The History Listen: Recent Episodes
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New and compelling stories from Australia and around the world. Step inside a time machine for an immersive journey into the past.
The story of how the traditional custodians of Ooldea got their sacred water soak back and the healing of the land.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
But this was somewhere else, not Australia.
Until writer Donna Abela stumbled across a Magdalene laundry near her home in Sydney's inner west.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
It’s April 1988, somewhere near Uluru, and the starter gun kicks off one of the strangest, most audacious events to mark the 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
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?
A journey back to the mean streets of Brisbane in the 1920’s with clever and feisty private detective – Mrs Kate Condon.
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made
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.
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
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..
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.
Pauline Dakin’s childhood was marked by unexplained events, a sense of unseen menace, and secretive moves to new cities with no warning. When Pauline was a young adult, her mother finally told her what they were running from – organised crime, secret police and double lives. Listen to more here Run, Hide, Repeat (chtbl.com)
Pauline Dakin’s childhood was marked by unexplained events, a sense of unseen menace, and secretive moves to new cities with no warning. When Pauline was a young adult, her mother finally told her what they were running from – organised crime, secret police and double lives. Listen to more here Run, Hide, Repeat (chtbl.com)
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.
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.
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.
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.
A chance discovery of a bag of old photographs leads two Asian-Australian artists, Mayu Kanamori and William Yang, to explore their histories.
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.
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
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.
Ecology didn’t exist in the nineteenth century. So, when, where, and how did it first begin in Australia?
In the 1860s, a group of well-intentioned settlers introduced animals from overseas, hoping they would thrive in Australia. Many did. Too many.
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?
What if the only tool you had to escape from a WWI Turkish prison camp was a homemade Ouija board?
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
The story of a stoic, humane and wise man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The tragic tale of a man sent to a detention camp where he was surrounded by his political enemies.
The story of one man's mind-bendingly long kayak journey that lead to an Australian Detention camp in World War 2.
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.
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.
New and compelling stories from Australia's past, told by some of our most popular and trusted hi...
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
Hidden family truths are discovered as two sisters follow the trail of their late fathers' secret life.
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.
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.
A story of swagger, bravery, skill and ultimately, friendship, set on the frontline of war
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
A journey back to the mean streets of Brisbane in the 1920’s with feisty private detective – Mrs Kate Condon.
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.
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?
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
A wild ride involving a Russian flying ace, an escape from Java in World War 2, and a missing package of diamonds.
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.
Where does the life of Australian poet and writer Eve Langley end and her fiction begin?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'I can do things no woman ever did before in the history of the circus business.' May Wirth
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?
Underwater escapes, padlocked trunks and a magic trick featuring a wallaby called JoJo - the story of Esme Levante has it all. Yet for decades the life of this remarkable woman has been overshadowed by her more famous father, the Great Levante, one of Australia’s greatest magicians. So, who was Esme Levante, “the most daring girl in the world”?
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.
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.
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.
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
How a South Australian geologist named Reg Sprigg helped solve Charles Darwin's dilemma
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?
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.
On the 100th anniversary of Sydney's Archibald portrait prize, artist Wendy Sharpe takes a look at some its most controversial moments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The whip played a central role in the development of Australia. What can it tell us about our society today?
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.
How did one long, skinny strip of paper plunge the world into the worst global economic downturn history had ever seen?
The story of the train carriage which propelled the globe from WWI, straight into WWII.
This special podcast extra episode tells the story of the world's most powerful, imaginary telephone.
This pistol lies at the centre of one of history's most famous duels - Hamilton Vs. Burr.
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
Immerse yourself in the sounds and histories of the old growth forests; from logging to woodchipping, protesting and preserving.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A wild ride involving a Russian flying ace, an escape from Java in World War 2, and a missing package of diamonds.
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.
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.
Find out why, in its relatively short history, one instrument has offended ideologues, drawn the ire of dictators, and been reviled and outlawed.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
There’s a number going around audio-visual archivist circles, that has many of them worried: 2025. Magnetic tape — from reel-to-reel, to cassettes and VHS — that is not digitised by 2025 might be lost forever.
