Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

Mark

Welcome to Strewth, where we uncover Australia's most captivating tales of true crime and mysterious happenings. Yarns so extraordinary they'll make you stop and say, "Strewth!" From the sun-scorched outback to the seedy underbelly of our biggest cities, Australia harbours some of the world's most perplexing mysteries. Stories so bizarre that even hardened detectives could only mutter that distinctly Australian expression of disbelief. Each episode takes you deep into extraordinary cases through atmospheric storytelling and meticulous research. You'll walk alongside the detectives, feel the frustration of families seeking answers, and experience the shock of communities torn apart by inexplicable events. Strewth reveals how these cases shaped Australian society and exposes the dark undercurrents flowing beneath the nation's beautiful facade. From colonial-era crimes to modern forensic breakthroughs, these are the stories that made headlines and left investigators scratching their heads. New episodes weekly. Because some stories are too strange not to tell.

  1. Message in a Bottle - Australian Mystery

    4 DAYS AGO

    Message in a Bottle - Australian Mystery

    The Unexplained Disappearance of the Patanela | Australian Mystery In November of 1988, a steel-hulled schooner called the Patanela made three radio calls from ten miles off Botany Bay and disappeared. No wreckage. No bodies. No distress signal. No explanation that holds together under examination. Just an experienced skipper asking for directions to a town he'd already passed, a silence where a voice used to be, and one barnacled lifebuoy that turned up six months later and raised more questions than it answered. Four people were aboard. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Janice Jarrett, "Operation 'Lilac' The mystery of the Patanela", Platypus: The Journal of the Australian Federal Police, Issue 36/38, July 1992.  NSW Coronial Inquest, Deputy State Coroner Derrick Hand, Glebe Coroner's Court, 1992.  Sydney Morning Herald, 9 February 2008. "Message in a bottle redeems lost sons." Paul Whittaker and Robert Reid, Patanela Is Missing: Australia's Greatest Sea Mystery, Bantam Books, Sydney, 1993. Philip Temple, The Sea and the Snow, 1966 (reissued). Derrick Hand, The Coroner, ABC Books, 2004. John Pinkney, Great Australian Mysteries, Five Mile Press, 2004. Under Investigation with Liz Hayes, "Ghost Ship: What happened to the Patanela?", Channel Nine, 1 March 2023.

    38 min
  2. The Humpty Doo Mystery - Australian Paranormal

    28 APR

    The Humpty Doo Mystery - Australian Paranormal

    The Humpty Doo Poltergeist - Unsolved Paranormal Mystery In early 1998, a rented weatherboard house forty kilometres outside Darwin became the most talked-about address in Australia. Over three months, the residents of 90 McMinns Drive reported knives hurling themselves across rooms, gravel falling through an intact ceiling, and messages spelled out in driveway stones, including the name of a friend who had died weeks earlier in a fire. Three priests of three different denominations came to help. None of them left with a simple explanation. Then the cameras arrived. This is the Humpty Doo poltergeist, Australia's most-witnessed, least-investigated paranormal case of the twentieth century. Thirty people saw something in that house. Nobody in any official capacity ever tried to find out what it was. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Anderson, Max. "Ghost Writer." The Australian Magazine, 9 May 1998.  Voss, Nikki. Multiple articles. Northern Territory News, 3, 4, 6, 7, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23 April 1998; 3 May 1998.  Ellis, Jack et al. Multiple articles. The Litchfield Times, 2, 9, 16 and 30 April 1998.  Farrar, Tracey. Interview with Kirsty Agius. ABC Radio Darwin, April 1998. Healy, Tony. "A Week with the Humpty Doo Poltergeist." strangenationaustralia.blogspot.com, November 1998 Cropper, Paul. "The Humpty Doo Poltergeist: 20 Years On." The Fortean, 13 March 2018. thefortean.com Healy, Tony and Paul Cropper. "Tony and Paul Meet the Humpty Doo Poltergeist." The Fortean, 12 April 2020. thefortean.com Healy, Tony and Paul Cropper. Australian Poltergeist: The Stone-Throwing Spook of Humpty Doo and Many Other Cases. Strange Nation / Xoum, 2014. ISBN 9781921134340. Braude, Stephen. Review of Australian Poltergeist. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 29(1), 2015, pp. 158–160.

