On assignment in outback Australia, wildlife photographer and writer Mitch Reardon encounters a rancher whose infectious desire to protect the habitat of Australia's only native crane, the brolaga, inspires him to go on a journey to find those magnificent birds. Brolga Country records Reardon's progress through some of Australia's wildest and most remote country, from the wildernes of Caps York Peninsula where the sprawling rivers, billabongs, lakes and swamps of Lakefield National Park support vast assemblages of wetland birds to Bool Lagoon in South Australia, the last stronghold of the southern brolgas.<BR>Once widespread throughout the mainlands's wetlands, these magnificent birds have almost disappeared from their southern range. Ecologists recognise the brolga as an 'umbrella' species - a species whose conservation could protect numerous other animals and plants, because its needs match those of so many others, including ourselves. Reardon's understanding of the complexities involved in balancing conservation with the needs of human productivity provides valuable insight and some of the practical applications he cites throw up unexpected solutions.