Through the chance finding of an old German book in an antiquarian bookshop we discover the life and work of Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow, an artist and ethnographer who explored New Ireland in 1908.
A cavalcade of Japanese Prisoners of War, in makeshift 'cages' on the back of utes and small trucks, makes its way across dusty western NSW. Tension in Hay ramps up, peaking on one long night of drama when it appears the POWs are making another escape attempt.
The mysterious war-time drowning of a young woman in the Murrumbidgee River leads Ann Arnold on a trail of drama and suspense, from the Torres Strait to the outback.
In the 1950s a romantic proposition from 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.
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.
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.
In 1977, the New Zealand government passed the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act which made it virtually impossible for a woman to legally terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Enter the group known as the Sisters Overseas Service (SOS); this is their little known story.
Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s most famous novel, The Master and Margarita, was written during the brutal 1930s Stalinist purges. It has become a cult classic; inspiring artists like Patti Smith and the Rolling Stones we ask why.
Cold war Australia 1949. The enemy was everywhere, and according to many the country was in extreme danger. Enter Diver Dobson, and a drama that entertained and enthralled Australians as they navigated an uncertain decade.
What would it take to bring home the 43 Australian servicemen still missing from the Korean War?
An extra episode in the series about High Court cases which have changed Australia. Series producer Jane Lee unpicks the origins and uses of Section 51(26) of the Australian Constitution, which gives the federal parliament the power to make special laws for a particular race of people.
In the second part of the long running and divisive case known as the Hindmarsh Island bridge affair, the battle heads inside the High Court.
Ever wondered how the term "secret women's business" entered the Australian lexicon? It's part of a bitter legal battle over land, culture and history in South Australia.
How much power does the federal government have to protect Australians from international threats?
The High Court showdown over religious freedom that could help you understand how schools are funded to this day.
It might surprise you to learn that until 1997, a man could go to jail for up to 21 years for having sex with another man in Australia.
Colleagues called him maestro, visionary, experimenter, radio magic man. To long-time close friend, John Bell, he was “Merry Andrew”.
This is the story of an unsung legend in Australian broadcasting and radio as you may not have heard it.
Andrew McLennan's friends and collaborators speak up.
When Penny Bristol Jones inherited a battered trunk full of family objects, she uncovered a rich wartime history in the collection of letters written by her great grandmother Edie Digby, whose husband and two sons were away fighting in World War One
Journalist Fiona Gruber goes on a very personal journey in the footsteps of her great grandfather, Victorian music hall comedian Walter Groves, to uncover his career and his hidden link with the greatest comedian of them all, Charlie Chaplin.
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?
The story of how the traditional custodians of Ooldea got their sacred water soak back and the healing of the land.
The story of how the traditional custodians of Ooldea got their sacred water soak back and the healing of the land.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 biggest class action suit, instigated by a group of blue-collar women against the company known in those days as The Big Australian.
Find out why, in its relatively short history, one instrument has offended ideologues, drawn the ire of dictators, and been put down, shunned and outlawed.
In part 2, we trace the growing discontent in East Germany in the 1980s. An Indigenous Australian rock band tours East Germany while anti-government protests are brewing, and just like the Berlin Wall, one person’s dedication to communism will come crashing down.
In part 2, we trace the growing discontent in East Germany in the 1980s. An Indigenous Australian rock band tours East Germany while anti-government protests are brewing, and just like the Berlin Wall, one person’s dedication to communism will come crashing down.
A Cold War tale of spies, diplomacy and secret police, from Indigenous communities in the Top End to the opera houses of Berlin.
A Cold War tale of spies, diplomacy and secret police, from Indigenous communities in the Top End to the opera houses of Berlin.
Gamilaraay woman Marika Duczynski travels to the Gulf country of north west QLD, then across the Blue Mountains, to western NSW, looking for trees that have become symbols of our contested history, but also markers of a culture bound in deep time.
Gamilaraay woman Marika Duczynski travels to the Gulf country of north west QLD, then across the Blue Mountains, to western NSW, looking for trees that have become symbols of our contested history, but also markers of a culture bound in deep time.
Three teenage girls — a Muslim, a Serb and a Croatian all from Bosnia Herzegovina, are drawn into one of the bloodiest conflicts in post war Europe. 30 years later they find their voice.
