Radical Australia

We were delighted to welcome 3CR legend, Robbie Thorpe, to the show this week for NAIDOC celebrations. It was a rare opportunity to hear some things about Robbie's life away from the mic and we learnt a few things about the great man. Robbie intended to be a sportsman and was a keen footballer and boxer before a trip to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy changed his life trajectory when he was sixteen ye...

We are delighted to welcome Brett Collins to this week's episode of Radical Australia. Brett has done some staunch work over the years campaigning for prisoner rights. These days that takes the form of rights to digital technology and communications. Brett heads up Justice Action, which grew out of a prisoner's action group, upon release from over 9 years' served in New South Wales penitentiaries...

This week's guest on Radical Australia is a well-known and well-loved progressive activist who gets himself around the land quite a bit: Andy Paine. Andy says he has a restless soul and it has recently taken him to northern Iraq to witness some inspiring political action. A far cry from Mudgee, New South Wales, where Andy grew up with a bunch of other brothers and where radio was a link to a bigge...

This week's guest, Donna Stolzenberg, has done some amazing things for Melbourne's homeless community. Donna began the Melbourne Homeless Support Group, organising the collection of blankets and sleeping bags across 80 drop-off points. She can tell you a thing or two about 'shit people give to the homeless'. Donna also began the Melbourne Period Project, orgnanising period packs through donations...

Our show notes tell us that this week's guest, Su Robertson, has done an enormous amount with her life in the community law sphere and elsewhere. Su began her working life as a flight attendant where she roamed the skies for over 19 years. During this time she was the State Secretary for the Flight Attendant's Union which she got involved in after living and working through the Pilot's Dispiute in...

Self-described sports nuffy, Patrick Morrow, is our latest guest on Radical Australia and we are so glad he could join us! Patrick was born in 1999, a Millenium baby, 3 months premature. Pat has certainly made up for that, rising now to a height well over 6 feet. Patrick is a producer on 3CR's Wednesday Breakfast and Talkback With Attitude when he isn't doing footy voiceover work in Geelong and ca...

Our guest on Radical Australia this week is a lovely artist and activist who called in from beautiful Gympie, Queensland. Zela grew up in the gorgeous surrounds of Hervey Bay and was into progressive grassroots organising and activism from a young age. Zela was a member of the Self Management Group, a libertarian communist organisation and was a part of the 1970s Right to March movement. She creat...

We are joined in the studio this week by one of our charming receptioninsts, Grace Kelly. Grace has only been living in Australia and Melbourne for 18 months and has already found her way to 3CR. We're looking forward to seeing her 3CR journey. We thank Grace for sharing some of her life with us this week, including tales of many travels around the world and many interesting experiences. Grace is...

This week's special guest, Margaret Kelly, is holding out on being evicted from her home on the Barack Beacon estate in Port Melbourne while the Andrews Labor government seeks to knock it down from under her feet. Margaret has lived on the estate for 25 years and says it is the friendliest place she's ever lived. The buildings are structurally sound and the rooms are spacious. This is nothing but...

Tune into this week's episode of Radical Australia if you want to hear what taxes are really about and just a hint: they're not about revenue for services, as much as we've been told they are. That's just one of the enlightening bits of economic juice you will hear from this week's guest, Kevin Gaynor, co-producer and presenter on 3CR's Friday afternoon show, Radio MMT,  a show that puts progressi...

This week's guest, Holly Hammond, is the director of the Commons Social Change Library, a one-stop online directory of progressive Australian activism. Holly hails from Western Australia and was both a teenage trot and teenage anarchist, inspired by Marx at the age of 15. At age 29, she had an epiphany to dedicate her life to social movmement work and has done much with that since. Holly is a trai...

This week's guest, Lotti Stein, is a 3CR legend, coming to the station at the wee age of 21. Lotti was a sound technician, trainer and producer and is well loved. Lotti is a '77 baby and grew up in Melbourne tormenting their younger brother. They were a self-described 'weird child', being neurodivergent but not knowing what that meant back then. Lotti now raises a young daughter who is also neurod...

This week's guest, Timothy Fitzgerald, has been a molecular biologist but is now an expert in intellectual property. In this episode we learn about Timothy's journey to starting thinking about the faults within parliamentary democracy and the lack of action by politicians on climate change. He started reading about imperialism, social democracy, Chomsky, anarchism, Social Ecology and Bookchin. Tim...

