Home and Away showcases WA TONIGHT!

0:00Triple M, it's Robby and Carly. Very exciting stuff. Channel 7's home and away is coming to WA. That's right, showcasing the city, but also the north of our state. Really, really great stuff. I can't wait to see Ningaloo on TV. Braxxers back as well after 10 years, pretty amazing. The man behind Braxx joins us on the line right now, Stephen Peaker. Hello, how are you? Yeah, very well. Thanks for having me. Well, we're so excited to have you here. And we're so excited to have the cast and crew here in WA. We made it pretty easy for you with the filming locations. Do you have a particular favourite? Our ballerastation was pretty extraordinary. The Shawcross family kept us pretty well fed and watered up there. And I see extraordinary. I worked on a Stephen cattle station when I was straight out of school out in far Western New South Wales. And it was like eight hours from a beach. And I just could not get in the head around the fact that on ballerastation, you could be working in a set of cattle yards and then, you know, 40 minutes down the road. One of the most

1:00pristine beaches on the planet. So it was extraordinary. Isn't it, Matt? How long did you actually get to stay there for while you're filming? They're for about two weeks, I think. And yeah, it was about that. And it was just, I mean, I'm not enough, you've been up to ballerastation, but they've got this extraordinary setup. Like, it's a working cattle station, but then they've got this incredible restaurant and, you know, the facilities there are amazing and it's on the golf and it's just like it's paradise. So some of them may sort of grow up in country New South Wales to be able to work on a place like that doing this good fine job was amazing. Absolutely. And look, you guys had a lot to film because there's a lot behind the storylines, especially with your return. But did you get some downtime to actually enjoy WA? Look, there wasn't a lot of time that we weren't standing in front of a camera or trying to mark to be fair. It's just good fun. I had a lot, we had a lot to do, but I sort of got it a few weeks in advance. So I learned as much as I could so that when we stood over there, we could just get into it and have fun. And

2:02when you're working in those locations, it's, you know, every day's a treat. And it was the crew at home in a way, such good people. But we just had fun and we had beers when we knocked off after work and it was great. It was like, oh, I don't tell anyone. I told everyone back on now you would have taken into nice sunsets and all that as well, I suppose. So that's pretty cool. What was it that made you want to come back and do this role of Brax again? Because it's been a long time. Yeah, well, it had been 10 years almost on the dot. So I don't know, I just, you know, I've been lucky to work a lot since I left. And I, you know, the show set me up for such a, you know, support so far has been a pretty, pretty decent sort of little career. It's been a good career. Yeah, it's all right. And I don't know. I think if you ever get to play a character that resonates with an audience the way that this one did and you get a chance to, to sort of come back and do a bit more for that, for that audience and, you know, you should jump at it. I do not take the

3:02granted how lucky I am to have found that big audience playing the character. And I wanted to do it because I thought they'd just really enjoy the, to see what had happened to Brax and Ricky 10 years down the track. So it wasn't a hard choice, really. One thing your characters known for is his tattoos. How did it feel getting those tattoos put back on? And how did they, do they mark you out? Like, it's been 10 years. So were they really struggling to get the exact spot? Yeah, they'd been down to the photo, copy your room and get the old stencils out. I think get the old texture out. No, it was, no, they've, in fact, if anything, it used to take about two hours to put them on back in the day with the, they used to spray them on, but now they've got these, these stencils that they just, all these stickers that they just, they just, literally, tough stickers. There you go. At least always tall tattoos. Now, now that, that's what they are. So they just plastered them on on a Monday, and they were still there on a Friday, which was a lot quicker than it used to be. Oh, well, so you went, you went the whole week with them, even when you're off the clock? Pretty embarrassing, yeah. Yeah. I was hearing clear of video calls with

4:07anyone that I knew. Oh, that's absolute gold. So, mate, any other spots that you got to go while you were here, was it mostly just the station? Or did you get to go and stick the fins on and have a look at Ningaloo reef? Well, I know I didn't get to get in. I went to the beach in Colbert Bay and a few, a few different places, but now it's a place I want to go back with, I want to take my family back at some point, because like I do live, I reckon the most spectacular thing about Australia as good as our beaches are is the outback. That's sort of that open space. And to be able to have the outback, butting up against an incredible coastline is so unique, and that's what WA has got. So I want to go back with my family and have a proper explore because it's world-class. It's just amazing. Do you know what, Stephen? The one thing I'm getting out of this interview is it absolutely sucks in life when work gets in the way of good time.

5:07So, and I could not. The producers were there, lovely Julie McGarran, and she's been with the show for ages, and she's one of the reasons it's been so good for so long, and we're having dinner there a few nights, and I said, I probably shouldn't be saying this to the producer, but I can't believe I'm being paid to be here. It was a lot of fun. Absolutely, and it's a lot of fun to watch as well. We love that you guys are highlighting our great state to the rest of Australia, and we can't wait to keep watching where Bracks and Ricky go. Yeah, well, a couple of weeks has good stuff coming out. We shot a lot, and yeah, it was an exciting little storyline, and it was good fun to go back, so I think hopefully the audience enjoys it as much as we did making it. Oh, good on you, Steve. Thanks very much for coming on the show today and giving us the loadout. No worries, thanks for having me. Stephen Peacock there, aka Bracks from home and away, back tonight from seven, showcasing WA this week, including Ningaloo Reef, the Coral Coast,

6:12Cape Range National Park. It's going to be pretty cool stuff, so make sure you catch it, and check out WA. It's been showcased to the rest of Australia, Triple Amidies, Robby and Carly.