Three teenage girls — a Muslim, a Serb and a Croatian all from Bosnia Herzegovina, are drawn into one of the bloodiest conflicts in post war Europe. 30 years later they find their voice.
Gifted naturalist, ground-breaking photographer and early feminist figure. Guide Alice was Mount Buffalo's most sought after mountain guide.
Gifted naturalist, ground-breaking photographer and early feminist figure. Guide Alice was Mount Buffalo's most sought after mountain guide.
A glimpse into the 1930's and 40's through the fragments that remain of one woman's story – socialite, swordswoman, actress and the first woman to read the ABC national news.
A glimpse into the 1930's and 40's through the fragments that remain of one woman's story – socialite, swordswoman, actress and the first woman to read the ABC national news.
The discovery of an old recipe book of her Hungarian grandmother's sets Ruth Balint on a family investigation. Between the pages, she uncovers more than just the instructions for her beloved margosh beigli.
The discovery of an old recipe book of her Hungarian grandmother's sets Ruth Balint on a family investigation. Between the pages, she uncovers more than just the instructions for her beloved margosh beigli.
A women-only utopia deep in the Australian bush — no men, no meat, no machines. It was a wild ride, complete with rainbows and tiger snakes, sisterly joy and un-sisterly tensions.
A women-only utopia deep in the Australian bush — no men, no meat, no machines. It was a wild ride, complete with rainbows and tiger snakes, sisterly joy and un-sisterly tensions.
Shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a young Bahai mother was smuggled out of the country on camelback with her baby daughter.
40 years later she recounts her story.
Shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a young Bahai mother was smuggled out of the country on camelback with her baby daughter.
40 years later she recounts her story.
On the western edge of central Melbourne lies a blind spot: the now industrialised zone was once home to the shanty town called Dudley Flats. Writer David Sornig has been walking the area re-imagining its residents.
On the western edge of central Melbourne lies a blind spot: the now industrialised zone was once home to the shanty town called Dudley Flats. Writer David Sornig has been walking the area re-imagining its residents.
Andy Komarnicki disappeared without a trace from the south west Queensland town of St George in January 1980. What happened to him?
Andy Komarnicki disappeared without a trace from the south west Queensland town of St George in January 1980. What happened to him?
American artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) is an icon, much loved today for her un-conformist spirit and beauty, as much as for her paintings of sensual flowers.
American artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) is an icon, much loved today for her un-conformist spirit and beauty, as much as for her paintings of sensual flowers.
The lives of women at the turn of the 20th century were bound by strict social conventions and rules. These Australian stars of silent film defied most of them.
The lives of women at the turn of the 20th century were bound by strict social conventions and rules. These Australian stars of silent film defied most of them.
Dubbed “World’s End” by its inhabitants, Port Essington in western Arnhem Land was the third failed attempt by the British to settle northern Australia. The settlement lasted 11 years, from 1838 to 1849, and sparked an intriguing cultural exchange between the British settlers and the local Indigenous people.
Dubbed “World’s End” by its inhabitants, Port Essington in western Arnhem Land was the third failed attempt by the British to settle northern Australia. The settlement lasted 11 years, from 1838 to 1849, and sparked an intriguing cultural exchange between the British settlers and the local Indigenous people.
During War time food shortages and rationing preoccupied most people, but the hunger suffered by prisoners was on a whole different level.
During War time food shortages and rationing preoccupied most people - but the hunger suffered by the prisoners of War was on a whole different level.
During War time food shortages and rationing preoccupied most people - but the hunger suffered by the prisoners of War was on a whole different level.
In the late 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, Australia made a brief but audacious bid to enter the nuclear arms race, by manufacturing a bomb
In the late 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, Australia made a brief but audacious bid to enter the nuclear arms race, by manufacturing a bomb
Every era, every city has a crime that defines it. For Perth it was the Claremont serial killings.
Every era, every city has a crime that defines it. For Perth it was the Claremont serial killings.
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?
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?
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
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
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.
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.
Three Western journalists and a UN employee ignored advice to leave East Timor after the country's independence vote in 1999. They recount the most fearful week of their lives.
