Chris Polak aka 'Polly's' in Service Works

A few weeks back, we linked up with Chris “Polly” Polak and got him into some Service Works for a trip up to Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island. He headed out with Adventure Tracks Australia on a 3-day boat camping mission along the island’s wild west coast. Remote stretches of shoreline, setting up camp as they went, and living almost entirely off what they could catch and gather.

The main goal from the get-go was to land the ultimate mud crab, it had to be big enough to keep and a male. They made their way through the mangroves and set up traps. Early on, they were pulling mud crabs from the mangroves, but they turned out to be females, so had to be carefully released back into the water. While the search for the right muddy was still on, Polly continued fishing and foraging. He ended up landing a Shovelnose shark, which was wrapped in paperbark with warrigal greens, moringa, betel, curry, coconut sugar, and lime, then left on the fire to do its thing.

Eventually, persistence paid off and they landed the one they were after - a solid Minjerribah mud crab, big enough to keep. That became the centrepiece - cooked over fire with garlic, long pepper, and rice wine, vermicelli dressed in the roasted tomalley, and green mango and herbs.

Nearly every component of their meals was foraged by Chris himself. Wild greens, coastal herbs, edible flowers and and small flavour hits. Whatever the island was giving up at the time. Nights were spent wading the shallows with a net and torch to gather bait, then cooking fresh over the fire and eating under open sky.

We put Polly in the Service Works Gardener Pants and they ended up being pretty ideal for the kind of terrain they were moving through. The big pockets came in handy, constantly stuffed with whatever he’d just picked or pulled along the way, from small foraged bits to gear they needed close by while moving through mangroves and shoreline.

It never felt overproduced or staged, just a few days out there, figuring it out as it came and making the most of what the island gave them. The full SEQ mission with Adventure Tracks Australia goes deeper into the whole trip.

The full 30 minute episode of their island aventures can be viewed here.