ABC Rewind
The History Listen is now ABC Rewind, the home of gripping narrative history series. Dive into true stories told by the people who lived through them.
Sat, April 19, 2025
02 Where the bloody hell were you! The jingle reigns supreme
It’s the 1970s and we're entering Australia's golden age of advertising. The Aussie larrikin makes his TV appearance and liquid lunches get longer. Salaries get bigger and the egos to match them. Join host Dee Madigan as she digs through the history of advertising in Australia.
Sat, April 12, 2025
01 Where the bloody hell were you! Television comes to Australia
Join host Dee Madigan for a wild ride through the golden days of Australian advertising. When TV arrived in Australia in 1956, it brought American ad agencies, international sophistication and the rise of the cultural cringe.
Sun, April 06, 2025
07 Conspiracy? We're still feeling it
In this bonus episode Jan Fran and historian Dr Geraldine Fela discuss how the waterfront dispute has shaped the way we work in Australia today. 27 years later work is more precarious – casual and fixed term jobs have grown, the kind of work we do has changed and employers now have more power over employees. Politics and industrial relations were also changed by the dispute and unions have learned to fight in a very different way.
Wed, April 02, 2025
06 Conspiracy? All the way to the top
Was the Howard government the puppet master of the Waterfront dispute? Host Jan Fran reveals new evidence that provides some answers to questions that’ve dogged Australian politics for 27 years.
Sat, March 29, 2025
05 Conspiracy? Judgement Day
After Patrick Stevedores sacks its 1,400 maritime union workers the waterfront dispute turns into a courtroom drama as the legal teams battle it out in the Federal Court before heading all the way to the High Court.
Sat, March 22, 2025
04 Conspiracy? Who Let the Dogs Out
The Maritime Union knows Patrick Stevedores is building up to a dramatic move. But it’s shocked when the company sends in balaclava-clad security guards and dogs to forcibly lock out workers in the dark of night. The union's lawyers take the company to the Federal Court where Patrick drops a bombshell on day one of the hearing.
Fri, March 14, 2025
03 Conspiracy? The farmers come to town
After the collapse of the Dubai plan Patrick Stevedore's boss Chris Corrigan turns to Plan B, training fresh-faced farmers to work as wharfies. The MUA suspect the farmers will take their jobs and so create chaos at the gates of Patricks’ Webb Dock to stop the farmers getting through. Meanwhile the heat remains on Corrigan to fess up to his masterminding of Dubai.
Fri, March 14, 2025
03 Conspiracy? The farmers come to town
After the collapse of the Dubai plan Patrick Stevedore's boss Chris Corrigan turns to Plan B, training fresh-faced farmers to work as wharfies. The MUA suspect the farmers will take their jobs and so create chaos at the gates of Patricks’ Webb Dock to stop the farmers getting through. Meanwhile the heat remains on Corrigan to fess up to his masterminding of Dubai.
Sat, March 08, 2025
02 Conspiracy? Bosom Buddies
When the Opposition Labor Party breaks the news in Parliament about a secret group of ‘industrial mercenaries’ training in Dubai to take over the wharfies' jobs some big questions are asked: who exactly is behind the training operation, and is the government involved?
Sat, March 01, 2025
01 Conspiracy? If it quacks like a duck
When Patrick Stevedores locks out and fires 1400 wharfies overnight on April 8, 1998, it divides the country. But behind all this is a story of high drama and political intrigue, a complex web of double dealing and high-stakes leaks. It's no secret that the Howard government wants waterfront reform but what role is it playing in Patrick owner Chris Corrigan's "revolution"?
Wed, February 26, 2025
Conspiracy? War on the waterfront
On 8 April 1998 Australians woke up to the startling news that dogs and men in balaclavas were invading the docks around the country, locking out workers. This is a story of political intrigue, of lies, double dealing, high stakes leaks and high stakes finances. And guns. It takes us from Queensland’s Ettamogah pub to the ports of Dubai, from low-rent motel rooms to the highest court in the land. And all the way to the Prime Minister. In this six-part investigation into the waterfront dispute between Patrick Stevedores and the Maritime Union of Australia, host Jan Fran talks to the all major players, and digs up new evidence revealing the depth of the government's involvement in one of the biggest industrial showdowns in Australian history.
Sun, February 23, 2025
Anzac Massacre - the story of Surafend (part 3)
In the final episode of Anzac Massacre, Black Sheep podcast host William Ray delves into the unanswered questions surrounding the killings at Surafend, Southern Palestine by the Anzac Mounted Division in December 1918. What motivated this brutal act?
Sat, February 15, 2025
Anzac Massacre - the story of Surafend (part 2)
Radio New Zealand podcast Black Sheep brings us the story of the Surafend massacre of December 1918, an event described by one historian as the worst war crime ever committed by New Zealand and Australian military personnel.
Sat, February 08, 2025
Anzac Massacre - the story of Surafend (part 1)
The story of the Surafend massacre of December 1918, an event described by one historian as the worst war crime ever committed by New Zealand and Australian military personnel.
Sat, February 01, 2025
Inside the Big day Out: flying too close to the sun
Come on a wild ride through the extraordinary story of the Big Day Out; the festival which, for over two decades, was a summertime rite of passage for music lovers around Australia. Was it really a victim of its' own success?
Fri, January 31, 2025
Introducing Rewind
We''ve got news! The History Listen has been given a makeover. Our new show, ABC Rewind , is still your home for gripping audio storytelling, and still the podcast where you'll hear true stories told by the people who lived through them. Come on a deep dive into the past on Rewind.
Sat, January 25, 2025
Inside the Big Day Out: from Nirvana to nightmare
Come on a wild ride through the extraordinary story of the Big Day Out; the festival which, for over two decades, was a summertime rite of passage for music lovers around Australia
Sun, January 19, 2025
Sam Poo: A Chinese bushranger?
It's 1865 in remote central west NSW. A police office is fatally shot by a man he believes is a Chinese bushranger. The story of Sam Poo is a bushranging tale with a twist
Sat, January 11, 2025
Secrets and Lies | A year behind the Iron Curtain
At the height of the Cold War a New Zealand teenager is sent to a hospital in the Soviet Union to grow new fingers on her left hand. Sounds like fiction? This actually happened to Miranda Jakich and in this episode she tells her tale.
Sat, January 04, 2025
Friedrich the Fraud
Was he Australia's greatest con artist? That was the title given to John Friedrich, the former head of the Victorian Division of National Safety Council of Australia. Back in the 1980s, he famously made $293 million of investors’ money disappear. When his fraud was uncovered, he went missing himself for sixteen days, prompting a nationwide manhunt and a media storm that reported both facts and the fictions. Guests: Barry Whitehead - former NSCA operations manager Frank Bongiorno - professor of history, ANU Peter and Ann Synan - regional historians & Sale residents Zyg Zayler - criminal lawyer, Melasecca Kelly & Zayler Credits: Composer - Matthew Crawford Sound engineer - Tim Symonds Producer - Lyn Gallacher
Sat, December 28, 2024
Finding Fanny Finch
When Bill Garner began exploring his family history, a puzzling gap in the family tree led him to discover a most extraordinary ancestor: Fanny Finch . Finch was a well-known and controversial figure during the Victorian gold rushes. A London-born woman of African heritage, she pushed a wheelbarrow from Melbourne to the goldfields in 1852, where she became a sly grogger and restaurateur. She actively resisted police corruption , supported women and children against domestic violence and in 1856, cast a vote in municipal elections, decades before women were granted suffrage. And yet her story was not passed down to her descendants. When Bill met historian Kacey Sinclair , who had been researching Finch’s life, a fascinating and sometimes challenging conversation began. In Finding Fanny Finch, Sinclair joins Finch’s direct descendants, Bill and his daughter Alice, in a theatrical reconstruction and reflection on the life and legacy of an unforgettable woman. Credits Written by Bill Garner and Sue Gore Based on research by Kacey Sinclair Performed by Kacey Sinclair, Bill Garner and Alice Garner Music by ‘Friends of Wendy Cotton’: Briony Phillips, Stephanie Carson, Nicole Simirenko, Christine Webb, Anthony Webb Original music recordings by Casey Rice Sound engineering by Angie Grant Additional music mixing by Brendan O'Neill Adapted for radio by Miyuki Jokiranta
Sun, December 22, 2024
Laya's Way Home - part 2
Laya Semler was the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany, in 1945. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf was sent to slave labour for not denouncing her. Both survived. Now, Wennigsen has invited their Australian family back, to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s incredible story of courage and love. In Part 1, their great-grandchildren discovered a town perhaps finally ready to accept the extent of its role in the Nazi regime. In Part 2, they will experience that history face-to-face. They experience that history face-to-face -- when they visit the slave labour camp, only recently unearthed, where Adolf was held. And where they must reckon with horrors that will shock even the German historians guiding them. Michaela Kalowski, Joanna's husband John Hempton, Joanna Kalowski and Rick Kalowski Guests: Joanna Kalowski - internationally recognised mediator and granddaughter of Laya and Adolf Semler Michael Wittich - historian for the town of Wennigsen Christina Muller - city councillor in Wennigsen Jutta Henza - historian of the Stolen Gustav slave labour camp Credits: Writers: Rick Kalowski and Michaela Kalowski Presenters: Michaela Kalowski and Rick Kalowski Producer: Claudia Taranto Sound Engineer: Hamish Camilleri Research assistance : Tadhg Kalowski
Sat, December 14, 2024
Laja's Way Home part 1
In 1945, Laya Semler became the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf chose slave labour rather than abandon her. They both survived. In 2022, the village of Wennigsen invited their Australian family back to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s bravery. Told by their great-grandchildren, Laya and Adolf’s story is testament to the power love has to bridge even the greatest differences. But it’s also the story of a town only just coming to terms with the truth of its past. A truth that, as Laya and Adolf’s descendants discover first-hand, not everyone in the town is ready to accept... Joanna Kalowski at the opening of the new street in Wennigsen, Germany, named after her grandmother Laya Semler Guests: Joanna Kalowski - internationally recognised mediator and granddaughter of Laya and Adolf Semler Michael Wittich - historian for the town of Wennigsen Franz Blazek - former mayor of Wennigsen Silke Stremlau - resident of Wennigsen Credits: Writers: Rick Kalowski and Michaela Kalowski Presenters: Michaela Kalowski and Rick Kalowski Producer: Claudia Taranto Sound Engineer: Hamish Camilleri Research assistance : Tadhg Kalowski
Sat, December 07, 2024
Cyclone Tracy: survivor stories
Fifty years ago, in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy killed 66 people and decimated the city of Garramilla/Darwin. Afterwards more than 30,000 residents were evacuated, many never returning to Darwin. Writing down memories of the event helped some survivors of the cyclone process the experience. Hear a handful of these stories, set in crumbling houses, airborne cars, a busy restaurant and an overcrowded hospital, all set to the terrifying real-life soundtrack of Cyclone Tracy. (image courtesy of the NT Archive : LANT LJ Adams NTRS 3129 P2, item 1 Caption "Chris Adams looking at Cyclone Tracy destruction, 26 December 1974")
Sat, November 30, 2024
The Crutchy Push
It’s the early 1900s and a gang of men moves through the gritty streets of inner-city North Melbourne: they dress sharp and inspire fear wherever they go. This gang, the Crutchy Push ruled the streets of North Melbourne over a ten year period, from late 1890s. And the reason for their curious name? All the members of this gang were amputees: mostly one-legged, and they used a crutch - and not just for walking! To mark the International Day for People With Disability, Melbourne-based writer and disability advocate Kaitlyn Blythe digs up the little-known story of the gang and its’ charismatic leader Valentine Keating, and explores how it busts a lot of myths about disabled people in Australian history. Guests: Brendan Gleeson Tansy Bradshaw Readings - Toby Truslove Credits: Producer - Kaitlyn Blythe Sound design and production - Matthew Crawford Supervising Producer - Michelle Rayner
Tue, November 26, 2024
A Good Honest Criminal
It’s March 25th, 1999, and Australia’s most remarkable prison escape has just taken place, after a helicopter hovers above the recreation grounds at the Silverwater maximum security prison, in Sydney. In the blink of an eye, a prisoner runs towards the chopper, climbs onboard, and is on his way to freedom. This is the story of that airborne escapee, John Killick, a man who spent much of his life leading the authorities on a merry dance. Somehow he survived his dangerous escapades and many prison stints. Today, in his early 80s, John is a writer, a public speaker. and a counsellor to ex-crims. Credits: Producer: Brian McKenzie Sound Engineer: Tim Symonds
Sat, November 16, 2024
Florence: A murder still unsolved – Part 2
In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977. So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day? Please listen with care - this episode contains graphic content. Guests: Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: her secret and extraordinary lives Mark Whittaker – Journalist and author, Granny killer: the story of John Glover Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer Vincent Jones – VP Sales & Licensing, Asia-Pacific, Centa IP David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst Credits: Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner
Sat, November 09, 2024
Florence: A life papered over – Part 1
She’s one of Australia’s most prolific and popular designers, and yet not many people know her name, let alone her audacious life story. Florence Broadhurst was from regional Queensland but people who met her later in life, thought she was English aristocrat. She reinvented herself many times throughout her life. Today she’s known for her wallpaper designs that cemented her in Australian design history. But a shadow lingers over her legacy; her unsolved murder in 1977. Guests: Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: Her secret and extraordinary lives Dr Andrew Field – Associate Professor of Chinese History, Duke Kunshan University Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer David Lennie – Screen printer, Signature Prints Sheridan Black – Owner, Signature Handprints Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst Laura Doble – Interior design graduate Credits: Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner
Sat, November 02, 2024
The Mavis Files
When superannuation pioneer Mavis Robertson was in her seventies, she was showered with awards and honours. But something was missing from the life story shared with the public at this time: the more than 30 years she spent as a leading member of the Communist Party of Australia. Historian Alice Garner and Mavis's son Peter Robertson delve into this part of his mother's life, including her extensive ASIO security file.
Sat, October 26, 2024
Day 9 at Wooreen: the school that was kidnapped
An entire school is kidnapped at gunpoint. 9 students and their teacher are taken hostage by a prison escapee who demands a ransom of 7 million dollars, the release of 17 prisoners, 100 kilos of cocaine, automatic weapons, and an escape vehicle.
Sat, October 19, 2024
My Grandmother is a Japanese war bride
After World War Two, around 650 Japanese war brides crossed once enemy lines to make a home in Australia, at a time when the White Australia Policy still held sway. But 50 years on, how do the grandchildren of the Japanese war brides understand their family story?
Sat, October 12, 2024
The Martha Plan
The Martha Plan was a secret scheme created in the early 1960's to bring unmarried Spanish women to Australia, in the hope that they'd stay and populate the country. Did it work?
Sat, October 05, 2024
Ep 2: The buried tea chest
Hidden for nearly a century, two chests of mail found under a Sydney home was declared to be one of the most important hauls in Australia’s postal history. Why the secrecy? And why has a Sydney family been so shocked by their revelations?
Sat, September 28, 2024
Ep 1: The buried tea chests
When journalist Annika Blau learnt of the discovery of two tea chests of very valuable mail under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she uncovered secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.
Sat, September 21, 2024
A succulent Chinese meal - Part 2
Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video? This moving story of the prison playwright and the performer unravels why Jack uttered those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”
Sat, September 14, 2024
A succulent Chinese meal - Part 1
Who is the man behind Australia’s most iconic internet meme, who famously said “This is democracy manifest”?
Sat, September 07, 2024
The strange life of Ingrid von Oelhafen - Part 2
59-year-old Ingrid was in her office one day when her phone rang. It was the German Red Cross. They asked if she was Ingrid von Oelhafen? Also known as Erika Matko? It was the call she’d waited for her whole life and it opened the door to a terrible secret from one of Nazi Germany’s sickest experiments. Who was she? And where was she from?
Sat, August 31, 2024
The strange life of Ingrid von Oelhafen - Part 1
Ingrid von Oelhafen’s childhood in post-WW2 Germany was full of strange events - her mother inexplicably left her in a children’s home for five years, her doctor called her by another name. It took her decades to discover the horrific truth - a secret that led straight back to the highest powers of the Nazi regime.
Sat, August 24, 2024
Kangaroo dog
The Kangaroo dog is unique to Australia. It's a mystery dog with a big story. Born in the early Sydney colony, this deerhound-greyhound mongrel dog was bred to hunt and kill kangaroos.
Sat, August 17, 2024
The paralympic journey | money, media and ethics
Swimmer Siobahn Paton won multiple medals at the Sydney 2000 games but her dreams were shattered when athletes in a different sport cheated spectacularly. Louise Sauvage delves into the controversy of classification along with the heightened visibility and respect the Games have brought to all people with disabilities.
Sat, August 10, 2024
The paralympic journey | From rehab to elite
Join wheelchair racing legend Louise Sauvage for the fascinating evolution of The Paralympics, from life-saving rehabilitation for World War 2 soldiers to today’s elite sporting event.
Sat, August 03, 2024
The Lady of the Swamp
The mysterious tale of rich socialite Margaret Clement, who lived alone in the Gippsland bush in a decaying mansion encircled by waist-deep water. She was known to locals as 'the lady of the swamp' until one day in 1952 Margaret simply vanished.
Sat, July 27, 2024
The Great Australian Camel Race (part 2)
The story of an epic 3300-kilometre adventure from the Australian desert to the coast. Half way through the race, Illness, flood, fatigue and flies are all taking their toll, as camels and riders push through to the finish line.
Sat, July 20, 2024
The Great Australian Camel Race (part 1)
It’s April 1988, somewhere near Uluru, and the starter gun fires off one of the strangest, most audacious events to mark Australia's bicentennial year, the Great Australian Camel Race. People came from all around the world to take part in a feat which spanned over 3000km, as camels and humans endured scorching heat, flooding rains and serious sickness that almost sent the race belly-up.
Sat, July 13, 2024
Monarto | Lost city of the future
Don Dunstan had a dream - a futuristic city to rise out of The Mallee. What went wrong? After years of planning and designing why was it never built?