    36 min
  3. The 6:30 to Gippsland - Australian True Crime

    21 APR

    The 6:30 to Gippsland - Australian True Crime

    The 6:30 to Gippsland - Australian Unsolved Mystery On the evening of Saturday, 7 June 1919, a fireman named Frederick Mills climbed the coal pile in his tender as a steam train approached Korumburra station in South Gippsland. In the light of the signal box, he saw a body on the carriage roof. It was still warm. The deceased was Alexander Gordon Eastman, a twenty-one-year-old butcher from Prahran, who had boarded the 6:30 to Gippsland a few hours earlier with his aunt. He had stepped away at Dandenong to find a friend. The friend was never traced. This episode examines the discovery, the inquest, and the four competing theories about what happened on the South Gippsland line that winter night. No conclusion the evidence doesn't support is reached. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources The Argus (Melbourne), 10 June 1919, p. 4: "Train Mystery. Body Identified. Gold Ring Missing from Finger." Trove: nla.news-article1477101 The Argus (Melbourne), 26 June 1919, p. 9: "Train Mystery. Deputy Coroner's Finding. No Foul Play." Trove: nla.news-article1482558 The Advertiser (Adelaide), 11 June 1919, p. 9: "The Death of Eastman." Trove: nla.news-article5655217 The Ballarat Star, 11 June 1919, p. 1: "Korumburra Train Mystery — Supposed Solution." Trove: nla.news-article212643831

    32 min
  4. Frederick Valentich - The Unanswered - Australian Mystery

    17 APR

    Frederick Valentich - The Unanswered - Australian Mystery

    The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich - The Unanswered - Australian Unsolved Mystery The search covered more than a thousand square miles of Bass Strait. Five days. An RAAF Orion, eight civilian aircraft, ocean-going vessels. The official investigation took nearly four years. In Part Two of Strewth's investigation into the disappearance of Frederick Valentich, we go looking for answers and we find, instead, a case that resists every explanation applied to it. The spatial disorientation theory that most aviation experts accept, and why the man who was actually there that night doesn't buy it. The ground witnesses, the photographs taken at Cape Otway twenty minutes before Valentich's first radio call, and what analysis has and hasn't been able to confirm. The 315-page investigation file that researchers were told had been destroyed, sitting untouched in the National Archives for thirty-four years. And one more thing. A story that a researcher carried for more than twenty years before he knew what to do with it about a South Australian farmer, a shadow that fell across him in a paddock the morning after Valentich disappeared, and what he found attached to the outside of the object above him. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links -  https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report (1982) Department of Transport, Commonwealth of Australia. File reference V116/783/1047, approved for publication April 27, 1982.  Marine Search and Rescue File (1978) National Archives of Australia, Series A4703, control symbol 1978/1205.  Radio Transcript of VH-DSJ Final Transmission (1978) Reconstructed for broadcast from the official BASI published transcript.  Haines, Richard F. (1987) Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot. LDA Press (LSRG) Simpson, George (2022) Nothing on Radar: The Valentich Mystery. Self-published (Amazon).  Haines, Richard F. & Norman, Paul (2000) "Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 14(2).  Haines, Richard F. (1981) Sound spectrum analysis of the 17-second metallic transmission. Journal of UFO Studies.  McGaha, James & Nickell, Joe (2013) "The Valentich Disappearance: Another UFO Cold Case Solved." Skeptical Inquirer, 37(6), November/December 2013.  Haines, Richard F. (undated, published PSU CiteSeerX) "Valentich Disappearance: New Evidence and a New Conclusion."  Chalker, Bill (2019) "Australian UFO Mysteries: The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich." New Dawn, Issue 173 (March–April 2019) Flight Safety Australia (February 2025) "Leaving This World." Official publication of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Chalker, Bill (1979) "The Missing Cessna and the UFO: A Preliminary Report on the Bass Strait-King Island Affair." Flying Saucer Review, Volume 24, No. 5, March 1979. Chalker, Bill (1984) "Vanished? The Valentich Affair Re-examined." Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 30, No. 2. Basterfield, Keith (2012) "Valentich Files Released by Australian Government." Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – Scientific Research blog.  Basterfield, Keith (2015) "Found: Two More Australian Government Files on the 1978 Valentich Disappearance." Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – Scientific Research blog.  Basterfield, Keith (catalogue) "A Catalogue of UAP Reports from Victoria, Bass Strait and Tasmania at the Time of the Valentich Disappearance."  Chalker, Bill (2013) "Strange Days, Strange Tales — A Valentich Connection." The OZ Files blog, October 2013.  Tasmanian Aviation Historical Society (2020) "Mysteries of Aviation — Frederick Valentich and VH-DSJ." Available via tahs.org.au. Discovery Science Channel (September 2013) The Unexplained Files, Season 1.  NBC / Cosgrove-Meurer Productions (September 29, 1993) Unsolved Mysteries, Season 6, Episode 2.  The Age (Melbourne), October 23, 1978  Herald Sun (Melbourne), 2014 Coverage of the Victorian UFO Action group's "Age of Reason" conference;  Coonabarabran Times, November 17, 1994

