Forgotten Australia

In 2018 I found and reunited with my biological family, discovering that my people go back to 1842 on Lord Howe Island. On my first visit that Christmas, I became fascinated by the mystery surrounding the early talkie Mystery Island, which was shot on Lord Howe in 1936. Why did its leading man Brian Abbot — who had everything to live for — try to sail to Sydney across the treacherous Tasman Sea in...

Born in 1864 on Lord Howe Island, Albert Nichols led a colourful life that ended with him an unsung hero of the Titanic sinking. This re-release comprises parts one and two of the S1 episode “Australia’s Titanic Hero”. It provides a lot of background to next week’s episode The Mysteries of Mystery Island — including insight into my link to Albert and Lord Howe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...

Having escaped prison, fled interstate and joined the army under yet another new name, George Blunderfield seeks reinvention and redemption on the Western Front — but his true nature compels him to commit his most atrocious crimes yet. To become a Forgotten Australia supporter, go to patreon.com/forgottenaustralia **This podcast episode contains references to suicide, violence and sexual violence...

After committing a sickening outrage in the first weeks of 1900, George Blunderfield serves a relatively short jail sentence. When he's set free he sheds his identity but can’t help but follow the nature that causes him to hurt those who only want to help him. **This podcast episode contains references to suicide, violence and sexual violence against children.** To become a Forgotten Australia sup...

Over two decades George Farrow Blunderfield left a trail of pain and death in his wake from one side of the country to the other. I’ve made a three-part podcast exploring the life and crimes of this forgotten monster of early 20th Century Australia. To hear the whole story right now ad-free, become a Forgotten Australia supporter: patreon.com/forgottenaustralia **This podcast episode contains refe...

Sister Ellen Savage was the hero of Centaur and over the next four decades she'd keep alive the memory of her fallen sisters and brothers. She was an Anzac hero who was to pass away on an Anzac Day. To support Forgotten Australia: patreon.com/forgottenaustralia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 14 May 1943, the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, with the loss of 268 people. Nursing sister Lieutenant Ellen Savage was one of the survivors and was hailed a hero for her bravery. While Centaur is well remembered, this podcast focuses on Nell Savage and her life of service before, during and after WWII. Part two will be releas...

Part two introduces us to a hard-charging cop and a spiritually minded reporter as the search for a solution to the Guyra Ghost mystery takes us to Gallipoli and onto the mean streets of Sydney. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Starting 100 years ago this week, Australia was mystified by strange happenings at a farmhouse at Guyra in northern New South Wales. Showers of stones and unexplained bangings occurred night after night at the Bowen property, seemingly centred on the family's 12-year-old daughter Minnie. Police, the public and the press descended — and, with no rational explanation forthcoming, supernatural soluti...

One hundred years ago today – 22 March 1921 – a gunman shot up the Riverton railway station in South Australia. One man would put himself in the firing line to save lives: Percy "Jack" Brookfield, a firebrand socialist NSW state parliamentarian whose politics had made him of the most loved – and hated – figures in Australia. To become a supporter of Forgotten Australian and get ad-free early and b...

In March 1907 Australia was gripped by the plight of Italian miner Modesto Varischetti, trapped deep underground and underwater at the Bonnie Vale gold mine in Western Australia. The Entombed Miner's only hope? A brave diver named Frank Hughes. To support the show and access bonus content: www.patreon.com/forgottenaustralia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Greg McHardie on the loose, there's another Woolworths bombing. Is the fugitive out for revenge or is he leading a far more laidback life? Even if his plans to leave the country don't come off, is there a jail that can hold him? In any case, both Greg and Larry aren't destined to stay behind bars long because that's just how NSW works Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

In this, the second-last instalment of this special series, Greg McHardie is as free as a bird after his audacious Easter escape from Parramatta Jail. That leaves consummate entertainer and storyteller Larry Danielson to give the performance of his life for the most importance audience he’s ever faced: a jury of his peers. If you enjoy Forgotten Australia, please leave a rating and review because...