Three Western journalists and a UN employee ignored advice to leave East Timor after the country's independence vote in 1999. They recount the most fearful week of their lives.
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.
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.
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
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
An idyllic town with a hidden surveillance bunker and a secret past. A ruined RAAF base comes to life to tell its story.
An idyllic town with a hidden surveillance bunker and a secret past. A ruined RAAF base comes to life to tell its story.
In these remote islands we uncover a history of whalers, abducted Aboriginal women, and a mysterious human skeleton found on Franklin Island. There’s even a connection to Gulliver’s Travels.
In these remote islands we uncover a history of whalers, abducted Aboriginal women, and a mysterious human skeleton found on Franklin Island. There’s even a connection to Gulliver’s Travels.
Aboriginal people from the Murray-Darling Basin’s waterways come together to raise awareness and speak up for their country.
Aboriginal people from the Murray-Darling Basin’s waterways come together to raise awareness and speak up for their country.
When a group of newcomers set up a women-only community in the bush, the neighbours were scandalised. It wasn't long before hostility turned into drastic action. Could the community survive?
When a group of newcomers set up a women-only community in the bush, the neighbours were scandalised. It wasn't long before hostility turned into drastic action. Could the community survive?
A women-only utopia deep in the Australian bush — no men, no meat, no machines — was a wild ride, complete with rainbows and tiger snakes, sisterly joy and un-sisterly tensions.
A women-only utopia deep in the Australian bush — no men, no meat, no machines — was a wild ride, complete with rainbows and tiger snakes, sisterly joy and un-sisterly tensions.
Anonymous threats in the mail and a homemade bomb. International networks of misinformation. A young girl with the gift of song. Three stories that share a common thread: water fluoridation.
Anonymous threats in the mail and a homemade bomb. International networks of misinformation. A young girl with the gift of song. Three stories that share a common thread: water fluoridation.
Have you ever wondered where the plants in your garden originally came from? They were probably transported in a Wardian case. Discover the story of this remarkable object, whose lasting impact on the natural world remains evident today.
Have you ever wondered where the plants in your garden originally came from? They were probably transported in a Wardian case. Discover the story of this remarkable object, whose lasting impact on the natural world remains evident today.
The Queensland Native Police had a devastating impact on Indigenous people across the state. We look at how Indigenous families deal with the unknowns in their family history – unknowns caused by the violence of the Native Police.
The Queensland Native Police had a devastating impact on Indigenous people across the state. We look at how Indigenous families deal with the unknowns in their family history – unknowns caused by the violence of the Native Police.
Queensland’s Native Police was notorious for its violence against Indigenous people on the colonial frontier. How do descendants of Aboriginal troopers in the Native Police, and descendants of massacre survivors, make sense of this history?
Queensland’s Native Police was notorious for its violence against Indigenous people on the colonial frontier. How do descendants of Aboriginal troopers in the Native Police, and descendants of massacre survivors, make sense of this history?
In the early 1800s, on the remote East coast of Iceland in a small fishing village, a young man stepped ashore. He was escapee from the Danish slave trade and is said to be Iceland’s first black settler.
In the early 1800s, on the remote East coast of Iceland in a small fishing village, a young man stepped ashore. He was escapee from the Danish slave trade and is said to be Iceland’s first black settler.
How does a nation forget a wartime catastrophe? When Japan invaded Australian territory in January 1942, hundreds of civilians were left behind to die. Nearly 80 years later, their families are still traumatised.
How does a nation forget a wartime catastrophe? When Japan invaded Australian territory in January 1942, hundreds of civilians were left behind to die. Nearly 80 years later, their families are still traumatised.
The discovery of the first Chinese story written in Australia gives a fascinating and new insight into the early Chinese immigrants of Victoria. The anonymous author is also uncovered, and revealed to his Australian grandchildren..
The discovery of the first Chinese story written in Australia gives a fascinating and new insight into the early Chinese immigrants of Victoria. The anonymous author is also uncovered, and revealed to his Australian grandchildren..
A young pilot. A distress call. A missing plane. What happened to Frederick Valentich in October 1978?