Sat, July 06, 2024
Blood, prejudice and nursing | Barry’s story
It's the 1980s, and the first devastating decade of the AIDS pandemic. A young student nurse tests positive for the virus. and this information ends up on the front page of his local newspaper. A tale of fear and prejudice. but also of great courage, and love.
Sat, June 29, 2024
Great Aussie Cons | My Mother The Spy
Mercia Masson, one of Australia’s longest serving undercover ASIO agents, spied on her communist friends, while her only daughter remained in the dark.
Sat, June 22, 2024
Great Aussie Cons | The Lady Imposter
A clever young street urchin disguises herself as aristocracy. She inconveniently finds herself in a convict cell in Tasmania - but only temporarily. Then it's onto the streets of 1850’s Melbourne to continue her deception.
Sat, June 15, 2024
Great Aussie Cons | The Qantas Con
The public watch the sky above Sydney as a Boeing 707 circles for hours. Fuel running dangerously low. Qantas flight 755 from Sydney to Hong Kong, is threatened by a terrifying phone call. Richard Roxburgh takes a deep dive into the events of that fateful day. On May 26th, Qantas flight 755 takes off on a routine flight from Sydney to Hong Kong. A man called Mr Brown telephones. He wants half a million dollars – or else 'the plane will blow up'. The public watches the sky above Sydney as a 707 circles in a holding pattern for hours. Bomb experts are called in as QF 755’s fuel runs dangerously low.
Sat, June 08, 2024
Great Aussie Cons | The Tichborne Claimant
Is he a baronet or a butcher from Wagga Wagga? Can he claim the estate of an English aristocrat who has been lost at sea?
Sat, June 01, 2024
Great Aussie Cons | The Flying Forger
One of Australia’s craftiest counterfeiters forges two million dollars in his suburban basement in the 1950s. Richard Roxburgh, renowned for playing shady characters on screen, tells the story of Robert Baudin and his brazen ability to make fake money.
Thu, May 30, 2024
INTRODUCING — Great Aussie Cons
Australian history’s littered with con artists. Renowned Australian actor Richard Roxburgh tells the stories of these brazen and downright deviant identities who used their charm and smarts to spy, extort and steal. How did they get away with it? The first episode drops on the 1st of June.
Tue, May 28, 2024
Fight for the forest
In an unprecedented political move, the Western Australian state government will end logging of native forest. Meet the people who have dedicated their lives to saving these incredible forests.
Tue, May 21, 2024
Partition's children
When India was divided to create Pakistan more than a million people lost their lives. People who were there remember the chaos, violence and moments of kindness of Partition.
Sat, May 11, 2024
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 2
In the summer of 1978, Australian narcotics agents intercepted a campervan being unloaded on the Melbourne docks. What they discovered inside the van turned out to be the largest haul of an illicit substance, black hashish, to land on Australian soil at the time. The campervan belonged to two elderly American women tourists, whose overseas holiday odyssey quickly spiralled into a hellish nightmare.
Sat, May 04, 2024
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 1
In the summer of 1978, narcotics agents discovered the largest ever haul of illicit drugs to land in Australia, stashed inside a campervan belonging to two elderly American women tourists. But were these women truly drug smugglers or naive puppets in an elaborate plot masterminded by someone else?
Sat, April 27, 2024
Michael Mansell: a life of radical resistance
Activist and lawyer Michael Mansell has been fighting for Aboriginal rights in Australia for over 50 years. In this episode his daughter Nala Mansell sits down with her father for a conversation about his life on the frontline, and the resilience of palawa identity in lutruwita Tasmania
Sun, April 21, 2024
The Friendship Spitfire: Jack Dawson-Green's war story
A story of swagger, bravery, skill and ultimately, friendship, set on the frontline of war
Sat, April 13, 2024
Section 71: The Hindmarsh Island Bridge Affair (Part 2)
In the second part of the bitter and long-running case known as the Hindmarsh Island bridge affair, the battle heads all the way to the High Court.
Sat, April 06, 2024
Section 71: The Hindmarsh Island Bridge Affair (Part 1)
Ever wondered how the term "secret women's business" entered the Australian vernacular? It's part of a bitter legal battle over land, culture and history in South Australia.
Sat, March 30, 2024
Section 71: Communists, Terrorists and the High Court
How much power does the federal government have to protect Australians from international threats? Two key High Court cases, 50 years apart, which put this question to the test.
Sat, March 23, 2024
Section 71: The High Court Dog-Fight on Schools Funding
The High Court showdown over religious freedom that could help you understand how schools are funded to this day
Sat, March 16, 2024
Section 71 - The Tasmanian crime of gay sex
It might surprise you to learn that until 1997, a man could be jailed for up to 21 years for having sex with another man in Australia. This is the story of the High Court case that changed that law.
Tue, March 12, 2024
Remembering Windradyne's War
In 1824, the British waged war against the Wiradjuri people of western NSW, a battle that shook the new colony.But many Australians have never heard of this conflict and the heroic Wiradjuri warrior, Windradyne. Two centuries on, this history is being remembered and retold.
Sat, March 02, 2024
In my skin
Growing up Regina looked totally different from her brothers and sisters, she thought she was adopted. But her mother told her that was only partly true. With just a handful of letters from both her parents Regina starts to dig into her family story and finds a while lot of surprises along the way.
Sat, February 24, 2024
The medal that spoke
In 1806, Maori chief Te Pahi was gifted a silver medal by Sydney Governor Philip Gidley King. He had come from Aotearoa to establish trade. But the medal then disappeared. Two centuries later, Te Pahi's medal resurfaced – in a Sydney auction house
Sat, February 17, 2024
Crossing Enemy Lines
Minna Muhlen-Schulte knew her surname came from her German grandfather who’d married her Australian grandmother in the 1930s and had lived in Berlin. But she knew very little about her grandparents’ experience during World War Two, except that her grandfather fought on the ‘other’ side, with the German army. So Minna goes in search for her family’s wartime story.
Sat, February 10, 2024
The unspoken story of Isabel Pepper
Producer Fiona Pepper had always known her great grandmother died far too young, but until recently, she never knew the full story.
Sat, February 03, 2024
Secrets and Lies | My year behind the Iron Curtain
At the height of the Cold War a New Zealand teenager is sent to a hospital in the Soviet Union to grow new fingers on her left hand. Sounds like fiction? This actually happened to Miranda Jakich and she tells her tale on The History Listen.
Fri, January 26, 2024
Finding our father, Harry Valentine
Hidden family truths are discovered as two sisters follow the trail of their late fathers' secret life.
Sat, January 20, 2024
Green Mountain plane crash
It's the 19th February 1937, and a Stinson passenger plane leaves Brisbane for a routine flight to Sydney, but it never arrives. Instead, its disappearance sparks one of the most extensive air searches in Australia.
Fri, January 12, 2024
The Unknown Sailor - a wartime mystery
A lost ship, A lost sailor, a lost identity. In November 1941 as war drew closer to Australia. the HMAS Sydney and its crew of 645 sailors disappeared off the Western Australian coast after being ambushed by a German raider. Months later the body of a sailor washed up on tiny Christmas Island and was laid to rest by locals. Half a century on this unknown sailor would help unravel the mystery of how the pride of Australia’s navy just vanished.
Fri, January 05, 2024
The confidence men: conjuring up a wartime escape
What if the only tool you had to escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in WW1 was a homemade Ouija board? The story of a wild and elegant hoax concocted by two British soldier POWs to hoodwink their captors.
Fri, December 29, 2023
Tupaia - star navigator of the Pacific
In 1768 when James Cook sailed from Tahiti looking for the great southern land, Tupaia, a traditional Polynesia navigator was on board. His knowledge proved invaluable to Cook and his sailing skills astounded the crew. What role did Tupaia actually play in the voyage and why haven't we heard heard about him?
Fri, December 22, 2023
Retracing the sailors' walk
March 1797. Five British sailors and 12 Indian seamen are shipwrecked off the Gippsland coast in Victoria The closest settlement is the penal colony of Port Jackson, over 700 km north - the men have no choice but to walk to Sydney. Two centuries later, historian Mark McKenna and naturalist John Blay retrace the sailors' steps, to re-imagine the journey and the cultural encounters with the original inhabitants on this country. This is one of Australia's greatest survival stories and cross cultural encounters. Two centuries later, historian Mark McKenna and naturalist John Blay retrace the sailors' steps.
Tue, December 19, 2023
Last Light - the Valentich disappearance
A young pilot. A distress call. A missing plane. What happened to Frederick Valentich in October 1978?
Fri, December 08, 2023
Friedrich the Fraud
The story behind one of Australia's greatest con artists. In the late 1980s, when millions went missing from Victoria's National Safety Council, the man responsible, John Friedrich disappeared into thin air, and the media went wild.
Fri, December 01, 2023
Stories about radio - Listening to ghosts & Keep them guessing
Two stories about radio. In the past, radio was the most ephemeral of all media or art-forms. It's invisible, evanescent—it passes by the ear and is gone, yet radio can leave deep sound prints - memories of listening that can reverberate over decades. Plus, trying to unravel the secret behind one of the most popular radio shows of the 20th century, as a grandson tries to find out how his grandparents read people's minds. A story about magic,illusion and the creative power of radio.
