VWeekend<\/a> from her Melbourne home: \u201c(Mum\u2019s) story was very traumatic for her. May was 14 when she had Mum, and Mum was brought up as her little sister.\u201d<\/p>\nMicallef goes on to reveal to Scott that her great, great, great-grandfather, Carl Bock, was a miner who toiled away in the Harz Mountains region, midway between Berlin and Frankfurt in central Germany, before risking everything in search of a better life in Australia.<\/p>\n
Carl travelled South Australia in 1846 \u2013 a boat voyage that Scott learns would have taken anywhere between 85 and 170 days \u2013 with wife Sophia and his five children. One of them, an infant, tragically died on the way.<\/p>\n
Scott discovers that the Bocks were pioneers who paved the way for more than 1000 other miners and their families to follow them to the other side of the world.<\/p>\n
She does so while visiting the mine where he and the generations before him worked, the church where he baptised and married, and the site of the village where he was born.<\/p>\n
After enduring 18 months of gruelling cancer treatment \u2013 including a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation that left her with horror burns \u2013 Scott says the experience was \u201ca\u00a0gift\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was anxious about doing the job because it was so intense \u2013 the long travel time, the fact that they start filming as soon as you get off that plane in Frankfurt (and it was) five days of all-day filming, and then you\u2019re on a plane back to Melbourne,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was still very much recovering and I hadn\u2019t been away since treatment had started in January 2023. This was three years later, and I\u2019d spent a lot of that time either having treatment or recovering from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had also become quite dependent on my partner, John. He was full-on caring for me, and suddenly I\u2019m going off to Germany on my own. I\u00a0mean, I had the crew and Shaun \u2013 it\u2019s making me laugh, thinking of Shaun being my carer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut yeah, from the moment I arrived \u2026 I loved it. I had a business class flight, I slept (the whole way there). And then, I just loved all the places we went to. I loved riffing with Shaun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was full-on positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip was also eye opening for Scott.<\/p>\n
She says she was confronted by the poverty experienced by her miner ancestors, and the plight they faced when \u201cthe arse fell out of their industry\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was generations of, \u2018Life was going to be like this \u2013 the boys were going to work in the mine, and the women were going to look after the family\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then it all changed. That affected me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As did finding out the village where Carl was born is now submerged beneath a dam.<\/p>\n
Being serenaded by the Oberharzer Bergs\u00e4nger, also known as the Mountain Miners Choir, in a church that had been seminal in her great, great, great-grandfather\u2019s life was also deeply emotional, she says \u2013 until she became engulfed in a coughing fit while yodelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was an unfortunate twist and turn in the tale,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n
Scott says her cancer treatment was so all consuming that while in the thick of it, she could have never imagined travelling across the world to film alongside the man she co-hosted an FM breakfast radio show with in the 2000s. <\/p>\n
Also tracing their roots in Origin Odyssey season two are Pia Miranda (Italy), Matt Okine (Ghana), Luke McGregor (Scotland), Kate Langbroek (Jamaica) and Tony Armstrong (Ireland).<\/p>\n
Scott, a stand-up legend, is back on stage too \u2013 another thing she thought was behind her. She\u00a0is touring Tickety Boo, her first solo show in a decade and her most personal one yet, about navigating cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a granddaughter arrive during that time (of having treatment) and even then, all I had the energy for was to focus on going through cancer,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very hard slog and certainly, I\u00a0didn\u2019t think about working at all. I\u00a0didn\u2019t care, I just wanted to feel well again. I couldn\u2019t imagine feeling well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully, Scott has more energy for grandkids Lenny, 4, and Angelina, 2, these days \u2013 a little more, anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cLenny loves setting up different role-playing games,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe organises them all \u2013 you get no say. And he casts everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019m often lying on the bed, he\u2019ll go, \u2018Grandma, you\u2019re Captain Resting (because) your favourite thing to do is rest\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll say, \u2018What are your instructions, Captain Resting?\u2019 And I\u2019ll go, \u2018You\u2019ve got to go outside and look for aliens in our yard\u2019. And he goes off and explores the yard for ages, while I stay lying in bed, and then comes back and reports. That\u2019s the kind of grandma I am,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n
Grandpa John is a bit more lively. \u201cWe have a\u00a0back shed that\u2019s full of stuff (including) drums but also empty olive oil cans and wooden boxes,\u201d Scott says. \u201cGrandpa and the two grandkids go out there and bash the shit out of them. I feel really sorry for the neighbours over the back fence, but it\u2019s pretty adorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
John has been an \u201cincredible\u201d support throughout her cancer ordeal, Scott says. They got through it together by shelving their \u201chealthy egos\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe became so humble,\u201d she says of her partner of 44 years, whom she met while they were both in a clown troupe in the early \u201980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn\u2019s a person \u2013 like lots of men \u2013 who would never just go and bring the clothes in off the line. It would be like, \u2018Look at me, I\u2019ve brought the clothes in off the line, blow the trumpets, get a parade going\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, it was really just him and me a lot of the time. He\u2019d be, like, trying to work out something I could eat, and I really couldn\u2019t eat, but he\u2019d do his best. He was so quiet about it and didn\u2019t draw any attention to himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we didn\u2019t really talk about it that much with other people, we couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still doing everything \u2013 the cooking and walking the dogs and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh I\u2019m sick John\u2019, and then I dress myself up and go out to work and have a great time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very protective. And of course, I abuse him for it, of course I do. It\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, is he going to stop treating me like I\u2019m some sick person?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cBut yeah, he\u2019s been remarkable. He\u2019s a remarkable person.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what would Scott\u2019s mother have made of her discovering their German roots on national television? \u201cShe would have, I think, been embarrassed,\u201d Scott says honestly. \u201cShe was not a fan of talking about anything in public \u2013 and of course, I talked about everything. I was my mother\u2019s worst nightmare, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
The funnywoman pauses, reconsidering her mother\u2019s reaction. \u201cAlthough, I think because there was a lot of positivity in this story, because \u2026 it\u2019s really celebrating a beautiful place (where) my great, great, great-grandfather came from (she may have appreciated it).<\/p>\n
\u201cI was gasping in wonder \u2013 \u2018Oh my God, there is snow! Oh my God, there are cottages like Hansel and Gretel, there are cobblestones! Oh my God, there are things that are thousands of years old, just hanging about in the town square!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot. I also learnt that I really like Germany \u2013 I\u2019d love to go back and explore more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaun Micallef\u2019s Origin Odyssey: Season 2 premieres on SBS and SBS On Demand at 7.30pm on August 18, with new episodes of the six-part series airing weekly<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Wellness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denise Scott admits she was hesitant to travel to Germany to appear on former breakfast radio co-host 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