A young pilot. A distress call. A missing plane. What happened to Frederick Valentich in October 1978?
Shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a young Bahai mother was smuggled out of the country on camelback with her baby daughter.
40 years later she recounts her story.
The ritual of the sausage sizzle soaks deep into the Australian identity. This is the unlikely true story of an Aussie battler that became a hero in the mouths of millions.
The ritual of the sausage sizzle soaks deep into the Australian identity. This is the unlikely true story of an Aussie battler that became a hero in the mouths of millions.
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.
As the federal election machine goes into full swing, putting the art of persuasion to the test, a timely look back at one of Australia’s most significant political advertising campaigns.
As the federal election machine goes into full swing, putting the art of persuasion to the test, a timely look back at one of Australia’s most significant political advertising campaigns.
What would it take to bring home the 43 Australian servicemen still missing from the Korean War?
A glimpse into the 1930's and 40's through the fragments that remain of one woman's story – socialite, swordswoman, actress and the first woman to read the ABC national news.
On the western edge of central Melbourne lies a blind spot: the now industrialised zone was once home to the shanty town called Dudley Flats. Writer David Sornig has been walking the area re-imagining its residents.
On the western edge of central Melbourne lies a blind spot: the now industrialised zone was once home to the shanty town called Dudley Flats. Writer David Sornig has been walking the area re-imagining its residents.
To mark the centenary of the Bauhaus, a trip back to Weimar Germany to explore the story and legacy of the movement
To mark the centenary of the Bauhaus, a trip back to Weimar Germany to explore the story and legacy of the movement
The discovery of an old recipe book of her Hungarian grandmother's sets Ruth Balint on a family investigation. Between the pages, she uncovers more than just the instructions for her beloved margosh beigli.
In 1970s London two unlikely parties united in a unique cultural exchange. Rastafarians and punks joined forces, creating new sounds and new friendships.
In 1970s London two unlikely parties united in a unique cultural exchange. Rastafarians and punks joined forces, creating new sounds and new friendships.
In 1968 the longest, hardest and richest motor race set off from London bound for Sydney.
In 1968 the longest, hardest and richest motor race set off from London bound for Sydney.
Whatever happened to Charles Darwin's famous ship HMS Beagle? A tale of of sleuthing, smugglers, and barrels of rum, set on the Essex coast in England
Whatever happened to Charles Darwin's famous ship HMS Beagle? A tale of of sleuthing, smugglers, and barrels of rum, set on the Essex coast in England
An arresting photograph has Clare Wright duck-diving into the history of surfing in Australia.
An arresting photograph has Clare Wright duck-diving into the history of surfing in Australia.
A fishy looking photograph throws Clare Wright into the deep end of the battle between industry and sustainability.
A fishy looking photograph throws Clare Wright into the deep end of the battle between industry and sustainability.
Clare Wright explores the history behind a studio portrait of an Edwardian family, which raises some tricky questions about citizenship, the Australian constitution and the subtle art of belonging.
Clare Wright explores the history behind a studio portrait of an Edwardian family, which raises some tricky questions about citizenship, the Australian constitution and the subtle art of belonging.
Clare Wright unravels the dramatic story within a family photograph that takes us to the searing heart of an Australian summer tragedy: bushfire.
Clare Wright unravels the dramatic story within a family photograph that takes us to the searing heart of an Australian summer tragedy: bushfire.
A photograph of two men — one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous — holding hands, leads Clare Wright to investigate the history of Aboriginal resistance in Australia.
A photograph of two men — one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous — holding hands, leads Clare Wright to investigate the history of Aboriginal resistance in Australia.
Clare Wright tries to uncover the story behind a baffling photograph, and finds herself transported back to Australia in the 1960s.
Clare Wright tries to uncover the story behind a baffling photograph, and finds herself transported back to Australia in the 1960s.
Chana Salman was born to a poor family in Poland, the only one of six children sent to Paris to study medicine in 1930's Europe. Why did she risk everything for a brutal regime she had no connection to?
Chana Salman was born to a poor family in Poland, the only one of six children sent to Paris to study medicine in 1930's Europe. Why did she risk everything for a brutal regime she had no connection to?
