Radical Australia

This week's guest was very entertaining and a delight to have in the studio: Charlie Hill-Smith - filmmaker, thespian, failed comedian, cartoonist and the list goes on. Charlie hails from Tanunda, South Australia, and his life changed forever when he went on exchange to Indonesia as a school-leaver, forging enduring links and opening his eyes to the people and politics of the region, eventually he...

Harry Millward is our lovely guest this week on Radical Australia. Harry turns up week in, week out, on the steps of Victoria's parliament house advocating for public housing. During the pandemic he organised with others in the retail and fast food industry to get better health protections for workers and a campaign was begun with RAFFWU (Retail and Fast Food Workers Union). Harry hails from count...

From doodling caricatures of his primary school teachers to his call centre customers, this week's guest, Sam Wallman, is our much-loved socialist, political cartoonist here in Naarm, creating many wicked images over the years that tell our story of class struggle and the wonk of capitalism in glorious, poetic detail and striking imagery. Sam is a member of the Worker's Art Collective, creating vi...

Kate Shaw was a runaway kid in Sandringham before becoming a bohemain type in post-punk St Kilda where she lived a good life on the Esplanade at the Mandalay apartments and at The Esplanade Hotel. Kate and friends witnessed firsthand the creep of global finance and property development in their seaside community, home and playground and started Save St Kilda. These days Kate is an academic who res...

This week's guest is Jacob Andrewartha, passionate activist and a Socialist Alliance national co-convenor. Jacob was turned on to activism through the Kevin Rudd 'PNG Solution' and hasn't looked back. His centre-left political orientation formed in a gaming world through contact with other gamers before he started joining others on campaigns. Jacob co-hosts Green Left Weekly on 3CR and when he isn...

David McLean was the Head of English somewhere in time and has been a teacher all his working life. David did a great job of explaining how right-wing governments have, over time,  instilled a program of How To Screw-up Education 101 in Australia's education system, with the introduction of business speak and running teachers down to the ground. David is a writer and enthusiastic amateur actor, st...

We are delighted to welcome this week's guest to Radical Australia, Sally Gibson. Sally is a powerhouse writer and all-round accomplished person currently running for political office in the seat of Brighton, an area close to her heart and in which she was raised. What hasn't Sally done? We were delighted to learn she wrote the synopsis for the television series The Dismissal (1983) and The Cowra...

Liza Dezfouli is one of those interesting people who have done a bit of everything in their life and who we love to speak to on Radical Australia. Liza is a Kiwi girl who made Melbourne her home at some stage of her life and has raised two boys in the security of a housing co-operative, originally through the Council of Single Mothers and their Children. Liza is an accomplished arts writer, poet a...

This week's guest, Timothy Neville, is on indefinite bail here in Naarm and once broke into the world's largest coal port as part of Blockade Australia. Timothy has seemingly been a life-long activist, beginning with a plan to ban plastic at his primary school at age 8. Timothy has always been aware of the world's geo-political, economic and environmental problems and has always tried to make the...

From Manly to Wagga-Wagga to around the world and back, this week's guest, Michael Bible, has always gotten stick for his surname. Maybe that's payback for the times he used to ride around Wagga on his ponies and torment the priests and nuns. Michael is a former sports kid and, later, anthropogist who quit on grounds of 'cultural theft' and these days provides his policy nous to the West Papua Off...

We are really honoured to speak with anthropologist and author Sophie Chao on this week's Radical Australia. Sophie has recently had her award-winning book published, In the shadow of the palms. It takes readers on a jouney into the heart of the palm oil industry in West Papua, Australia's closest neighbour. Sophie will be joining us here in Naarm very soon at the West Papua Office in Docklands to...

This week's guest, Louise Cooper, is a prolific artist, involved in diverse and countless community arts projects across Victoria, from initiating the Dunolly Women's Historical Art Trail, to creating an Autistic Fashion Game to be screened at Melbourne Fringe Festival and authoring children's books such as Banjo Bilby's Small Schools Big Adventures. Louise is a sole parent to two boys, both with...

This week's guest on Radical Australia is none other than Ajak Kwai, a well-known singer in Melbourne and host of 3CR's Ubuntu Voices, a program whose name means 'i am here because you are here'. It airs on Wednesdays at 8:30pm. Ajak grew up in South Sudan, running naked and barefoot among the trees and the cattle. Beautiful memories for her. Speaking with Ajak we learn about the war that came whe...