Fri, November 24, 2023
Green Skin - Aboriginal Vietnam Veterans
The experiences of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women who served in the Vietnam war have, until very recently, not been told. Hear the stories of two 20-year-old blokes who donned the ‘green skin’ and how it changed their lives forever.
Fri, November 17, 2023
Ep 2: Ray Denning - the stitch up
With nothing to lose, Raymond Denning escapes Grafton prison in a rubbish bin. He has help from prisoner rights groups and an agenda to raise awareness about police corruption. The man-hunt for Denning turns farcical when he uses the media to make the police look foolish.
Fri, November 10, 2023
Ep 1: Ray Denning - breaking out
The story of one of Australia's most misunderstood criminals. After a traumatic childhood, Raymond Denning jumps from 'juvie' to jail. When an escape attempt goes wrong, a prison warder is critically injured and the finger is pointed at Denning.
Sat, November 04, 2023
Last letters - the wartime legacy of Lark Force unit
Port Moresby 1942, and the story of the most extraordinary postal delivery, when hundreds of letters from Australian POWs of the Japanese fell from the sky .
Sun, October 29, 2023
The Benalla Experiment - a camp for mothers and children
The little known story of migrant camp that was home to over 60,000 people - single mothers and their children - in the years after World War II.
Sat, October 21, 2023
Fairlight CMI - the instrument of musical change
This is the story of - and the soundtrack to - one of the most influential instruments of the last 50 years. Meet the creators of the Fairlight, the super stars that used it and learn the tricks of the music production trade along the way.
Thu, October 12, 2023
Asbestos — Dusted 03 | The human cost of mining in Australia
Asbestos was once known as the wonder mineral. It's now banned in Australia. But before that happened, companies kept making and selling asbestos products despite mounting evidence of its deadly dust. Dusted, the human cost of mining in Australia is presented by Van Badham.
Fri, October 06, 2023
Coal — Dusted 02 | The human cost of mining in Australia
When a vast coal seam was found running through the escarpment around Wollongong it seemed that this beautiful place had got lucky. But had it? Van Badham heads back to her hometown and goes ‘on the coal’ with the miners. Dusted, the human cost of mining in Australia is presented by Van Badham.
Fri, September 29, 2023
Gold — Dusted 01 | the human cost of mining in Australia
Gold may have made Australia rich, but historians are now digging up evidence of the devastating consequences of the silica dust that surfaced with it. Dusted, the human cost of mining in Australia is presented by Van Badham.
Tue, September 19, 2023
Ep 2: The Buried Tea Chests
Hidden for nearly a century, two chests of mail found under a Sydney home was declared to be one of the most important hauls in Australia’s postal history. Why the secrecy? And why has a Sydney family been so shocked by their revelations?
Fri, September 15, 2023
Ep 1: The Buried Tea Chests
When journalist Annika Blau learnt of the discovery of two tea chests of very valuable mail under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she uncovered secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.
Fri, September 08, 2023
The sands of Ooldea: part 4 Wankani
The story of how the traditional custodians of Ooldea got their sacred water soak back and the healing of the land.
Fri, September 01, 2023
The sands of Ooldea: Part 3 Mamu
North west of Ooldea in South Australia's Great Victoria Desert is Maralinga where the British exploded seven nuclear bombs. This episode explores the Cold War politics behind the bomb tests and their ongoing impact on the traditional owners of the land, the Maralinga Tjarutja people..
Fri, August 25, 2023
The sands of Ooldea: Part 2 Kabbarli
Ooldea's most famous resident was Daisy Bates, also known as "Kabbarli" or grandmother. She lived at Ooldea for sixteen years in a tent, helping to feed and clothe Aboriginal people, but these days her reputation is very mixed.
Fri, August 18, 2023
The sands of Ooldea: Part 1 Yuldi
On the edge of the Nullabor, Ooldea, with its ancient water soak "Yuldi Kapi", is one of the most important Aboriginal sites in Australia. Trading routes and dreaming stories crossed here for thousands of years, but then the transnational railway arrived in 1917.
Fri, August 11, 2023
One Tree: In Search of Stradivari's Sibling Violins
Producer David Schulman has been on a quest – he’s been trying to find a single tree. David’s a violinist. And for him, violins aren’t just boxes made of wood – they’re magical objects. With voices and spirits that can seem almost human. Old violins even work as a sort of ‘time machine’ – by the sound they make and by their stories, they carry us back into the past.And it turns out there’s solid science behind this method of time travel.
Tue, August 08, 2023
The Missing Magdalens
Magdalene Laundries for "fallen women" date back to 12th century Europe. These were Catholic run institutions to reform "wayward" women known as Magdalens, through strict religious observance and hard work..
Tue, August 01, 2023
A vapour of the mind: calling Sidney Jeffryes
The achievements of Sidney Jeffryes, a radio operator on the 1911 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, have been notably missing from the polar records. In an era that celebrated physical heroism, vulnerability was not tolerated.
Tue, July 25, 2023
Finding Fanny Finch
What if the most remarkable of all your ancestors was the one left off the family tree? Historian Kacey Sinclair and two of Fanny Finch’s direct descendants reconstruct and reflect on the life and legacy of a goldfields trailblazer, a woman of colour whose story was hidden for generations.
Fri, July 14, 2023
Invasion 1975 - the untold story of the Chinese-Timorese
Millie Skoko had never really thought much about her Mum’s side of the family, who are Chinese Timorese, and who came to live in Australia in the early 1970s. Until one day, when she was online, Millie discovered her Grandfather’s former home and building, Toko Lay, in stories about the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, in December 1975. This discovery leads Millie, in tandem with her mum Lorraine, on a quest to uncover the hidden history of the Chinese-Timorese community in Timor-Leste and hear from the survivors who experienced waves of violence at the hands of the invading forces.
Mon, July 10, 2023
Visions of the Filipina bride
Growing up in the 1990s, Alan Weedon always wondered why he was one of many kids born to an Australian father and Filipina mother. It was a pattern replicated in the various backyard barbecues and play dates of his youth — where Filipino men were far and few between. Following the tragic death of his mother Jesusita in 2022, Alan, in his grief, decided to trace his Mum's story of coming to Australia. In doing so, he unravelled a great southern migration, where tens of thousands of Filipinas migrated to Australia via marriage in the 80s and 90s. But when they landed in Australia, these Filipina brides — many of who had migrated on their own accord — were often subject to racist and sexist stereotypes. Most persistent was the 'mail order bride' tag, a stereotype that stuck and leached into newspapers and popular culture – and which still lingers on today.
Tue, July 04, 2023
Fanny Smith: Icon
In 1899, twenty-three years after her people were declared ‘extinct’, Fanny Smith made a revolutionary recording where she announced to the world that she was The Last Tasmanian. Far from ‘extinct’, she was a proud Aboriginal woman raising her eleven children and publicly singing and speaking her Pakana language. This is her extraordinary story.
Fri, June 23, 2023
Laya's Way Home Part 2
In 1945, Adolf Semler, a German World War One hero, was sent to a slave labour camp for refusing to denounce his Jewish wife Laya. In 2022, their great-grandchildren return to Germany to discover a town finally wrestling with the extent of its role in the Nazi regime.
Fri, June 23, 2023
Laya's Way Home Part 2
In 1945, Adolf Semler, a German World War One hero, was sent to a slave labour camp for refusing to denounce his Jewish wife Laya. In 2022, their great-grandchildren return to Germany to discover a town finally wrestling with the extent of its role in the Nazi regime.
Tue, June 20, 2023
Laya's Way Home Part 1
In 1945, Laya Semler became the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf chose slave labour rather than abandon her. Theirs is a love story for the ages.
Tue, June 20, 2023
Laya's Way Home Part 1
In 1945, Laya Semler became the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf chose slave labour rather than abandon her. Theirs is a love story for the ages.
Tue, June 13, 2023
Spies, lies and hairdryers
In the 1950s a romantic proposition by a Russian diplomat transformed Kay Marshall from an admin worker into one of Australia’s most important double agents. It was the beginning of a four-year intelligence operation which revealed that there was more going on at the Soviet Embassy than met the eye..
Tue, June 06, 2023
Through Samurai Eyes, ep 2
When amateur historian Nick Russell stumbled across a set of very old Japanese manuscripts, he unearthed a dramatic tale of convict mutineers, samurai warriors and a hijacked ship, which sheds new light on one of the greatest escape stories in Australian history.
Tue, May 30, 2023
Through Samurai eyes: one of Australia's greatest convict escape stories
A dramatic tale featuring pirates, Samurai warriors, a historical detective and a ship of escaped convicts from Australia who washed up in Japan in 1830
Tue, May 23, 2023
Those Bloody Vegos - a short history of vegetarianism
A plant-eating sleuth uncovers the hidden history of vegetarianism in Australia - featuring spiritualists, nudists, and politicians, plus plenty of nutmeat and a vegan dish called Hampstead Cutlets
Tue, May 16, 2023
The Unknown Sailor
A lost ship, A lost sailor, a lost identity. In November 1941 as war drew closer to Australia. the HMAS Sydney and its crew of 645 sailors disappeared off the Western Australian coast after being ambushed by a German raider. Months later the body of a sailor washed up on tiny Christmas Island and was laid to rest by locals. Half a century on this unknown sailor would help unravel the mystery of how the pride of Australia’s navy just vanished.
Tue, May 09, 2023
The Lost Boys of Daylesford
On a clear cold Sunday morning in June 1867, three little boys wandered away from their home near the town of Daylesford, on Dja Dja Wurrung country in central Victoria. Over the next six weeks the boys’ story gripped the colony.
Tue, May 02, 2023
Green Mountains Plane Crash
19th February 1937, a Stinson passenger plane leaves Brisbane for a routine flight to Sydney, but never it arrives. Instead, its disappearance sparks one of the most extensive air searches in Australia.
Tue, April 25, 2023
Edie's War
When Penny Bristol Jones inherited a battered trunk full of family documents and memorabilia, little did she know the rich wartime history she would uncover. In amongst the bounty was a collection of diaries and letters written by Penny’s great grandmother Edie Digby, during the First World War, while her husband and two sons were away at the front.
Tue, April 18, 2023
The Great Australian Camel Race (part 2)
It’s 6 weeks into this epic 3300-kilometre adventure, and competitors face the longest leg of the race, across the Simpson Desert and into Queensland. The stakes are high, as they battle illness, flood, fatigue and flies, in the push towards the finish line on the Gold Coast, and call themselves the winner?
Tue, April 11, 2023
The Great Australian Camel Race (part 1)
It’s April 1988, somewhere near Uluru, and the starter gun kicks off one of the strangest, most audacious events to mark Australia's bicentennial year, the Great Australian Camel Race. People came from all around the world to take part in a feat which spanned over 3000km, as camels and humans endured scorching heat, flooding rains and serious sickness that almost sent the race belly-up.
Tue, April 04, 2023
The Kitchen Table - Spice
It's time to rethink the spices in your pantry. The long trade in clove and nutmeg lead to colonisation, but long before the Europeans arrived, it helped define the language, culture, religion and geography of Indonesia.
Tue, March 28, 2023
The Kitchen Table - Wine
What's the story behind your favourite wine? This fermented drink has long been an important part of Australia's social and cultural history, used for ceremonial, medicinal and celebratory purposes.
Tue, March 21, 2023
The Kitchen Table - Salt
Behind your humble shaker of table salt lies a curious and industrious history
Tue, March 14, 2023
The kitchen table - Tea
By the turn of the twentieth century Australians were the world’s most obsessive tea drinkers. Four cups with a meal wasn’t uncommon. Where did this insatiable thirst start? and did it ever really stop? A story about Australia's tea drinking history, and the beverage that keeps us brewing
Tue, March 07, 2023
Crossing Time: Australia's transgender history—part 2
The 1970s was a decade which saw social change, that helped foster new ideas and understandings about sex, gender and identity. And much of this change was brought about by trans activists.
Tue, February 28, 2023
Crossing Time: Australia's transgender history—part 1
In the last few decades, there has been a huge social transformation in the way people express and talk about gender. But right across time, and here in Australia, there’ve always been people who existed outside the binary definition of male and female.Compelling history from Australia and around the world.
Tue, February 21, 2023
The Making of Mardi Gras: Supernova
In 2002, after a decade of giddy expansion, the bubble burst for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. With debts mounting and creditors circling, Mardi Gras went into voluntary administration. In the new millennium, had Mardi Gras lost its relevance?
Tue, February 14, 2023
The Making of Mardi Gras (1979 -1981)
To mark 2023 World Pride, the origin story of Sydney Mardi Gras. How did a one-off street protest on a chilly winter's night more than 40 years ago transform into the massive annual summer celebration we now know?
Tue, February 07, 2023
Mrs C Private Detective
A journey back to the mean streets of Brisbane in the 1920s with clever and feisty private detective – Mrs Kate Condon.
Tue, January 31, 2023
Partition's children
When India was divided to create Pakistan more than a million people lost their lives. People who were there remember the chaos, violence and moments of kindness of Partition.
Tue, January 24, 2023
Making Manganinnie
The story behind the 1980 Australian film Manganinne, set during the infamous Black Line violence of colonial Tasmania, and the extraordinary Yolngu actor, Mawuyul Yanthalawuy. who plays the film's central character.
Tue, January 17, 2023
A Day at the Beach - Wanda 1982
Were you at the Wanda gig in 1982? It's forty years since Triple J hosted a free outdoor concert on Sydney's Wanda Beach, when a massive crowd turned up to see the bands whose music defined an era, and who changed the sound of Australian rock forever
Tue, January 10, 2023
Play your way to happiness
It was the Great Depression in Australia. People dreamt of a paradise, an escape from Nowheresville. And they found it, gathering on the beaches of coastal cities and crowding halls in country towns - to play Hawaiian steel guitar. Historian Robyn Annear discovers what drove thousands of Australians to learn this unlikely instrument?
Tue, January 03, 2023
Miner Poets - songs and verse from the west coast of Tasmania
We travel to the west coast of Tasmania, to meet the mining communities who carry on a rich cultural tradition of storytelling in poetry and song.
Tue, December 27, 2022
Fairlight CMI - the sound you've never heard of
The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made. This documentary won the 2023 Prix Italia in the Radio & Podcast Music category.
Tue, December 20, 2022
Brother artist Hosea Easton
In 1899 two thousand people attended the funeral of an African-American banjo player in Sydney. Who was he? How did he come to be in Australia and why was he so loved? Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe tells the story of Hosea Easton, along with the history of minstrel music and the banjo, in Australia and the United States.
Tue, December 13, 2022
An Object in Time - The Flag
The story of one of history’s most mysterious flags - the Jolly Roger. It’s the pirate flag that defined one of the world’s greatest criminal enterprises and it helps us to understand how the high seas transformed from lawlessness to order
Tue, December 06, 2022
An Object in Time | The Jewel
The story of the diamond so infused with underhand deeds and deadly acts that it was thought to curse any male ruler who wore it..
Tue, November 29, 2022
An Object in Time | The Ball
The Carbolic Smoke Ball was touted as a miracle cure for all kinds of illnesses that were rife in the 1890s. It never actually cured anything, but what it did do was change the law forever.
Tue, November 22, 2022
An Object in Time | The Potato
The humble potato is not just a lump of carbohydrate: it tells the story of how food, so essential to life, is also central to politics. This is the story of how the potato became a weapon.
Tue, November 15, 2022
An Object in Time | The Briefcase
The story of briefcase that almost killed Hitler in 1944, how it was stopped only by a misplaced table leg, and the fate of the man at the heart of the assassination plot.
Tue, November 08, 2022
Fitzroyalty — a short history of Brunswick Street
In the 1980s & '90s, an influx of artists and creative types changed the face of Melbourne’s Brunswick Street, in inner-city Fitzroy. What was once a humble industrial shopping strip transformed into a bustling hive of creativity, full of cafes, bars, art and music.
Sun, October 30, 2022
Snapshots
A chance discovery of a bag of old photographs leads two Asian-Australian artists, Mayu Kanamori and William Yang, to explore their histories.
Tue, October 25, 2022
No way back - the coolies of Christmas Island
In the early years of the twentieth century thousands of poor Chinese workers crossed the seas to a tiny dot in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Christmas Island was rich in phosphate, and when a British owned mine company set up on the island it needed workers. They came to seek their fortune and instead struck tragedy, as most of these men would never return home to China.
Tue, October 18, 2022
Hume and Hovell and the pathfinders
In 1824 Hamilton Hume and William Hovell with 6 convicts began an expedition south-west of Sydney into the unknown. Governor Brisbane wanted to find an inland route from Sydney all the way to Bass Strait. The country however was neither unknown nor uninhabited. Hamilton Hume's friendship with and assistance from local Aboriginal groups throughout the journey enabled the opening up of some of the most pristine land in New South Wales and Victoria
Tue, October 11, 2022
Operation Copperhead or ' I was Monty's Double'
The D-Day landings in 1944 involved a lot of planning, deception, and in one case as comedic as it was dangerous, a bloke from Perth. An outlandish wartime caper that ended up on the silver screen.
Tue, October 04, 2022
Impostors: If it's endangered, we want it
Ecology didn’t exist in the nineteenth century. So, when, where, and how did it first begin in Australia?
Tue, September 27, 2022
Impostors: If it lives, we want it
In the 1860s, a group of well-intentioned settlers introduced animals from overseas, hoping they would thrive in Australia. Many did. Too many.
Tue, September 20, 2022
Play your way to happiness
It was the Great Depression in Australia. People dreamt of a paradise, an escape from Nowheresville. And they found it, gathering on the beaches of coastal cities and crowding halls in country towns - to play Hawaiian steel guitar. Historian Robyn Annear discovers what drove thousands of Australians to learn this unlikely instrument?
Tue, September 13, 2022
The Confidence Men
What if the only tool you had to escape from a WWI Turkish prison camp was a homemade Ouija board?