As the trial of the alleged Woolworths Bombers gets underway, the jury hears about ransom letters, suspicious clock mechanisms and gelignite bomb explosions — along with jokey European accents, disappearing Ford Falcons and the provenance of a gaudy blue safari suit. Witnesses include the accused men’s family and friends, cops both upstanding and corrupt — and a police informer who’ll be revealed...

The Task Force’s Operation Softly, Softly circles Larry Danielson in Huskisson — with one of the detectives a Manly mate from the good old Flicks days who gets stuck into the booze while on interrogation duty. Fraught though his outlook is, Larry still has a chance at freedom. But Greg McHardie? He's in for serious time, which turns his mind to a jailbreak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

With Greg McHardie claiming to detectives he’s a dead man if he names those behind the Woolworths bombings, the Task Force turns its attentions to his associates on the South Coast, including his housemate Larry Danielson, a lovable larrikin who made his name as a singer-songwriter in Papua New Guinea before becoming the host with the most at one of the best venues of the emerging Aussie pub rock...

After “Mr Bridge” is caught red-handed with the $1m Woolworths ransom, the suspect tells Task Force detectives he’s only a courier hired for the job. The mastermind’s name? Benny. From that moment on, Sydney’s police, press and public are all on high alert for this flashy character, who has threatened four more store bombings and for whose capture Woolies is offering a $250,000 reward. Hosted on A...

As 1980 ends and the New Year begins, Woolworths and the NSW police wage a war of nerves with Mr Dunmore over arrangements for the $1m ransom handover. While the extortionist bomber has a cunning plan to get away with the loot, the Task Force’s massive undercover Operation Alpha has set an elaborate trap that’ll end in a showdown on Sydney Harbour. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...

After the Christmas Eve bombing of Woolworths' flagship Sydney store, the company awaits contact from the extortionist calling himself Mr Dunmore. Meanwhile, Woolies receives dozens more threats, a beer carton bomb is found in a store and a sensational leak splashes the terrorist’s secret $1m ransom demand all over the media. But what crime reporters don't know is that undercover detectives are al...

On Christmas Eve 1980, young constable Allan Duncan responded to the Woolies Town Hall bomb threat and would be inside the building when the device detonated. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Christmas Eve 1980, the Woolworths’ head office in Sydney gets a phone call from the man already responsible for two regional store bombings in the past week. An explosive device has been placed in the flagship variety store opposite Town Hall. It's going to detonate in 10 minutes. What follows is like something out of a Hollywood movie. But with its Holden utes and safari suits, beer cart...

On Christmas Eve 1859, Margaret Douglas and Beverley Howard started their epic 1500-mile walking match in Melbourne — which the city’s newspapers did their very best to ignore. Despite such hostility at home, our first sporting heroine would be appreciated by English reporters when she performed her walking feats in London and Liverpool. In this episode we also trace Margaret’s likely identity — a...

Melbourne’s Margaret Douglas was an endurance pedestrian every bit as remarkable as her Sydney contemporary The Flying Pieman. After stumbling upon a passing reference to her in an 1878 newspaper, I took a deep dive to shine a light on her completely forgotten achievements and examine how she was deliberately excluded from many newspapers of the time and then from a seminal history book that provi...

Having made his dazzling pedestrian comeback, The Flying Pieman takes another tilt at politics in typical comedic fashion before jolting the Sydney establishment with one last audacious stunt. Feeling his mortality as he enters old age, William Francis King makes a public pledge of love — only for heartbreak to follow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In September 1847, after crashing out during the challenge to walk 192 miles in 48 hours non-stop, The Flying Pieman takes a second tilt at this epic feat of pedestrianism. But he won’t stop there because he has much bigger dreams that include walking 250 miles in 250 hours, spilling his soul in lectures on social issues and finding a damsel he can call Mrs Pieman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...