THE ISABELLAS follows Chen Xing Liang – one of the leaders of the group – back to the Kimberley to tell his story.

Do their lives, relationships, thoughts and bodies feel better? Or is there no turning back?

A loveable marsupial with serious attitude, the Tasmanian devil is fighting for its survival. A devastating cancer epidemic threatens to wipe out the species with 80 per cent of the wild population killed by a highly contagious facial cancer, which first appeared in 1996.

The very real prospect of losing the species to Devil Facial Tumour Disease has mobilised the world’s scientific community.

At the Save The Tasmanian Devil Program headquarters in Hobart, wildlife vet Sarah Peck, Phil Wise and their team have hatched an audacious plan to create an “insurance” population of disease-free devils. Elsewhere, a crack team of scientists and zoologists are testing Tasmanian devils to see which ones have what it takes to survive in the wild.

Hope rests on a handful of disease free devils raised in captivity. Their mission: leave their safe surroundings to train in an elite squad before moving to an isolated island off the coast of Tasmania and a new life in the wild.

Filmed by renowned wildlife cinematographer David Parer, directed by Andrew Sully, and produced by Sally Ingleton, the 6-part documentary series Devil Island follows 15 Tasmanian devils as they are selected from Australian wildlife sanctuaries and then transported and released on remote Maria Island off the coast of Tasmania. Will they rediscover their instincts to hunt, mate and – hopefully – raise their own?

It’s a risky experiment. The devils are captive and hand-reared. They’ve never hunted, found shelter or fought off another predator. If they can fend for themselves, they might save their species.

But how will the island’s native wildlife cope with their fiesty ‘new neighbours from hell’? Endangered populations of Flinders Island wombats, Little Penguins, Forester kangaroos and Cape Barron geese must adapt to these new predators or their future, too, is at risk.

The series covers the devils first 9 months on the island and it’s soon revealed the devils have a secret mission. Without predators the numbers of feral cats and Brushtail possums have increased and they are devouring the small mammals and birdlife. When the devils arrive, there’s a new cop in town!

It’s a make-or-break year for 15 little devils as they fight for their survival and the survival of their species on Devil Island.

Every night around Australia, native possums scamper across city rooftops in an endless quest for food and shelter.

Forced out of their bush habitats by encroaching development, these mischievous marsupials swarm into cities where their raucous noise and destructive appetites bring them few friends. They live in our roofs, pillage our fruit trees, plunder our flowers and pee on our paths.

And when possums and people fight for real estate it’s war!

Residents repel the invaders using stinking sprays, electronic zappers and sonic blasters. When all else fails, they call in the professionals; possum removal is booming as a multi-million-dollar industry.

An intimate and irresistible story, the one-hour documentary POSSUM WARS lifts the lid on the private world of Australia’s most unwanted marsupial and its battle to survive in the big city.

We meet Mumsy, the 14-year-old matriarch of Melbourne’s Curtain Square, and her growing brood, including new joey, Buster, and elder daughter Scamp, who is forced to search for a new home beyond the safety of the park. For years the ancient elms have been Mumsy’s refuge in a predatory world of cats and dogs, cars, people and power lines. But her urban life is about to become tougher.

Angry residents argue the 60 possum residents of Curtain Square are in plague proportions and their voracious appetites are killing the park’s historic trees. Killing them or moving them is illegal so the local Council is voting to implant them with contraceptives.

It’s a controversial decision that’s divided the community, drawn media scrutiny and infuriated animal activists who will do anything – including break the law – to save them.

From the icy polar seas to the world’s most pristine coral reefs, ACID OCEAN tracks the latest in marine scientific research. It meets an Australian scientist whose unique discovery opens a window to the future of our oceans.

Written, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Sally Ingleton, ACID OCEAN travels the world to explore the impact of ocean acidification.

As carbon emissions rise and the world’s oceans absorb an increasing amount of carbon dioxide, scientist fear thousands of species are in danger. The seawater chemistry is changing. And in increasingly acidic waters, marine animals can’t form the skeletons and shells vital for their survival.

At Oregon’s Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery, oyster breeder Mark Wiegardt has seen the future firsthand. A batch of 100 million oyster larvae is dead within days; unable to make the shells they need to survive. The multi-million-dollar shellfish industry – and those who rely on it – teeters on the brink of disaster.

Among the volcanic islands of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, Australian coral ecologist Dr Katharina Fabricius and her team from the Australian Institute of Marine Science are working in an extraordinary natural laboratory – a stunning coral garden where tiny bubbles of pure CO2 erupt from cracks in the ocean floor.

Here, in remote tropical waters, they hope to test their predictions in the natural world.

Katharina’s team conducts a raft of experiments, studying the impact of acidity on coral diversity, young corals and the resilience of species, such as clown fish, with fascinating results.

And it’s not just coral reef systems facing danger. Polar expert Dr Donna Roberts, from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre in Tasmania, is studying how ocean acidification will affect tiny pteropods, or sea butterflies, a crucial food source for many fish. Her research underlines what’s at stake.

The news is not all bad. In the US, Dr Gretchen Hofmann has found some marine creatures are using genetic tools to adapt to higher acidity.

With the clock ticking, the teams of marine scientists face the test of their careers. Can they uncover the secrets of the acid ocean and will these incredible marine creatures adapt and evolve to survive potential disaster?

THE TALENTED MR STONE  is a half hour documentary following controversial young theatre director Simon Stone during his time as Resident Director at Sydney’s famous Belvoir Street Theatre.

Filmed by Simon Target over 6 months, we see one of Australia’s hottest new talents at work on 3 productions: Ibsen’s Wild Duck, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Stone’s radically re-written version of Wild Duck has been invited to Norway to the Ibsen Festival in Oslo. The other two plays are transferred to bigger theatres after sell out seasons at Belvoir.

But though his productions are hugely popular, not everyone approves of the way Stone alters classic plays to suit his needs.

The program features comment on the controversy, from theatre ‘elder statesman’ Neil Armfield and writer/director Andrew Upton, Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company, as well as actors and Stone collaborators, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz.

Like a real life Priscilla, Starlady takes us on a Queen of the Desert journey to Areyonga, an indigenous community in Central Australia, where she’ll work with a group of curious and cheeky young people.

‘Queen of the Desert’ is part of the Opening Shot initiative and is supported by ABC Television, Screen Australia and Screen Territory.

Using the latest scientific technology we will uncover surprising new behaviour whilst delving into the controversial issues that arise when sharing your backyard with a large wild animal. KANGAROO MOB will be a highly entertaining look at what happens when habitat runs out and kangaroos and humans are forced to co-exist.