For the first programme of its new series, Crossing Continents visits the region which was once called 'the luckiest part of the lucky country' - Western Australia. A place of fantastic natural and mineral wealth, it's grown from a rugged outback territory for the determinedly independent to a dynamic region vital to Australia's economy. With a capital city closer to Jakarta and Singapore than Sydney, even now, despite the Asian economic crisis, the region is continuing to do better than the rest of Australia.

Find out more about the Western Australian mining boom

Aboriginal art makes thousands of dollars for galleries....

From the millionaire's city, the regional capital Perth, to the old gold rush town of Kalgoorlie, there's a dramatic story to tell: of gold prospectors and frontiersmen, of the Aboriginals outcast and dispossessed of their land, and also of the increasingly successful efforts of Aboriginal activists and their communities to claim back their territory.

... but Robert Eggington thinks Aboriginal culture is being exploited

Also in the programme, the Aboriginal campaigner and artist Robert Eggington talks with presenter Julian Pettifer about another boom: the vogue for Aboriginal art and music, which is not always as welcome as it might seem.

Author Bruce Russell introduces us to the new Australian male

}We examine the Australian obsession with gambling - now the nation's largest single industry - and consult the experts with an interview with 'gambling guru' John O'Connor; and with a talk by writer Bruce Russell, take a witty look at the new Australian male: sophisticated, sensitive, Chardonnay-sipping and wearing sunscreen.

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