This week's guest is Julie Mac who came down to the radio station to join us from Bendigo. Julie has compiled a book, SNAP, about the Australian teen sharpie, of which she was a proud one. Julie says the sharpies are misunderstood: they weren't criminals, they were teenagers who got around on public transport. They wore Stagger's jeans, did the pogo at the Crystal Ballroom, wore cardigans and got...

On this week's show we welcome local Beaconsfield resident turned activist, Fran Healy, who came on to talk about her work campaigning for the protection of two gems in her community: the old railway house and the accompanying Bunya Bunya tree. The railway house was lovingly restored over 20 years by its previous owners and the Bunya Bunya tree is an ancient species, planted on this spot 144 years...

'Everyone has an imagination. Everyone has talent'. This week's wonderful guest on Radical Australia, Daniel Waters, lights the match of creativity to spark the fire of imagination among many diverse communities as an art group facilitator. Dan grew up with back-to-the-land hippies in 1980s Gippsland, playing football and cricket, before moving to select Art at Monash. He spent time in St Kilda's...

On this week's special International Women's Day broacast, Kelly sits down with 3CR media law trainer and broadcaster from Done By Law, Su Robertson, to learn about her formative years and reflections on growing up in her family. From a houseboat on the Parramatta River, to Perth and Melbourne, Su's father went where the work was in the aviation industry and Su followed in his footsteps by becomin...

This week's guest, Latoya Hoeg, shares her story of growing up and coming to understand her identity as fa'afafine in both Wellington and Samoa. Latoya works as a peer community health outreach worker in St Kilda with the sex worker community and was recently involved in the new 3CR program PX Whanau. It was great hearing some of Latoya's life story and we thank her very much for being our guest t...

Chelsea Knight called us from cane country in Mackay where she lives with her daughter and where she grew up. Chelsea is a violinist and terribly nice person who works in the Anarchists Against Poverty network in Queensland, holding free shops and distributing goods to those who need them. It was great hearing about Chelsea's life journey to now and her philosophies on life. Thank-you, Chelsea, fo...

Jay Coonan works for the Antipoverty Centre and hails from Perth. He used to pull beers and once worked as a journalist in Myanmar. It was fun hearing about Jay's life journey thus far! Keep up the great work, Jay, and thanks so much for joining us this week.antipovertycentre.org I @antipovertycent

We were honoured to welcome Yorta Yorta elder Aunty Daphne Milward into the 3CR studios late last month to hear some stories about her full life of 26 jobs, 3 careers and bagging the 2022 Victorian Senior of the Year. Congratulations, Daphne! Aunty Daphne was born in 1940 around Mooroopna and spent her days on the Cummeragunja Reserve. Her great uncle was William Cooper and she also had an uncle i...

Jacques Boulet is the co-presenter of 3CR's Think Again, produced by BORDERLANDS co-operative. Jacques was born and raised in Tongeren, the oldest town in Belgium, and received a classical education. He understands 12 languages. Jacques has spent his life in social work, community development and academia in Europe, the USA and Australia. He says the secret to a long, healthy life is to keep busy...

This week's guest on Radical Australia is none other than Mr. Paulie Stewart, he of Melbourne band Painters & Dockers fame and recent producer of the memoir, All the Rage, a life recounted whilst waiting to either live or die in the Austin Hospital for a new liver. Paulie has done many things in his life, from being a music journalist for 30 years, to fronting bands The Dili Allstars and The Trans...

This week's Sumer guest is none other than Melbourne icon, Rowland Thomson, who started Melbourne queer bookshop and institution, Hares and Hyenas, back in 1991. The shop, now housed at the Victorian Pride Centre, has just celebrated its 31st birthday. Rowland grew up in country Victoria before moving to the big smoke and at some stage starting the Dizzy Spinners record shop, which went on to beco...

We're really honoured to welcome this week's guest to Radical Australia, David Legge. David is a founding member of the People's Health Movement and was there during the introduction of community health centres during the Whitlam era. He grew up in the fields of Greensborough and went to uni amongst agitation against capital punishment. David read at the ANU for 5 years and somewhere along the way...