ABC Rewind

Bondy’s been secretly, and illegally, stashing away money that isn’t his to keep as his empire crumbles, and while Alan Bond’s beating away the creditors trying to bankrupt him, he’s also building a back-up plan.  As decades of dirty deals and backroom manoeuvres begin to surface Bondy isn’t just being chased for the billions he owes, criminal investigators are also on his tail and this time he ha...

With his hands deep in the West Australian government ‘s coffers, a chance meeting with a man named Tiny could spell the beginning of the end for Alan ‘Bondy’ Bond.  The Black Monday stock market crash sends shock waves through the world economy, threatening to turn Bondy’s business empire upside down.  With everything on the line, Bond needs to act fast but his recklessness catches the attention...

Diamonds, mansions and mistresses, Bondy has been living the high life, but his ruthless pursuit of success begins to have devastating consequences for his marriage to Eileen. After his win in the America’s Cup banks lend Bond billions and he’s doing deals with the likes of Donald Trump. But his true character is revealed when he becomes a beer baron and ruins the lives of people on the edge of hi...

As his yacht crosses the finish line of The America’s Cup and sails into history, the world holds its breath, but does Alan Bond have an ulterior motive when he enters this race? Bondy infuriates the Yanks with his radical boat design and brazen attitude. But combined with a crack crew and heaps of underdog energy, the Aussies' are in Newport Rhode Island to win.  This is episode 2 of a 6-part his...

Determined to make his first million before his 21st birthday, Alan Bond's questionable business ethics ruffle feathers in small-town Fremantle and earn him a reputation as an audacious English upstart. Shaped by his deprived childhood in post-war Britain, Bondy develops the gift of being able to sell anything to anyone. In his new home of Perth WA his rapid rise from juvenile delinquent to proper...

Alan Bond was a genius, master salesman and con man. His '80s win of the America’s Cup, the sailing race of tycoons, put Australia on the global stage and the public adored Bond for it. In this series of ABC Rewind, satirist Mark Humphries tells the remarkable true story of Alan Bond; from his sporting highs, to building his global business empire and his lavish lifestyle rubbing shoulders with ce...

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.

Clare Wright explores the story behind a studio portrait of an Edwardian family, and 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.

A photograph of two men, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, holding hands leads Clare Wright to investigate the history of  First Nations resistance in Australia

Historian Clare Wright takes a deep dive into Australia's past through six intriguing photographs. In this episode Clare tries to uncover the story behind a baffling photo, and finds herself transported back to the not-so-swinging 1960s.

Broadcaster Richard Fidler and writer Kari Gislason continue their travels across Iceland to tell the ancient Viking sagas; tales of love, war and humanity. In this episode they follow the steps of Egil. He was a killer, a ruthless opportunist but also one of the greatest court poets of the Middle Ages.  He travelled far and wide through the Viking world in pursuit of fame and wealth. And yet it w...

In the remote north-west of Iceland, Kári Gislason and Richard Fidler follow in the doomed footsteps of Gísli, the most uncompromising of the saga heroes – this is a tale about the complexity of family life, and the difficult choices which can come with it. Back in Reykjavik, Kári begins to unravel the knotty threads of his own Icelandic heritage and is suddenly faced with a choice. Credits: Write...

Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason continue their travels across Iceland to tell the ancient Viking sagas; tales of love, war and humanity. This episode tells the story of Gudrun, the most beautiful woman in Iceland and the two men who loved her. Kari and Richard also continue to try and piece together the mysterious and tantalising threads of Kari’s Icelandic family history.  Credits: Writers - Ric...

Broadcaster and author Richard Fidler, with this friend the writer Kari Gislasen, travel across Iceland to discover the Sagas – the ancient tales of Viking love, war and humanity.  This episode tells the story a famous Viking warrior, Gunnar, and his destructive love affair with the most beautiful and dangerous woman in Iceland, Hallgerd. And Richard and Kari have another mission during their time...

If a friend sent you a farewell text, saying she was planning to end her life, what would you do? Jennie’s response was to go and sing with Nia and promise to tell her story. Nia has scleroderma, her skin and lungs have hardened over the last 20 years, the pain and discomfort has now become unbearable. But thanks to the Voluntary Assisted Dying laws that Nia helped establish she will have the deat...

Sunil Badami's mother loved telling him stories of his colourful uncle, India's best-known sceptic, who devoted his life to disproving fraudulent gurus' "miracles" by eating fire, bending forks and floating mid-air. But at the heart of the Sceptic's magic was a disappearing act.

When Nell and Caitlin moved into a century-old shop in the historic suburb of Stockton in Newcastle unexplainable things started happening; a lady with a bouffant hairdo appeared in their loungeroom, books, clothes and electronic gadgets were disappearing, there was the acrid smell of unwashed old men in the kitchen. This paranormal activity went on for years, until they called in a ghostbuster. O...

It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever.   When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision. He’d sparked up a conversation with a Dutch hiker named Geert van Keulen, and he decided to follow Geert up a mountain the followi...

Paulina always knew she had half- siblings around the world. They all shared the same Tongan father. Finding them was the best thing she ever did.

Jim Everett puralia meenamatta - born on Flinder's Island in 1942 - is a man of many selves – philosopher, fisherman, scholar, activist, poet, soldier, filmmaker. When he was sixteen years old, he discovered a hidden part of himself.

When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.

There’s a government file about my life. A file full of reports. The reports date from 1985 to 2003. That’s 18 years. File 105538. No, I’m not a terrorist or a spy. From two weeks old, to the day I turned 18, I was a foster child. I do not own the file about my life. It belongs to the state of Queensland.  But when I turned 18 I wanted answers.   What I found rocked me to my core. This is my story...

The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made. At the start of the 1980s the Fairlight caught the eye of synthesiser pioneers likes Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. By the end of the 1980s it had caught the ear of millions of people around the world, even if they didn't know it.