Short: Mark Twain Down Under
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....
8 Sep 202510min
Short: When War Came on Father's Day
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 w...
31 Aug 202511min
Short: Australia's Worst Shipwreck
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, ...
29 Aug 202513min
Short: From Dead Heart to Inland Sea
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 ...
27 Aug 202513min
This Week in 1931: The Man Who Fell To Earth – Part Three
Having enjoyed a trifecta of splashy Sydney skydiving successes, Stanley makes a new start in Melbourne only to learn that disasters come in threes.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you acc...
24 Aug 202553min
This Week in 1931: The Man Who Fell To Earth – Part Two
After Stanley Thomas’s rapid rise to parachuting success in Sydney, his career starts to stall with a series of jumps that are erratic and dangerous.*Part Three is available now early and ad-free for ...
21 Aug 202529min
This Week in 1931: The Man Who Fell To Earth – Part One
Stanley Thomas was a young parachutist who made himself into a star in Sydney in the early years of the Great Depression. In public, he thrilled with his daredevil stunts. In private, he wrestled the ...
17 Aug 202549min
This Week in 1906: The Golden Rule Axe Murder
When John Hassett was murdered in his Adelaide hotel room, Australia wasn’t faced with a whodunnit but a whydunnit.Why had his wife Ada committed this cold-blooded crime?Is she was insane, what had br...
7 Aug 20251h 6min
