Territory Famous

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! How do you end up charged with stealing a dog that apparently jumped into your car? That's the question at the centre of this week's Territory Famous. In the little town of Adelaide River, a disagreement between two men turned into a late-night drama involving a pub ban, a dog fight and a pit b...

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In March 2009, credit betting on Keno at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Tavern left the pub thousands of dollars short. Two barmaids, Kiama McDonald and Rebecca Large, gave different accounts of what happened, and the case ended up in court. This week on Territory Famous, I look at the bets, the explan...

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In September 2002, 38-year-old Ray Campbell was found dead from a gunshot wound at a property in Darwin River, south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. In the days leading up to his death, Ray had been behaving strangely. He was frightened, convinced that people were after him, and carrying a...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In 2008, Taylie Jade Sweeney was a young mum working as a court orderly in Darwin when she met Emily Adam. The two women hit it off and soon became close friends. They worked together, went shopping, caught up outside of work and, according to Emily, were best mates. But in 2009, a series of events would bring their friendship to an end an...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. The Daly River is one of the Northern Territory's most iconic waterways. It's also home to some very large saltwater crocodiles. In this episode of Territory Famous, we look at a series of stories from the Daly River, beginning with the death of 26-year-old Stuart, who entered the river while trying to get away from police in 2010. We also...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In June 2018, American soil scientist Jonathan Hempel was living at Wagait Beach, across the harbour from Darwin, with his partner Cathy Lin. On the night of June 4, the pair caught the ferry home from Cullen Bay. Not long after they arrived at their property, Jonathan was critically injured in an incident involving Cathy's Landcruiser. At...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. During Matt Wright's 2025 Supreme Court trial, the jury heard a series of secretly recorded conversations and intercepted phone calls involving Wright, his family, friends and colleagues. In this episode of Territory Famous , I'm taking you inside those recordings. Some are crystal clear. Others are so difficult to understand that even the...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In May 2016, Matthew Rosewarne was found dead at his home in Darwin from a gunshot wound to the neck. Police believed Matthew had taken his own life, but as more information became available, questions began to emerge about the way his death had been investigated. There was the position of the gunshot wound, a safety catch that was still e...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In November 2016, Richard Roe disappeared in the Northern Territory. His car was found abandoned near the Stuart Highway, but Richard was nowhere to be found. Despite an extensive police investigation and searches of the surrounding area, he has never been located. The circumstances surrounding Richard’s disappearance raised plenty of ques...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. This episode is a little different from my usual Territory Famous stories. This is the story of a very unusual man, a Ti Tree Roadhouse, a few trespass notices, some increasingly bizarre legal arguments and what happens when you decide to represent yourself in court. Richard Woodward was told to leave the Ti Tree Roadhouse after complaints...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. First, I just want to apologize for my voice, I had laryngitis last week and was still recovering from that at the time of recording. Hopefully the content makes up for it, it's a pretty crazy story and Ive been wanting to get it out for a couple of weeks, So, this week I'm taking a deep dive into the disappearance of Peter Wayne Murphy, a...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. Hey its Kellie, I'm so sorry last week's croaky voice turned into a case of full-blown laryngitis and unfortunately, I couldn't record the episode I had planned for this week. Please check back in next week as it's a big one and one of the crazier types of stories I've covered which is saying something! I also will be putting out an episod...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. I apologise in advance for my voice in this episode! I’ve been quite sick this week and I’m still getting my voice back, so this is a shorter episode than usual. I had a much bigger episode planned for this week, but I really wanted to get something out for you guys rather than nothing at all. And when I saw the recent footage from Cahills...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In this episode of Territory Famous , I explore the case of Valerie Wurramara and the investigation that followed on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory. Using publicly available court documents and other official records, I take you through the timeline of events, the police investigation, the evidence presented, and the court procee...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In 2022, a disturbing discovery on the Stuart Highway left Northern Territory police with more questions than answers. A human leg had been found beside the highway, but police didn’t know who it belonged to, what had happened, or whether there was a missing person somewhere out there. What followed was an investigation that slowly pieced...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. In August 2000, a quiet morning at Alice Springs Airport turned into one of the Territory’s most unusual aviation tragedies. Bryan Dallos had been receiving treatment for serious mental illness when he left the hospital where he was being cared for. Days later, he entered the general aviation area of Alice Springs Airport, gained access to...

Goat Island isn't what you think it is. Despite the name, there aren't any goats. What you will find is a pub in the middle of the crocodile-infested Adelaide River, a Danish bloke known as King Kai, a "pet" crocodile named Casey, a tiny dog that spent years chasing a three-metre saltwater crocodile, and a frying pan that somehow became part of Territory history. In this episode of Territory Famou...

This episode covers the coronial inquest findings into the death of Mitchell Thomas following a fatal house fire in the Northern Territory. The coroner concluded the fire was caused by electrical arcing in degraded wiring located in the roof cavity of the home. The property was public housing, built in the late 1980s, and evidence presented during the inquest highlighted long-standing maintenance...

Well... I stuffed up. 🤦‍♀️ I accidentally uploaded an old Kels Gone Bush episode instead of the new Territory Famous episode because they were both called Crocs Gone Wild . I was going to delete it, but then I realised it's actually a bloody funny episode, and quite a few of you had already downloaded it. So I'm leaving it there as a little bonus. The real Territory Famous: Crocs Gone Wild is out...

Oops... Wrong Crocs! 🐊😂 Well... this wasn't the plan. I accidentally uploaded an old Kels Gone Bush episode instead of the new Territory Famous episode because they both happened to be called Crocs Gone Wild . I was going to delete it, but quite a few people had already downloaded it, and honestly... it's still a bloody entertaining episode. So instead of pretending it never happened, I'm leavin...

The episode centers on the deaths of two men at Hidden Valley near Darwin, whose deaths led to a coronial inquest and renewed scrutiny of dog management across the Territory. We'll explore what happened, the evidence presented to the coroner, and the recommendations that followed. We'll also take a closer look at the role of camp dogs in remote communities and the challenges surrounding dog popula...

In this episode of Territory Famous, we examine the case of Dennis Rostron, one of the Northern Territory's most confronting family homicide cases. In 1988, five members of Rostron's family were killed at an outstation near Maningrida in Arnhem Land. Drawing on Supreme Court records, contemporary newspaper reporting, parole decisions and later interviews, we follow the events leading up to the sho...

This week on Territory Famous we're looking at two extraordinary events that unfolded in the skies above the Northern Territory. First, we revisit the dramatic 1972 hijacking of Ansett Flight 232, a bizarre and tense ordeal that unfolded in Alice Springs and became one of the most unusual aviation incidents in Australian history. Then we travel back to August 1989, when a routine sunrise balloon f...

In June 2011, 25-year-old Levi Griffiths was walking home along a dark stretch of road in Darwin’s rural area when his life was tragically cut short. What happened afterwards would shock the Northern Territory. In this episode of Territory Famous, we look into the case of Nicholas “Shonky” Cassidy — from the fatal collision on Girraween Road, to the elaborate cover-up that followed, the legal loop...

In Part 2 of the Ben Hoffmann case, Territory Famous follows the long and chaotic court process that unfolded after the 2019 Darwin shootings. What began as a murder trial quickly became one of the most bizarre and difficult Supreme Court proceedings the Northern Territory had seen in years. This episode covers: • Hoffmann’s behavior inside the courtroom • His repeated clashes with lawyers and the...