Lance Hackett, a geologist for Ayers Mining Company, has identified a promising location to search for uranium in the Outback near Coober Pedy, South Australia.

Baldwin Ferguson, an executive vice-president of Ayers, is unable to sway the tribal elders with either a trip to Melbourne or the gift of a large, green military airplane that they ask for.

Ayers begins their work, drilling test holes and setting off small explosives, but Hackett quits and goes to live in an old water tank offered to him by another white man who was profoundly affected by studying the local Aboriginal culture.

[5] Wandjuk Marika, recommended to Herzog by Phillip Adams, was a leader of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people, and an artist and musician who was involved in activism for Aboriginal rights.

Public intellectual, broadcaster, and social commentator Phillip Adams was particularly incensed, feeling the film implied that the Australian Government was against Aboriginal peoples, and wrote an article titled "Dammit Herzog, you are a Liar!