The story of extraordinary jazz violinist Stuff Smith, who recorded with many musical greats, including Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson. When Stuff Smith died in 1967, he left behind a rich catalogue of recordings, along with some tantalising mysteries.
The story of extraordinary jazz violinist Stuff Smith, who recorded with many musical greats, including Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson. When Stuff Smith died in 1967, he left behind a rich catalogue of recordings, along with some tantalising mysteries.
A nine-year-old Victorian boy rides his pony alone, 600 miles to Sydney to be at opening of the new Harbour Bridge.
A nine-year-old Victorian boy rides his pony alone, 600 miles to Sydney to be at opening of the new Harbour Bridge.
Eric Rolls was a rare combination; farmer, poet, self-taught naturalist and historian. He also wrote Australia’s first true environmental history.
Eric Rolls was a rare combination; farmer, poet, self-taught naturalist and historian. He also wrote Australia’s first true environmental history.
How a bunch of manual workers from country South Australia battled their way to the Paris Olympics of 1924.
How a bunch of manual workers from country South Australia battled their way to the Paris Olympics of 1924.
In 1989 the film "Rain Man" hit Australian cinema screens and introduced autism to a mainstream audience. But over the coming decades a narrow notion of what autism was would be challenged with the advent of the autism spectrum and the idea of neurodiversity.
In 1989 the film "Rain Man" hit Australian cinema screens and introduced autism to a mainstream audience. But over the coming decades a narrow notion of what autism was would be challenged with the advent of the autism spectrum and the idea of neurodiversity.
In the 1960s very few people had heard of the word autism, and even fewer knew what it was. In this first episode of a two part series on the history of autism in Australia, we explore how families fought for a place for their children and made a case for change.
In 1974, when the star entertainer Frank Sinatra said the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people, a tall poppy was cut down to size in true Australian style.
In 1974, when the star entertainer Frank Sinatra said the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people, a tall poppy was cut down to size in true Australian style.
In April 1942 a Japanese bomber dropped four large mail bags on Port Moresby. They contained nearly 400 letters written by Australian POWs imprisoned in Rabaul. Why did the Japanese make this mail drop? And what happened to the men after they wrote them?
In April 1942 a Japanese bomber dropped four large mail bags on Port Moresby. They contained nearly 400 letters written by Australian POWs imprisoned in Rabaul. Why did the Japanese make this mail drop? And what happened to the men after they wrote them?
Nearly one hundred years after it was created, the minute's silence is still used to mark tragedies from war to celebrity death. But few know it was an Australian soldier's idea.
Nearly one hundred years after it was created, the minute's silence is still used to mark tragedies from war to celebrity death. But few know it was an Australian soldier's idea.
The unlikely story of the Norwegian father of the Australian fishing industry and his untimely disappearance below the waves of the Southern Ocean.
The unlikely story of the Norwegian father of the Australian fishing industry and his untimely disappearance below the waves of the Southern Ocean.
A remarkable Aboriginal man who survived two wars but who many Australians at the time saw as a human experiment.
A remarkable Aboriginal man who survived two wars but who many Australians at the time saw as a human experiment.
In the early 1900s, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's fairy illustrations made her famous in Australia and abroad. Now her timeless artwork is being re-discovered
In the early 1900s, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's fairy illustrations made her famous in Australia and abroad. Now her timeless artwork is being re-discovered
The Panlooks, an influential family of north-east Victoria, were nearly wiped out in Australia's first anti-Chinese race riot. But they would go on to build an empire with one of our favourite beverages, beer.
The Panlooks, an influential family of north-east Victoria, were nearly wiped out in Australia's first anti-Chinese race riot. But they would go on to build an empire with one of our favourite beverages, beer.
The story of Muriel Matters, a daring suffragist from South Australia who helped win the vote for British women.
The story of Muriel Matters, a daring suffragist from South Australia who helped win the vote for British women.
A plane falls out of the sky and wipes out half Australia's war cabinet. Then what? Does a government fall also?
A plane falls out of the sky and wipes out half Australia's war cabinet. Then what? Does a government fall also?
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.
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.
It's the straight bit of the border between NSW and Victoria. It's high altitude mathematical precision and messy politics.