Fri, September 09, 2022
Queen Elizabeth II and Australians
Daniel Browning presents this special tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, looking at the relationship she had with Australians; from the adoration she was shown in the 1954 tour to her extensive Aboriginal art collection and the way so many Australian women saw her as a role model. Guests: Jane Connors, Historian. Juliet Rieden, Editor-at-large of The Australian Women's Weekly
Tue, September 06, 2022
The Loveday Trilogy Part 3 | Miyakatsu Koike
The story of a stoic, humane and wise man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tue, August 30, 2022
The Loveday Trilogy Part 2 | Francesco Fantin
The tragic tale of a man sent to a detention camp where he was surrounded by his political enemies.
Tue, August 23, 2022
The Loveday Trilogy Part 1 | Oskar Speck
The story of one man's mind-bendingly long kayak journey that lead to an Australian Detention camp in World War 2.
Tue, August 16, 2022
Maiden's Eucalypts
This story is set on Worimi and Biripi country in the year 1894 The avid colonial botanist Joseph Maiden is making a trip through the forests around the NSW towns of Stroud and Gloucester, recording every tree, leaf, and plant he encounters in meticulous detail in his journal. 130 years later historian Jodi Frawley re-traces Maiden's journey, using his original records as a guide.
Tue, August 09, 2022
Inexpressible Island
The little known story of perhaps the greatest endurance feat in Antarctic history. The survival of Robert Falcon Scott's Northern Party in the winter of 1912.
Tue, August 02, 2022
The man with the wooden shotgun
Britta Jorgensen grew up hearing many tales about her great Uncle Keith Byson, whose life sounded like something out of a children's story book - that he was a hermit who lived in a shack on a deserted island in the Great Barrier Reef, warding off strangers with a wooden shotgun, and who got around in his underwear. Years after his death Britta heads to her uncle's island home, to try and sort out the truth from the tall tales
Tue, July 26, 2022
Finding Harry Valentine
Hidden family truths are discovered as two sisters follow the trail of their late fathers' secret life.
Tue, July 19, 2022
First port of asylum
On the night Dai Le was elected to Federal Parliament as an Independent she was remembering being a frightened 10 years old, out in the open sea, escaping Vietnam in a boat. For The History Listen Dai returns to the place she first landed, Hong Kong, looking for traces of the refugee camp where she lived, worked in factories and like so many thousands, waited for a visa to The West.
Tue, July 12, 2022
Fanny Smith: Icon
In 1899, twenty-three years after her people were declared ‘extinct’, Fanny Smith made a revolutionary recording where she announced to the world that she was The Last Tasmanian. Far from ‘extinct’, she was a proud Aboriginal woman raising her eleven children and publicly singing and speaking her Pakana language. This is her extraordinary story.
Tue, July 05, 2022
The Friendship Spitfire: Jack Dawson Green's WW2 story
A story of swagger, bravery, skill and ultimately, friendship, set on the frontline of war
Tue, June 28, 2022
Acting on a High Wire - a short history of television drama
From the very first night that ABC television beamed into loungerooms around Australia, it offered audiences live drama, initially plays and then serials. The story of the generation of pioneers who helped to create a new art form, shake off the cultural shackles of England, and pave the way for the Australian television which went on to conquer the world.
Tue, June 21, 2022
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 2
In the summer of 1978, Australian narcotics agents intercepted a campervan being unloaded on the Melbourne docks. What they discovered inside the van turned out to be the largest haul of an illicit substance, black hashish, to land on Australian soil at the time. The campervan belonged to two elderly American women tourists, whose overseas holiday odyssey quickly spiralled into a hellish nightmare.
Tue, June 21, 2022
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 2
In the summer of 1978, Australian narcotics agents intercepted a campervan being unloaded on the Melbourne docks. What they discovered inside the van turned out to be the largest haul of an illicit substance, black hashish, to land on Australian soil at the time. The campervan belonged to two elderly American women tourists, whose overseas holiday odyssey quickly spiralled into a hellish nightmare.
Tue, June 14, 2022
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 1
In the summer of 1978, narcotics agents discovered the largest ever haul of illicit drugs to land in Australia, stashed inside a campervan belonging to two elderly American women tourists. But were these women truly drug smugglers or naive puppets in an elaborate plot masterminded by someone else?
Tue, June 07, 2022
A Day at the Beach - Wanda 1982
Were you at the Wanda gig in 1982? It's forty years since Triple J hosted a free outdoor concert on Sydney's Wanda Beach, where a massive crowd turned up to see the bands whose music defined an era, and who changed the sound of Australian rock forever
Tue, May 31, 2022
Rottnest Island: White playground
How did the largest deaths in custody site in Australia become a tourist mecca?
Tue, May 24, 2022
Rottnest Island: Black prison
The dark history of Western Australia’s idyllic holiday playground.
Tue, May 17, 2022
Australia's greatest miscarriage of justice? The Croatian Six - part two
In 1979 a man named Vico Virkez gave a surprise tip off that would lead to one of the longest criminal trials, and some say, the greatest miscarriage of justice, in Australian history.
Tue, May 10, 2022
Australia's greatest miscarriage of justice? The Croatian Six - part one
The story of six Croatian Australian men who were incarcerated for 15 years for crimes they say they never committed. 40 years later, new evidence has been found in their favour.
Tue, May 03, 2022
Samuel Plimsoll sails to quarantine
Diaries from two voyages to Sydney aboard the famous Scottish clipper, Samuel Plimsoll. It was a perilous time to be at sea. Disease and fever spread through the ship. Both journeys ended prematurely at Sydney's North Head quarantine station.
Tue, April 26, 2022
Fairlight CMI - the sound you've never heard of
The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made
Tue, April 19, 2022
Sister Edith Blake WW I
Sister Edith Blake’s gripping story, from her training in Sydney to nursing Australian soldiers in Gallipoli, to her tragic death in English waters where Germany had promised the safe passage of hospital ships.
Tue, April 12, 2022
Buried Treasure - the story of Lake Pedder
Lake Pedder, in Tasmania’s vast south-west region, was known for its pink quartzite beach, its pristine waters, and its rugged beauty. 50 years ago, it became the site for one of the fiercest conservation battles ever seen in Australia
Tue, April 05, 2022
The Benalla Experiment
Australia's least remembered migrant camp for 'unsupported' mothers.
Tue, March 29, 2022
The job with the best view in the world
Working on the Sydney Harbour Bridge isn't for the fainthearted. Angela Heathcote’s dad Kelly told her adventurous tales of working up high on the famous arches. Years after his passing she meets more of the men and women who brave; the elements, the larrikinism, the fireworks and the brushes with death to maintain this Sydney icon.
Tue, March 22, 2022
William Ah Ket: the first Chinese-Australian barrister
In 1904, William Ah Ket became Australia’s first Chinese barrister. He went on to fight racist laws and social prejudice in and out of court.
Tue, March 15, 2022
Nah Doongh's story
Nah Doongh's story tells of a life that was lost and found; a life that spanned the entire 19th century and bore witness to the colonisation of Australia. It is also a story of love, loss and one woman’s tenacity to die on the land on which she was born.
Tue, March 08, 2022
Steely women
Forty years ago Australian women weren't fighting for equal pay, they were fighting for an equal right to work. This is the story of our nation's largest class action claim, instigated by a group of blue-collar women against the company known as The Big Australian.
Tue, March 01, 2022
The bay leaves of West Terrace cemetery
The uplifting story of the Baby Memorial at Adelaide's West Terrace cemetery.
Tue, February 22, 2022
Only Joking
Comedian David Rose digs into the archives and discovers a very personal story: about a life lived on stage, the parallels of history, and a surprising family legacy which dates all the way back to the music hall era
Tue, February 15, 2022
Fight for the Forest
In an unprecedented political move, the Western Australian state government will end logging of native forest. Meet the people who have dedicated their lives to saving these incredible forests.
Tue, February 08, 2022
Mrs C private detective
A journey back to the mean streets of Brisbane in the 1920’s with feisty private detective – Mrs Kate Condon.
Tue, February 01, 2022
The lost journal of Jeanne Barret: Part 2
The continuation of the amazing story of the first woman to sail around the world.
Tue, January 25, 2022
The lost journal of Jeanne Barret: Part 1
The amazing story of the first woman to sail around the world.
Tue, January 18, 2022
Tommy Walker and the bone collector
Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner tells the tale of two men from the opposite ends of Adelaide society at the turn of the twentieth century. The fates of fringe-dweller Tommy Walker and State Coroner William Ramsay Smith entwined and ultimately exposed what was really going on in the mortuaries, gaols, medical schools and graveyards of South Australia at that time.
Tue, January 11, 2022
The Little Sparrow - the ASIO spy inside the Communist Party
In the early 1950s Adelaide housewife Anne Neill made a life-changing decision: she joined the Communist Party of Australia, and ended up travelling behind the Iron Curtain and befriending KGB spy Vladimir Petrov. But what did this extraordinary woman truly believe in?
Tue, January 04, 2022
Yarramundi and the people of Dyarubbin
Dyarubbin, the mighty Hawkesbury River, winds its way along the foot of the Blue Mountains, around the north western rim of Sydney’s Cumberland Plain. Settlement along the river, like much of Australia’s history, has been told from a colonial perspective. We hear from Darug knowledge holders about their long and enduring relationship with this country, and the river they know as Dyarubbin
Tue, December 28, 2021
Diamond Jack, Smirnov and the Pelikaan
A wild ride involving a Russian flying ace, an escape from Java in World War 2, and a missing package of diamonds.
