Alby Mangels

Zwier Albertus "Alby" Mangels (born 16 November 1948) is an Australian adventurer and documentary filmmaker widely remembered for his World Safari adventure travel films (World Safari, World Safari II, and World Safari III).

Early life and education Zwier Albertus Mangels was born in the Netherlands on 16 November 1948. His father Johannes (Jos) was a leather tanner. The family moved to Australia in 1955, where they settled in Mount Burr, South Australia. After about eighteen months his parents separated Their journey took them across four continents, travelling through 56 countries over six years. The film was produced entirelly in South Australia.

After arriving in London, Mangels took the film to the BBC, but they were not interested. Back in Australia, it was similarly rebuffed by the Australian Film Commission and the South Australian Film Corporation. He was going to start travelling again, but after one of his crew members was injured and needed treatment in Melbourne, he started screening a roughly-edited copy around schools, titled Happy Go Lucky Highway.

Andrew Ward suggested that he recruit a model called Judy Green, whom he has spotted on TV on Sale of the Century, for his next film, and they started filming World Safari II on Mer Island in the Torres Strait. However, in April 1983 they were all injured when their Jeep collided with a bus Green sustaining critical head injuries. After discharge from hospital, they flew back to Australia for treatment. Mangels took a year to recover, but Green did not rejoin him, as she had serious head injuries and needed to regain the ability to walk. (Green spent three weeks in a hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, where she was unconscious for two days.)

World Safari III Mangels sunk much of his newly-accumulated wealth into another sequel. The film also screened at a Canberra cinema in January, but it flopped at the box office, and he lost everything, and could not even pay his staff. Channel 9 serialised World Safari 2 to coincide with the release. The network also ran a story on 60 Minutes featuring former employees complaining about their lack of payment, and another on A Current Affair that revealed that some of his footage was faked (which he later called "a little bit of poetic licence"). Mangels was devastated at the animosity expressed by the media. which proved highly successful. In 1999 the Travel Channel commissioned a new series, which ran for three years and attracted many new American fans until 2002.

Lynn Santer authored Mangels's authorised biography Beyond World Safari in 2007.

Mangels has a sister called Maria Snell.

In 1991, Mangels owned land on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

He did not marry or have children, but in 2011 described himself as "part of a warm, close, and loving family by being involved with my brother, sister, nieces, and nephews".

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