What started out in the 1930s as a home for “half-caste” children under the loving guidance of Sister Kate became a hotbed of abuse and negligence after her death.
What started out in the 1930s as a home for “half-caste” children under the loving guidance of Sister Kate became a hotbed of abuse and negligence after her death.
The fascinating history of a mythic creature from the North-East of England that seemed to travel to Australia in the nineteenth century. What our Monsters tell us about our culture and our times
The fascinating history of a mythic creature from the North-East of England that seemed to travel to Australia in the nineteenth century. What our Monsters tell us about our culture and our times
Dragons are back. But what are they and how have they come about?
For centuries a mythical dragon worm has terrorised the northeast of England, and it continues on its merry path today.
A journey back in time reveals some startling stories.
Dragons are back. But what are they and how have they come about?
For centuries a mythical dragon worm has terrorised the northeast of England, and it continues on its merry path today.
A journey back in time reveals some startling stories.
As the Socceroos play on the grand stage of the 2018 World Cup, we take a look back at the role European migrants played in the evolution of the round-ball game in Australia.
As the Socceroos play on the grand stage of the 2018 World Cup, we take a look back at the role European migrants played in the evolution of the round-ball game in Australia.
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?
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?
'Do we dare do it again?' That was the question Sydney’s gay and lesbian activists faced as the first anniversary of the riot in Kings Cross in June 1978 approached. By answering YES they set the pattern for our world-famous annual parade that turns 40 this week.
Step into the glamorous world of long haul flying in the 1970s; cocktails, attentive service from the "hosties" and lots of legroom. Flying today is cheap and not nearly as cheerful.
Peat Island is located 50 kilometres north of Sydney. In 1911 it was designated a 'hospital for the insane'. At its peak in the 1960's, it housed over 600 men and boys. And was often referred to as the island of forgotten children.
Now that de facto couples are almost the same as couples who marry, in the eyes of the law, why put a ring on it at all?
Times have changed yet many couples are still choosing to tie the knot. With same-sex couples now having the right to marry in Australia, marriage as an institution is back under the spotlight. In an age of divorce, de factos and LGBTQI people, what does marriage mean now?
As the doomsday clock is ticking, now is a good time to review your options should nuclear disaster come to pass.
The student and worker protests that erupted in Paris, London, New York and San Francisco in May 1968 are narrated in music and memory. Archival recordings and reflections from protesters bring the mood and ideals of the time to life.
In 1948, a dead man was discovered lying propped up against the seawall of Somerton Beach in Adelaide His identity has remained unknown for 70 years. His death was determined, 'not natural'. Historian Ruth Balint revisits the mystery.
Chana Salman was born to a poor family in Poland, the only one of six children sent to Paris to study medicine in 1930s Europe. Why did she risk everything for a brutal regime she had no connection to?
A nine-year-old boy rides his pony alone, 600 miles to Sydney to be at opening of the new Harbour Bridge. When he gets there he's a hero.
How did a Methodist missionary from Middle America end up broadcasting wartime propaganda for North Korea? In search of the woman known as Seoul City Sue.
This is the strange story of Australia's rabbit plague, biological warfare, the great scientist Louis Pasteur, a world-famous actress and ten million dollars.
A portrait of Australian performer, choreographer and teacher Elizabeth Langley, who's internationally recognized as a pioneer of the contemporary dance movement
Follow John Connell as he uncovers the story of a brutal murder that happened 97 years ago in his home village in Ireland. All is not as it seems as Connell digs into the history of the Irish War of independence and discovers a story far closer to him than he ever believed.
At its peak, in post-war Australia, the Greek cinema circuit boasted up to forty cinemas in Melbourne alone. For the newly arrived Greek community, these cinemas offered entertainment, a place to share language and customs, and even a place to find love.
Old Nick is of one of the Northern Territory's great characters. His riches to rags tale is like no other.
The story of extraordinary jazz violinist Stuff Smith, who recorded with many musical greats, including Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson. When Stuff Smith died in 1967, he left behind a rich catalogue of recordings, along with some tantalising mysteries.
Are fairies really at the bottom of the garden? A fairy society in Ireland long thought dead has come back to life.