Forgotten Australia

In July 1919, tiny-statured but huge-hearted youngster George Mendies won the Australian Flyweight Title. This was a crown he'd defend successfully again and again – until fate dealt him a cruel blow ...

8 Okt 202514min

Australia suffered what is still our worst industrial disaster when an explosion ripped through the Mount Kembla mine on 31 July 1902. Strikingly, lead rescuer Henry MacCabe had 15 years earlier been ...

6 Okt 202513min

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 p...

29 Sep 202527min

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 one...

26 Sep 202522min

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 c...

23 Sep 202518min

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 M...

21 Sep 202551min

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, r...

15 Sep 202530min

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 tin...

11 Sep 202513min