place like central australia, very, very ancient environment that can draw upon the beautiful, rare and exotic foods that come from here. and they can help you along the way and add to a wonderfuljourney around this great country. for sure. cheers. thank you. great effort. still to come on this week's show, climate change versus conservation along the great barrier reef. and we visit a sydney restaurant where the customer is never right. now, the great barrier reef is the world's largest coral reef, but this magnificent marvel of nature is facing threats from overtourism, pollution and climate change. mike corey visited the reef back in 2019 to meet a remarkable woman who's dedicated her life to saving this unique ecosystem. around 10% of all fish species live here. as a diver, there aren't many places that can beat it. due to increased water temperatures there's been several mass bleaching events here on the great barrier reef. 2016 and 2017, especially. couple that with a severe tropical cyclone, and up to 80% of the reef was affected. for myself, an ocean lover, it's very worrying. but there are stretches, like here on the southern part, that still thrive. schools of fish, rays, sharks and turtles are all abundant. i'm here to meet some of the people who've devoted their lives to keeping it that way. how perfect is that? billions of little, tinyjewels. they were chromis? blue—green chromis. oh, yeah. like little swirling jewels in the ocean. yeah, it's incredible down there, rachael, wow. rachaeljones has worked in these waters for 18 months now. the marine park authority have rewarded her efforts by giving her master reef guide status. so tell me what the health of the reef we saw down there today. it's very healthy. it's just so much diversity here. i mean, that up there suggested 900 years old. so it's just coral that's died off and built up over time. what are some of the main threats facing the great barrier reef? so we're all aware of the threats of the reef, you know, the rising sea surface temperatures, ocean acidification. we're all aware of it. but we need as many people as we can to see the great barrier reef because they're going to fall in love with it, as you have, and then they go home and protect the great barrier reef and all the reefs in the world. but then if more people are coming here, there's more people flying and therefore more carbon emissions. isn't that bad for the reef? we need as many people as we can to see the reef. and, you know, they can choose sustainable options. and every person that visits the great barrier reef pays an environmental levy. so they're playing a part every time they come. rachael is based on heron island, about 2 hours boat ride from gladstone on the queensland coast. there's a resort and a research station built on the site of an old turtle soup factory. these days, people here want their wildlife protected rather than liquidised. so andy, exactly how big is the great barrier reef? it's immense. i mean, it's about the same surface area as germany, 2300 kilometres in length, thousands of reefs, hundreds of islands. massive. it sounds massive. it must be hard to survey the entire thing then. yeah, so they reckon that 40% of the reef hasn't been surveyed. that much? so from a from a conservation perspective, so massive, and imagine how... the logistics you would require in order to do the whole the whole reef would be, you know, immense. andy's the brains behind earth hour. that's 60 minutes every year when businesses and landmarks turn off their lights to raise awareness of climate change. here we are. now, though, he's turned his attention to the reef, and is convinced education is the key to its survival. so what we're going to show you now is reef tracks. reef tracks. which is something that we've already launched and started to show the animals that have got satellite tags that are out on the reef. wow. yeah, yeah, yeah. so this is a... green turtle? yeah, green turtle. tiger shark. whale shark. this is about to show you, show you a whale shark. this is the first whale shark ever been tagged on the great barrier reef — and it lost its tag after about 4,000 kilometres. but it went all the way up the reef, then out into the coral sea and then up into the solomon sea. one night a year, the coral simultaneously release millions of eggs and sperm into the waters. it looks like a massive underwater snowstorm. professor harrison has set about capturing that spawn and relocating it to areas that need it most. ok, what's the plan? 0k, mike. so what we're going to do is i'm going to ask you to take these calipers. 0k. and just go down and measure the coral. he measures the new coral regularly and has found that it's been thriving. but he's also found that after three years, it's sexually reproductive, triggering a domino effect of regeneration. can you tell us a bit about the breakthrough you've made? yeah, so what we've been doing is some really exciting research. one of the innovations that we've just trialled in the philippines is using an underwater robot, which we've called luna, the larval bot. and luna is helping us deliver literally millions of coral larvae onto really degraded reef systems. and the really exciting news is that we've got to hectare scales, which means we can start to think about large scale restoration using this larval technique on reefs all around the world, including the great barrier reef. this is just part of the solution. we have to restore coral populations, but we also have to manage climate change. well, that's almost it for this week. but before we go, let's pay a repeat visit to karen's diner, dubbed the rudest restaurant in the world. it's staffed by actors who try their very best to make sure that you have a terrible time — all in the name of fun. i'll sign off here with a polite goodbye, and leave you with a very hungry jackie wakefield in sydney, who really had no idea what she'd let herself in for. see you next time. what do we want? let's go. i'm not getting any younger. is your name chad?! ugh! it's called karen's diner. and my mum, dad and family friend agreed to come with me to brave the onslaught. oh, my god... did you make that shirt yourself? but first, some rules. no racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist comments. no body shaming, no sexual harassment. any damage or vandalism — you'll be removed. keep food and drink on your tables and don't throw them. laughs all right, we're good. thank you very much. word spread fast on social media about the service here and queues began to form as people decided they'd like a piece of the action. to some diners, it's lots of fun, and to others, totally baffling. you're welcome. thank you. but of course, it's all make believe. why would you get a vegan burger and then get real cheese? the staff are actors and it's part of the new wave of theatrical dining experiences that have seen restaurants opening themed around british sitcoms or broadway shows in recent years. yes, drink? a mocktail. the special. what is this? i'm not playing charades right now. use your big girl words. here, though, you need skin like a rhino. i mean, it was fun but tense. how did you feel when they came up and you had to order? nervous. especially when they called you something rude. what do they call you? b1. what else? santa claus, grandpa. and mum, what did you get? they criticised my clothes. are we done? so what do you