Tue, December 21, 2021
The Lost Boys of Daylesford
On a clear cold Sunday morning in June 1867, three little boys wandered away from their home near the town of Daylesford, on Dja Dja Wurrung country in central Victoria. Over the next six weeks the boys’ story gripped the colony.
Tue, December 14, 2021
Finding Eve Langley, writing a life
Where does the life of Australian poet and writer Eve Langley end and her fiction begin?
Tue, December 07, 2021
Commemorating James Stirling?
The statue of Western Australia's first governor, Captain James Stirling, in central Perth is hard to miss; there's also a mountain range, a suburban municipality and even a school named after him. But as the state looks towards its bicentenary in 2029, new questions are being asked about James Stirling, including his involvement in frontier violence and in the British slave trade. How should he be remembered?
Tue, November 30, 2021
Caribbean Convicts in Australia
In 1836, the convict ship the Moffatt left Portsmouth harbour in England to travel halfway around the world to the colony of NSW. On board were eighteen convicts from the West Indies, including former slaves William Buchanan and Richard Holt. Jamaica born, Sydney based author Sienna Brown goes on a deep dive into the archives to uncover the little known history of these men, and their lives in Australia.
Tue, November 23, 2021
Respect! - the 1986 Nurses Strike
In the lead up to Christmas 1986, a battle was fought on the streets, in the hospital wards, and on the tram lines around Melbourne. Nurses, trained to care for the sick with no complaint or question, had had enough. Tired of overcrowded wards, poor pay and lack of career opportunity, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
Tue, November 16, 2021
150 years at the Art Gallery of NSW
For most of its life, the Art Gallery of NSW was dank and dingy. In the 1970s, there was no air conditioning or electric lights in its exhibition spaces. A short history of this institutions' amazing transformation.
Tue, November 09, 2021
Resonate
Nazi collaborator is a label that still resonates in Belgium 75 years after the end of the Second World War. Peter Lenaerts grew up listening to his grandmother’s stories, about her brother Paul and how, one night in September 1944, he was dragged out of bed and nearly killed by an angry mob, about her brother Bert, who volunteered and fought in the horrors of the Eastern Front. Peter’s intrigued and goes digging in the archives to understand why his family took one side in the war and what happened to them because of that decision. He discovers that in war it’s never a simple story of winners and losers.
Tue, November 02, 2021
Brother artist Hosea Easton
In 1899 two thousand people attended the funeral of an African-American banjo player in Sydney. Who was he? How did he come to be in Australia and why was he so loved? Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe tells the story of Hosea Easton, along with the history of minstrel music and the banjo, in Australia and the United States.
Tue, October 26, 2021
Henson Park: the eighth wonder
History, tragedy, and triumph. Marrickville’s Henson Park is an icon of Sydney's inner west. But before the unshakable Newtown Jets footy fans called it home, the community oval was a giant hole in the ground supplying Sydney's building boom. When at least nine children drowned at the site, council took charge and began to dream big. It paid off for them when their hidden suburban park wound up on the world stage.
Tue, October 19, 2021
May Wirth: bareback riding queen
'I can do things no woman ever did before in the history of the circus business.' May Wirth
Tue, October 12, 2021
Pentridge prison: a violent past and complicated present
There's a brutal history behind the imposing walls of Melbourne's Pentridge prison, stretching from 1851 right up until its closure in 1997. Today there's a playground, supermarket, cinema and apartments on site – but not everyone's happy about it. Those who know Pentridge best offer their answers to a difficult question: how should you treat a site with such a violent past?
Tue, September 28, 2021
Ray Denning part 2: stitch up
With nothing to lose, Raymond Denning escapes Grafton prison in a rubbish bin. He has help from prisoner rights groups and an agenda to raise awareness about police corruption. The man-hunt for Denning turns farcical when he uses the media to make the police look foolish.
Tue, September 21, 2021
Ray Denning part 1: breaking out
The story of one of Australia's most misunderstood criminals. After a traumatic childhood, Raymond Denning jumps from juvenile detention to jail. When an escape attempt goes wrong, a prison warder is critically injured and the finger is pointed at Denning. As his treatment within the correctional system deteriorates Denning begins to find his voice.
Tue, September 14, 2021
You are not alone: 100 years of PEN International Part 2
Have writers been imprisoned in Australia for their work? Most definitely and PEN has worked to have them freed. In this history of PEN in Australia Arnold Zable tells the story of Cheikh Kone, a journalist from the Ivory Coast who was detained in Port Hedland and writer Behrouz Boochani detained on Manus Island. As well as the letters members of PEN have written to imprisoned writers around the world, like those in Myanmar, to tell them that they are not alone. I am a stranger to you but please know that you are no stranger to me – Maria Tumarkin in a letter to Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian writer detained in Iran until recently.
Tue, September 07, 2021
You are not alone: 100 years of PEN International Part 1
Writers go to prison for the courageous pursuit of their craft and PEN has been working to get them out. Melbourne writer Arnold Zable tells the story of PEN International - from its creation out of the scars of World War 1 to bring societies together through their literature, to its growing human rights work across the globe, protecting freedom of speech and supporting imprisoned writers. If you don’t know the truth you can’t act – Jennifer Clements - President of PEN International
Tue, August 31, 2021
The curious geologist
How a South Australian geologist named Reg Sprigg helped solve Charles Darwin's dilemma
Tue, August 24, 2021
Seachange: 20 years on from the Tampa Affair
When a Norwegian container ship - the MV Tampa – rescued 438 asylum seekers from a sinking boat on August 26, 2001 who was to know the political fallout it would leave in its wake?
Tue, August 17, 2021
Miner Poets - songs and verse from the west coast of Tasmania
We travel to the west coast of Tasmania, to meet the mining communities who carry on a rich cultural tradition of storytelling in poetry and song.
Tue, August 10, 2021
Stories from the Archibald
On the 100th anniversary of Sydney's Archibald portrait prize, artist Wendy Sharpe takes a look at some its most controversial moments.
Tue, August 03, 2021
Alone with J.S. Bach
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a lifetime companion for many violinists. And in our time of Covid-19 isolation, his Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin have taken on a new resonance. These pieces are spiritual, virtuosic, joyful - and enigmatic.
Tue, July 27, 2021
Whitlam's China chance: the origins of the Australia-China relationship
In the Cold War winter of July 1971 ALP leader Gough Whitlam made an audacious trip to Beijing. This is the story of the events, 50 years ago, that turned Australia towards communist China.
Tue, July 20, 2021
Those Bloody Vegos - a short history of vegetarianism in Australia
Early in 2020, a vegetarian version of the iconic Four’N Twenty meat pie hit service stations around the country. For lifelong vego Carly Godden, this re-imagining of an Aussie classic was a sign - vegetarianism had finally gone mainstream.
Tue, July 13, 2021
Escape from Greece 1941
One soldier's incredible World War II escape story through southern Europe. Why haven't Australian's heard more about the heroic ANZAC campaign in Greece? ON the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Tempe Gorge, the story is revealed.
Tue, July 06, 2021
Yarramundi and the people of Dyarubbin
Dyarubbin, the mighty Hawkesbury River, winds its way along the foot of the Blue Mountains, around the north western rim of Sydney’s Cumberland Plain. Settlement along the river, like much of Australia’s history, has been told from a colonial perspective. We hear from Darug knowledge holders about their long and enduring relationship with this country, and the river they know as Dyarubbin
Tue, June 29, 2021
How hypnosis brought the CIA to Australia
Martin Orne was one of the leading psychologists of the 20th century, his specialty was the science of hypnosis. In the 1960s, his scientific method brought him to the University of Sydney, and it's world respected psychology faculty. Unbeknownst to his Australian researchers, however, Professor Orne was being secretly funded by the CIA, in their Cold War quest to control the human mind.
Tue, June 22, 2021
An Object in Time - The Whip
The whip played a central role in the development of Australia. What can it tell us about our society today?
Tue, June 15, 2021
An Object in Time - The Ginger Beer
The refreshing beverage that revolutionised the law.
Tue, June 08, 2021
An Object in Time - The Envelope
An envelope is a humdrum communications device – except when it’s full of misinformation, tucked into the pocket of a dead man, and dropped by a submarine off the coast of wartime Spain.
Tue, June 01, 2021
An Object in Time - The Cup of Tea
The story of how the humble cup of tea came to represent a ruthless British Empire.
Tue, May 25, 2021
An Object in Time - The Ticker Tape
How did one long, skinny strip of paper plunge the world into the worst global economic downturn history had ever seen?
Tue, May 18, 2021
An Object in Time - The Train Carriage
The story of the train carriage which propelled the globe from WWI, straight into WWII.
Thu, May 13, 2021
An Object in Time - The Telephone
This special podcast extra episode tells the story of the world's most powerful, imaginary telephone.
Tue, May 11, 2021
An Object in Time - The Pistol
This pistol lies at the centre of one of history's most famous duels - Hamilton Vs. Burr.
