The Plague Returns — Part Two: Bigger Than Ben Hur

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuben Doodeward faces court, but he’s not backing down, and neither is the NSW government, with the fight over the fate of the two-headed baby headed for the High Court… and beyond.It’s easy to get a...

27 Juli 202555min

In 1906, Australia was scandalised that Sydney showman Reuben Doodeward (pictured) had exhibited a two-headed baby preserved in a bottle of spirits. Yet he was only doing what his dear old dad had don...

21 Juli 202541min