Dead Bunyip Society

Today we’re talking about Graham Richardson. This is the first part in a two part series on a unique figure who shaped Australia’s political landscape, for better or worse (mainly worse).    Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Content Warning: Suicide and a *lot* of lion maulings.   Today we’re talking about Stafford Bullen, a man who owned 360 lions and whose Safari Parks were associated with at least three deaths.    To hear Love Machine’s Version of the Lion Sleeps Tonights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5J9coUCjVY&t=657s . To see the ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-1bWhVo-g      Please see Bluesky for...

Today’s episode is about Eric Campbell arguably Australia’s most successful fascist and what we can learn about the recent wave of far-right activism in Australia.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today is the second part of our series on the genocide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Today we are talking about Tasmania, starting from settlement and the bloody nineteenth century.    To learn more about the Aboriginal Massacres Project see here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2019/mar/04/massacre-map-australia-the-killing-times-frontier-wars     Ple...

Today we're talking about the genocide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is intended as the first in a multi-part series.   To learn more about the Aboriginal Massacres Project see here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2019/mar/04/massacre-map-australia-the-killing-times-frontier-wars     Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety  ...

Today we're talking about how a group of plucky eighteenth century colonists including emancipist trader Simeon Lord built Australian capitalism…but clubbing seven million seals to death.    Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about Wittenoom in Western Australia, the largest exclusion zone in Australia and the site of Australia’s largest industrial disaster.   Buy Pissants by Brandon Jack here: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Pissants/Brandon-Jack/9781761633072 . Buy Nock Loose by Patrick Marlborough here: https://fremantlepress.com.au/books/nock-loose/   Please see Bluesky for a full bibl...

Today we're doing some Australian History Mythbusting. The first myth we’re tackling is the idea that the Japanese ever planned to invade Australia in 1942.    Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about the Iraq War, Iraqi history and Australian foreign policy. I also go down a bit of a rabbit hole talking about the fascinating history of pre-Modern and modern Iraq (sorry).   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

  Today we're talking about Bill Leak, a controversial artist and political cartoonist who died in 2017 and generated a national controversy with his reactionary cartoons. Today’s episode is also about the Baby Boomers as a generation and why they are the worst.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006  

Today we're talking about the Children of God, an evangelical Christian group from which 140 children were removed in 1992 in the largest ever single children removal activity in Australian history.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006  

Today we're talking about the “Rum Rebellion” of 1808, also talking about Australia’s drinking culture and the ascendency of the landlord.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about Magdelene Homes in Australia, the historical mistreatment of children in out of home care, popular history and how the ABC sucks.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about Dr Harry Bailey a man who loved cutting up gay and lesbian brains and trapping people in nightmare comas for weeks at a time.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about Edward De Lacy Evans, a perfectly ordinary nineteenth century working class fella, who had a pretty big secret.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about John Mackay, the man who "discovered" Mackay in Queensland and also trafficked in human beings.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about the history of sex work in eighteenth and nineteenth Australia.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about the 1933 WA Referendum, AKA that time that WA tried to set up its own country   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

Today we're talking about Robert Towns, the man who founded Townsville and also owned fellow human beings.   Please see Bluesky for a full bibliography @deadbunyipsociety   Credit: Intro/Outro music "Harold Hold" by Bluebottle Kiss, (c) 2006

CONTENT WARNING: This podcast discusses issues relating to child abuse. Listener discretion is encouraged.    The Family is arguably Australia's most famous cult. This podcast examines the conflicted scholarship on cults and discusses the history of the family as well as how we should think about cults, their victims and what they can teach us about contemporary society. Please see Bluesky for a f...

On 1 January 1915 six people died in the events popularly known as "The Battle of Broken Hill", but why did this happen? Who was Mullah Abdullah and why did he participate in the murder of four innocent people? This episode examines the fascinating history of 'Afghan' Cameleers and what little we can know about Abdullah, and some thoughts on the society that created him.