Tue, May 04, 2021
An Object in Time - The Umbrella
Umbrellas aren't known for being dangerous, but this one is famous for being deadly.
Tue, April 27, 2021
The Kitchen Table — Spice
The clove and nutmeg trade not only lead to colonisation, but long before the Europeans arrived, it helped define the language, culture, religion and geographic spread of Indonesia.
Tue, April 20, 2021
The Kitchen Table - Wine
What's the story behind your favourite wine? This fermented beverage has long been an important part of Australia's social and cultural history, used for ceremonial, medicinal and celebratory purposes.
Tue, April 13, 2021
The Kitchen Table — Salt
Behind your humble shaker of table salt lies a curious and industrious history
Tue, April 06, 2021
The Kitchen Table - Tea
By the turn of the twentieth century Australians were the world’s most obsessive tea drinkers. Four cups with a meal wasn’t uncommon. Where did this insatiable thirst start? and did it ever really stop? A story about Australia's tea drinking history, and the beverage that keeps us brewing
Tue, March 30, 2021
The Little Sparrow - the ASIO spy inside the Communist Party
In the early 1950s Adelaide housewife Anne Neill made a life-changing decision: she joined the Communist Party of Australia, and ended up travelling behind the Iron Curtain and befriending KGB spy Vladimir Petrov. But what did this extraordinary woman truly believe in?
Tue, March 23, 2021
The story of Kevin 'the Head' Brennan: Bondi surfing legend
The story of 1960s surfing legend Kevin Brennan charts a young man's path to fame and to premature obscurity set against the backdrop of Sydney's Bondi Beach.
Tue, March 16, 2021
The Lost Boys of Daylesford
On a clear cold Sunday morning in June 1867, three little boys wandered away from their home near the town of Daylesford, on Dja Dja Wurrung country in central Victoria. Over the next six weeks the boys’ story gripped the colony.
Tue, March 09, 2021
The harder they fall - stories of life and death in the South East Forests of NSW
Immerse yourself in the sounds and histories of the old growth forests; from logging to woodchipping, protesting and preserving.
Tue, March 02, 2021
The Train is Back
The Overland is a train whose tracks were once plagued by both squabbling and pandemic. But it is back, although both the plague and the squabbling still exist.
Tue, February 23, 2021
Who was Jimmy Possum?
There’s a mystery surrounding the elegant and ingenious Jimmy Possum chairs that were made 130 years ago in Tasmania. Did their maker live in a tree trunk? Did he even exist? Claudia Taranto goes in search of the real Jimmy Possum and learns about the enduring power of a good story.
Tue, February 16, 2021
Windradyne's forgotten war
In 1824, the British waged war against the Wiradjuri people of western NSW. It was known as the Bathurst War and it shook the new colony. But many Australians have never heard of it, or of the heroic Wiradjuri warrior, Windradyne. The town is now remembering this history.
Tue, February 09, 2021
Australia's greatest miscarriage of justice? The Croatian Six - part two
In 1979 a man named Vico Virkez gave a surprise tip off that would lead to one of the longest criminal trials, and some say, the greatest miscarriage of justice, in Australian history.
Tue, February 02, 2021
Australia's greatest miscarriage of justice? The Croatian Six - part one
The story of six Croatian Australian men who were incarcerated for 15 years for crimes they say they never committed. 40 years later, new evidence has been found in their favour.
Tue, January 26, 2021
Diamond Jack, Smirnov and the Pelikaan
A wild ride involving a Russian flying ace, an escape from Java in World War 2, and a missing package of diamonds.
Tue, January 19, 2021
Spies, lies and hairdryers - How a single mum became a double agent in Cold War Australia
In the 1950s a romantic proposition by a Russian diplomat transformed Kay Marshall from an admin worker into one of Australia’s most important double agents. It was the beginning of a four-year intelligence operation which revealed that there was more going on at the Soviet Embassy than met the eye.
Tue, January 12, 2021
Manuscripts Don't Burn: The Master and Margarita
Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s most famous novel, The Master and Margarita, was written during the brutal 1930s Stalinist purges. It's become a cult classic, inspiring artists like Patti Smith and the Rolling Stones. Find out why.
Tue, January 05, 2021
Heavenly and demonic: the story of the saxophone
Find out why, in its relatively short history, one instrument has offended ideologues, drawn the ire of dictators, and been reviled and outlawed.
Tue, December 29, 2020
Two spoons — the general who plotted to kill Hitler
A little known assassination attempt against Hitler cast its shadow over a family in Sweden. Johan Gabrielsson digs deep into the family vault and discovers the complicated truth about one of his distant relatives.
Tue, December 22, 2020
Tupaia, star navigator
In 1768 when James Cook sailed from Tahiti looking for the great southern land, Tupaia, a traditional Polynesia navigator was on board. His knowledge proved invaluable to Cook and his sailing skills astounded the crew. What role did Tupaia actually play in the voyage and why haven't we heard heard about him?
Tue, December 15, 2020
Experiment street — the true history of a city lane
It's the early 1900's in Sydney. Fictional Pyrmont resident and neighbourhood gossip Lizzie Absalom tells what really went on in those back lanes.
Tue, December 08, 2020
Silence at the sugar mill
Every family has a secret, the saying goes. But the Ninnes family had a big one. It wasn't until eldest daughter Mae was 80 years old that she began to talk. And the skeletons came out of the cupboard. In this program Mae's daughter Lesley searches for answers to the silence and the secrecy of her mother's childhood.
Tue, December 01, 2020
Clutha 1970 - the biggest battle over coal you’ve never heard of
A huge coal project by a foreign company. Environmentalists concerned about the impacts. A government talking about jobs. Sound familiar? But this battle happened 50 years ago, when a small group waged a David–and-Goliath campaign against a coal terminal planned for the coast south of Sydney.
Tue, November 24, 2020
Australia and the rise of terrorism; a tale of this century
The September 11th attacks in the United States by Al Qaeda changed the way western countries perceived the threat of terrorism. Before the events of 2001, Australia had no national terrorism laws. But fifteen years later it would have more terror-related laws in place than any other comparable nation.
Tue, November 17, 2020
A picturesque colonial landscape
A radio journey into John Glover's 1835 painting A view of the artist's house and garden, in Mills Plains, Van Diemen's Land.
Tue, November 10, 2020
The Scholar's Hut
In 1881, an extraordinary teacher arrived at Maloga Aboriginal mission. His students changed Australian history. Great great grandson and Yorta Yorta man Daniel James tells the story of Thomas Shadrach James.
Tue, November 03, 2020
The air of heaven - Australian women jockeys
When Michelle Payne won the Melbourne Cup in 2015 there were three female jockeys who were with her in spirit. They all challenged the male-dominated racing industry, pushed on by the air of heaven.
Tue, October 27, 2020
Songs of the last convict ship
In January 1868, the last convict ship to Australia, The Hougoumont, docked in Fremantle, Western Australia, off-loading its' human cargo, including a group of Irish political prisoners. This is the story of the long sea journey told through the diaries kept by some of the Irishmen and the songs and music they played on board.
Tue, October 20, 2020
Tommy Walker and the bone collector
Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner tells the tale of two men from the opposite ends of Adelaide society at the turn of the twentieth century. The fates of fringe-dweller Tommy Walker and State Coroner William Ramsay Smith entwined and ultimately exposed what was really going on in the mortuaries, gaols, medical schools and graveyards of South Australia at that time.
Tue, October 13, 2020
The Black-Allan Line
Australia's state borders have taken on new significance in this pandemic year. The history of the border between NSW and Victoria is full of strange twists and turns, a murder and some very messy politics.
Tue, October 06, 2020
Only Joking
Comedian David Rose digs into the archives and discovers a very personal story; one about a life lived on stage, the parallels of history, and a surprising family legacy which dates all the way back to the music hall era
Tue, September 29, 2020
Salleh Ben Joned: A Most Unlikely Malay (Part 2 of 2)
Malaysian poet and writer Salleh Ben Joned is an incendiary critic with satirical wit, and at nearly 80 he’s become a bit of an underground ‘legend’. Eldest daughter Anna charts the highs and lows of her father’s return to Malaysia after an influential decade in Hobart, Tasmania.
Tue, September 22, 2020
Salleh Ben Joned: A Most Unlikely Malay (Part 1 of 2)
Salleh Ben Joned is a witty, fearless and charismatic poet and writer that some have called the ‘bad boy of Malaysian literature’. Come on a wild ride through his life and times with his eldest daughter Anna, starting with the influential decade he spent in Australia as a young Colombo Plan scholar.
Tue, September 15, 2020
Follow the Flame
It's 20 years since Sydney hosted the Olympics, and one of the most memorable parts of the 2000 games was the torch relay. This story follows the journey of the flame, from the red dirt country of Uluru to the suburbs of Sydney, hearing the tales and memories that it fuelled along the way.
Tue, September 08, 2020
Alone with J.S. Bach
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a lifetime companion for many violinists. And in our time of Covid-19 isolation, his Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin have taken on a new resonance. These pieces are spiritual, virtuosic, joyful - and enigmatic.
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