say? thank you. you're welcome. menus together nicely. neatly. quickly and quietly. i'm not going to do yourjob for you. what do you think is the appeal of the rudeness for customers who come in here? i think people really enjoy having a laugh. it's like some families just have a really, really good time. like it's not a venue for everyone, but the people that do enjoy it, like it definitely is the space for them. the what? the tropical carrot! all right, you don't need to shout. do you encourage that rudeness back? absolutely. it's so fun when people banter back. it's not very fun when you sit there and they're like and theyjust like, take it. it's really fun when they banter back, especially if they're like, a good table that you get along with and you're able to like, establish like some kind of rapport with them. you can keep coming back and you can keep harassing them. it's always really fun. okay, who got the burger with sweet potato fries? of course, the staff needs special training to work here. who got the salad? that kind of breathtaking rudeness doesn't always come easy. ryan is a newjoiner, and he's come all the way from ireland for the chance to work here. what age are you? i'm11. you look five. don't be smart with me, granddad. back home in ireland, i knew when i was come to australia i was like, "i need to get into karen's." i told everyone i was going to do it. everyone said to me, "no, you need to be an actor, "you need to have like a background." and i was like, "i don't care. "i'm going to get in." go sit down at the back table. go sit down. quick, quick. talk me through what it feels like when you're about to approach a table. that's so rude of you. you have to almost spot straight away what a table is. is it a bunch of teenagers? is it a family? is it a bunch of adults? oh, my god, how many pictures do you want of me? when you first start off you're like a little bit nervous because you're almost doing a performance every time. but once you just become more comfortable with the character, like you go up, you know what works for you, you know what doesn't work for you. you're comfortable in what you know. i don't want your leftovers! i think i'm kind of confident enough now that i go up and if they find it funny, don't find it funny, i'm like, this is my character. i know what works. like it, or leave it, i don't care. that's very karen of you. literally, it's like sometimes i have to try to separate the character from myself. you're not even wearing proper shoes! how are you going to pay for this whole meal? hello. meteorologically speaking, we have moved from summer into autumn, but it appears no one has told the weather that, because actually we have got some drier and warmer conditions on the way. and part of the reason for that can be found right now on the other side of the atlantic. this little curl of cloud here, one of a number of tropical weather systems swirling around right now, this is hurricane franklin. and as the remnants of the storm push northwards, this will give the jet stream a push northwards. the jet stream is the flow of winds high up in the atmosphere that drives weather systems around the world, and as the jet stream is pushed northwards, well, that allows us to get into some warmerair, particularly as we head into next week. but even this weekend, we will start to feel the effects of something drier and warmer with some spells of sunshine. high pressure building its way in across the uk during saturday. one frontal system trying to push into the north west of scotland. but for the majority, once any early mist and fog has cleared, we will see some spells of sunshine. a chance of one or two showers, but most places will stay dry, although that approaching with a friend will bring more cloud weather front will bring more cloud into north—west scotland. temperatures, 21 degrees for aberdeen and belfast, 2a degrees in london. during saturday night, we will see largely clear skies, although that frontal system will bring rain into the far north of scotland. a brisk breeze here, a milder night than we have been used to of late across scotland. further south, temperatures generally 10 to 13 degrees. so as we head into sunday, our frontal system will bring rain into the far north of scotland, it will be quite breezy here. further south, near the centre of our area of high pressure, we can expect a lot of sunshine. again, some early morning mist and fog which could take a little while to clear, but some good spells of sunshine, and temperatures, well, with some shelter, in the east of scotland, 22 or 23 degrees, and down toward the south—east of england we could be looking at highs of 25 or 26. into monday, again, a lot of fine, dry weather around. some early morning mistiness that will clear. again, a frontal system bringing some rain into the far north of scotland. 17 degrees for stornoway, but 26 in london. i think we could be looking at 27 may be 28 towards the south—east corner. moving towards tuesday, our area of high pressure tends to shuffle eastwards, low pressure trying to squash in from the atlantic. but it's this arrangement of weather systems, if you like, that will start to bring us some even warmer air from the near continent. we mayjust see one or two showers grazing into western areas from time to time, don't take the detail of this too literally at this range. broadly speaking, we are looking at some sunshine and some warmth, even a good part of scotland and northern ireland well up into the low to possibly mid 20s celsius. and by wednesday, long spells of sunshine, just a small of catching a shower, and temperatures down towards the south, 26, 27, but i think it is possible that through the middle of the week, somewhere could get quite close to 30 degrees. through the end of next week and into with the following weekend, the big question mark is about how quickly the weather breaks down, how quickly we see areas of low pressure and frontal systems advancing from the atlantic, and whether high pressure might hold onjust a little bit longer. so the further we go through the weekend into the weekend, the greater chance of seeing some wetter and slightly cooler weather spreading from the west. goodbye for now. live from london. this is bbc news. concerns in england over the presence of lightweight concrete in schools and hospitals — labour calls for urgent checks on all public buildings. blasting off to study the sun — india launches its first solar mission to learn more about the star closest to earth. and new polar researchers start their four—year programme training — with the aim to redress the historic gender imbalance in polar science. hello. in the uk, labour is calling for an urgent audit of the concrete in public buildings, with some hospitals and courts known to contain the potential dangerous concrete known as raac. it comes as more than 150 schools in england and 35 in scotland were found to have the material, with some fully or partially closing. investigations in wales and northern ireland are continuing. with more here's harry farley. emergency classrooms being set up in bingley, west yorkshire. more schools are expected to close next week. parents are facing an anxious wait to know if it's safe for their children to return to the classroom. in one school, i have ten rooms and a staff room i cannot use. my second school, 16 rooms, the gymnasium and some toilets. and in my third school, 12 rooms.