Podcast Episodes

Short: An Aussie Movie Star’s Acid Horror

Season 9 Episode 60

At the height of the silent movie era, young Australian star Lotus Thompson set her sights on Hollywood. But she soon faced a problem: her legs were so beautiful that producers couldn’t see past her …

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Short: SS Waratah – Australia's Own 'Titanic' Mystery

Season 9 Episode 59

In July 1909, the world wondered what had become of the SS Waratah, last seen off coast of South Africa with more than 200 souls aboard. This grim mystery was even more sensational for featuring a on…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Short: Australia's Free Speech Martyr

Season 9 Episode 58

William Chidley was an early 20th Century Australian eccentric with his own philosophies, which he preached and published - and for which he was relentlessly persecuted. Eventually, Chidley would be …

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

This Week in 1981: Don't Believe the Hype

Season 9 Episode 57

The death of stuntman Dale Buggins, the arrival of Adam Ant in Australia and new ‘evidence’ in the Azaria Chamberlain case – it was a big week for sensational tabloid stories. Plus: the birth of the …

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

This Week in 1956: TV debuts, rock ’n’ roll riots and a dancing senior citizen takes on the world

Season 9 Episode 55

In the third week of September 1956, a small number of Australians finally saw what all the fuss was about when regular TV broadcasts began. It was a quiet start - unlike the arrival of the raucous, …

Published on 1 month, 4 weeks ago

Short: The Death of Damien Parer

Season 9 Episode 54

This week in 1944, Australia's most famous war cameraman — whose film Kokoda Front Line! had won us our first Oscar the previous year — was killed while filming American Marines trying to retake a ti…

Published on 2 months ago

Short: Mark Twain Down Under

Season 9 Episode 53

One hundred and thirty years ago this month, Mark Twain, creator of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and hailed as the world’s funniest man, arrived in Australia for the start of a months-long speaking tour…

Published on 2 months ago

Short: When War Came on Father's Day

Season 9 Episode 52

As winter became spring in Australia in 1939, the world stood on the edge of the abyss.

Then, on Father's Day, 3 September, everyone's worst fears were confirmed: Australia would once again go to war …

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

Short: Australia's Worst Shipwreck

Season 9 Episode 51

180 years ago this month, Australia suffered what is still our worst civil maritime disaster when the emigrant ship Cataraqui struck a reef off King Island and sank in Bass Strait. Of the 409 aboard,…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Short: From Dead Heart to Inland Sea

Season 9 Episode 50

With Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre now flooded, we look back on the first time this happened in white history. Seventy-five years ago, Australia’s driest and most inhospitable region became a huge inland sea…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago