“Dipping into the water takes you into another time frame, everything works on totally different cycles and there is the ever-present pattern of the weather – it all holds a lot of mystery for me.”

Sydney-born, the harbour was the setting for many explorations and, Peter says, offered him oceans of precious memories.

Before heading north six years ago, Peter was busy filming everything from drama to music clips, documentaries, commercials and lifestyle programs. His clients included National Geographic, Discovery, ABC, SBS, Google and Al Jazeera.

He’s been in the war zones of Sri Lanka and Gaza, filmed in Japan, Indonesia and the Greek Isles; he’s been behind the camera at corroborees in remote areas of northern Australia, deep in the jungles of Borneo with orangutans and worked on the award-winning documentary, The Last Trimate, about Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Dr Biruté Galdikas.

He remembers with great fondness working at SBS in the early nineties.

“At the time there was a lot of experimentation, it was a lot of fun and very hands-on.

“I got to play with the form and language of program-making  and you could see the mistakes you made. It was fantastic.”

It was also the time when Peter first met Food Safari presenter Maeve O’Meara, then a journalist, and the show’s producer/director Toufic Charabati.

A decade later he found himself part of the tight-knit team, filming from all manner of exotic locations for the delectable long-running SBS series.

“I’ve been working with Maeve and Toufic since 2007 – we are an efficient unit and the work is always interesting. I am on call and usually have no idea where I will be going next.

“The latest series is Food Safari Water. We filmed a lot in Tasmania, which is visually superb and it turns out is a wonderful spot for good food.

“Filming is really intense because we go in hammer and tongs, there are no second takes or repeating of scenes … I’m there following what is happening.

“I am usually so wrapped up in the filming that I’m not really registering how the food is prepared, but during this series I did really register how delicate the cooking process is for fish.”

When I ask him how his culinary skills are, he laughs:

“I’m not a big foodie – for me if you have a brown onion and some fresh ingredients you’re right. But I certainly know what good food is now.”

Peter recounts how one chef they worked with, ‘fish savant’ Josh Niland, uses every part of the fish – the eyes, the heart, even the sperm and has recently opened his first ‘Fish Butchery’.

Moving away from food, I ask him about his time in Sri Lanka.

“I was with SBS working on Dateline, it was in the early ‘90s and the height of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Singhalese. We were the first film crew in there, we were smuggled in on a Red Cross ship. We talked to a lot of people, the dull thud of explosions was a constant in the background.

“What got me was the devotion of the young soldiers – one 16-year-old girl had just lost her best friend, yet here she was, planning to strap a grenade to her body and pretend to be dead. The zealousness was incredible.

“And then you come back to Australia, where it is such a completely different world view. It is scary seeing what humans are capable of.

“I put my hand up because seeing the different faces of humanity is what fascinates me. I was behind the scenes at Fashion Week in Sydney one week and then in a war zone the next.

“My job is to mirror people, to reflect them and their truth accurately.”

Peter said he had nothing but admiration for those who made reporting from dangerous zones their life’s work.

“It is such important work … and there are quite a few that don’t make it.”

I ask about an indelible moment from his travels.

He describes filming on the side of the road in India and watching a nine-year-old girl preparing to sleep there, amid all the traffic.

“She laid out her mat, and a little toy that she had … she had beautiful long hair and she combed it out, carefully, sitting in the street before going to sleep. It really choked me up.”

When Peter puts his camera down, it is to his fishing rod and canoe that he turns.

Fishing has always been a big passion and the richness of the waterways around the Bellingen area was a major reason for settling there.

“It’s a beautiful area – there is the ocean and the sea and all these systems are so alive. I’ve been exploring the river with my one man canoe, it gives me so much joy.

“The waterways are shallow so they are very dynamic – waves of fish come and go, it is not easy to fish because it changes so fast.”

Gentle coaxing proved unsuccessful in eliticing a ‘big fish’ story from Peter, rather he preferred to share one unforgettable moment when as he was trying to release a shark, he found himself caught by the hook and pinned to the rod at the end of which was one very angry shark, thrashing madly overboard. 

“Things can go pear-shaped very quickly – I was just by myself except for my dog, who was barking unhelpfully.

“Oh and I did get towed around by a 20 kilogram mulloway a while back –  on the Bellingen River, up past Fernmount. I managed to land it, which was a bit of a milestone.”

Although much of his bread and butter still comes from corporate city jobs, some work has come his way locally (his company is Heaven and Earth Films) including the Wild Food series featuring well-known Nambucca chef Clayton Donovan.

“It was great to explore the area and discover the food with Clayton … it opened my eyes to the area in new ways. There are so many interesting stories to tell up here.

“And as yet I haven’t had to work on a reality series!” he laughs.

* Food Safari Water is a vibrant, comprehensive 13-part series which not only showcases the great seafood dishes of the world, it explores the traditions of catching and preserving seafood.

It is a celebration of hardworking fishermen and women, divers and foragers, processors and smokers as well the brilliant chefs and home cooks who share their treasured recipes and techniques.

It airs on SBS from August 1.