This week on Radical Australia we resume our conversation with Margaret Ryan, our second guest this year with an OAM. Margaret was there at the beginning of palliative care in Australia in the 1980s, a healthcare approach which puts the person first, disease second. She has worked with a lot of different communities throughout her long working life and knows something, too, about family tragedy. M...

On this episode of Radical Australia we speak with the passionate, hardworking Taylor Wheeler from the Pink Paw Program, an organisation that is there for our beloved pooches and their human companions in times of need. You know what we mean - when people are at a loss as to how to care for their dog. That's when Taylor and friends at Pink Paw step in, providing that knowledge and support gained f...

This week's guest, Jwala, is another political refugee from Queensland '78. Jwala is a co-producer on 3CR's Global Intifada, an anarchist music and news show when she is not busy organising with Vixen Collective, a peer sex worker organisation and being a strong voice in the community for drug user rights. Jwala has had a full life of travel and activism and was a great outspoken and entertaining...

Maurya Borandanis was our guest this week on Radical Australia. Maurya hails from the USA but has lived in Australia longer. She is a performer who has spent the last few years enjoying finding her voice with numerous artistic enterprises in Port Phillip. Maurya experienced homelessness in her 50s after a long life in hospitality, from St Kilda's Whiskey a go go to Parliament House silver service...

Kim Nicholas Pendergrast, or just Nick P, our guest this week on Radical Australia, hails from Perth and has been a vegan and animal rights advocate for many years. He currently co-hosts Freedom of Species on 3CR when he is not busy producing a podcast called Progressive Podcast Australia with his partner Katie or lecturing in Sociology at le university. Nick is a great, smart guy and would like t...

This week's guest, Adrian Farrugia, has packed a lot into his relatively young life so far, kicking trailblazing goals with his team researching the very interesting area of young people's drug use, drug education, stigma and related health issues. This research led to the development of the website overdoselifesavers.org, a resource capturing people's experience of drug overdose and the use of me...

This week's guest, Chris Quinlan, has had a full life. Growing up 'in the pub', first at The Prince of Wales in St Kilda and then Dan O'Connell's in Carlton in the 60's and 70's, Chris has been playing music since a teen and has been a teacher for a long time. His instrument of choice is the drums and he's had a long-running, weekly TV show on Ch 31 called 'Melbourne Musos'. These days, Chris is a...

This week's guest is Giles Fielke, a recent garden plot tenant at the Collingwood Children's Farm, one of 70-80 gardeners who have had the gate locked on them after many years of small plot gardening on Crown Land down by the Yarra. Giles poses the question 'what does Crown Land mean in the 21st-century?', like many interesting questions he poses as a smart, learned type. Giles had an eventful chi...

As a member of Blockade Australia, this week's guest, Max Curmi, recently spent 4 months in jail for scaling a crane in Port Botany. He says that you shouldn't be afraid of people in jail. Max grew up in a housing commune in the Yarra Valley with parents who have always respected the land and from a relatively young age Max was looking for the best place to resist. He got turned on to direct actio...

We're extremely honoured to welcome Margaret Ryan into the 3CR studios this week. Margaret is one of those wonderful people who has committed her life to helping others. She has always wanted to be a nurse ever since she bandaged her dollies as a wee one, progressing to community health in Broadmeadows and finally to Papua New Guinea after independence, the best years of her life, where she worked...

This week's guest, Peter 'Redgum' Roberts, is an environmentalist and self-taught propagator, a white bloke ruffling the feathers of the squatocracy with his adoption of the ancient practise of lighting fires. Robert has Authority Defiant Syndrome, like most of our guests, and was no teacher's pet, carving out his own unique life with his family, learning about and caring for our amazing natural w...

It was a lovely treat to have this week's guest, Brendan Bonsack, in the studio regaling us with tales from his childhood in Macedon, including vivid memories of being caught up in Ash Wednesday. Brendan is a very talented person, being a poet, musician, film producer and co-host of 3CR's Spoken Word. This was a delightful, fun conversation we hope you enjoy. Thanks for being our guest this week,...