    36 min
  5. Frederick Valentich - The Flight - Australian Mystery

    14 APR

    Frederick Valentich - The Flight - Australian Mystery

    The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich - The Flight - Australian Unsolved Mystery On the evening of Saturday, October 21, 1978, a twenty-year-old pilot named Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne. He crossed the coast at Cape Otway at seven o'clock, right on schedule. Six minutes later, he radioed Melbourne Flight Service to ask if there was any known traffic below five thousand feet. There wasn't. What followed was a six-minute radio exchange that has never been satisfactorily explained. Frederick described something above him, a long shape, metallic, shiny, with a green light, hovering, orbiting, moving at speeds he could not identify. His last clear words were: it is hovering and it's not an aircraft. Then seventeen seconds of metallic sound. Then silence. Frederick Valentich and his Cessna were never found. In Part One of this two-part Strewth investigation, we follow Frederick from the beginning, his obsessive love of flying, the exam failures he hid from everyone, the engagement ring on layaway, the Saturday evening plans he would never keep. We put him in that aircraft. We fly that route with him. And we listen to every word of that radio transmission, in full, exactly as it was recorded. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report (1982) Department of Transport, Commonwealth of Australia. File reference V116/783/1047, approved for publication April 27, 1982.  Marine Search and Rescue File (1978) National Archives of Australia, Series A4703, control symbol 1978/1205.  Radio Transcript of VH-DSJ Final Transmission (1978) Reconstructed for broadcast from the official BASI published transcript.  Haines, Richard F. (1987) Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot. LDA Press (LSRG) Simpson, George (2022) Nothing on Radar: The Valentich Mystery. Self-published (Amazon).  Haines, Richard F. & Norman, Paul (2000) "Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 14(2).  Haines, Richard F. (1981) Sound spectrum analysis of the 17-second metallic transmission. Journal of UFO Studies.  McGaha, James & Nickell, Joe (2013) "The Valentich Disappearance: Another UFO Cold Case Solved." Skeptical Inquirer, 37(6), November/December 2013.  Haines, Richard F. (undated, published PSU CiteSeerX) "Valentich Disappearance: New Evidence and a New Conclusion."  Chalker, Bill (2019) "Australian UFO Mysteries: The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich." New Dawn, Issue 173 (March–April 2019) Flight Safety Australia (February 2025) "Leaving This World." Official publication of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Chalker, Bill (1979) "The Missing Cessna and the UFO: A Preliminary Report on the Bass Strait-King Island Affair." Flying Saucer Review, Volume 24, No. 5, March 1979. Chalker, Bill (1984) "Vanished? The Valentich Affair Re-examined." Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 30, No. 2. Basterfield, Keith (2012) "Valentich Files Released by Australian Government." Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – Scientific Research blog.  Basterfield, Keith (2015) "Found: Two More Australian Government Files on the 1978 Valentich Disappearance." Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – Scientific Research blog.  Basterfield, Keith (catalogue) "A Catalogue of UAP Reports from Victoria, Bass Strait and Tasmania at the Time of the Valentich Disappearance."  Chalker, Bill (2013) "Strange Days, Strange Tales — A Valentich Connection." The OZ Files blog, October 2013.  Tasmanian Aviation Historical Society (2020) "Mysteries of Aviation — Frederick Valentich and VH-DSJ." Available via tahs.org.au. Discovery Science Channel (September 2013) The Unexplained Files, Season 1.  NBC / Cosgrove-Meurer Productions (September 29, 1993) Unsolved Mysteries, Season 6, Episode 2.  The Age (Melbourne), October 23, 1978  Herald Sun (Melbourne), 2014 Coverage of the Victorian UFO Action group's "Age of Reason" conference;  Coonabarabran Times, November 17, 1994

    23 min
  6. The Rack Man - Australian True Crime

    7 APR

    The Rack Man - Australian True Crime

    The Rack Man - Australian True Crime - Unsolved Mystery In August 1994, a squid fisherman trawling the lower Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney, pulled a steel crucifix from nine metres below the surface. Strapped to it were the remains of a man. For twenty-four years, the man had no name. An open coronial verdict. A hundred thousand dollar reward nobody claimed. A forensic reconstruction of a face that matched no one in any database. This episode covers the discovery, the forensic investigation, the long cold-case years, and the theories that have surrounded this case for three decades. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Australian Missing Persons Register — Max Tancevski: australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/Tancevski.html  Dictionary of Sydney — "John Doe 1994" by Darrienne Wyndham (2021): dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/john_doe_1994 Coffs Coast Advocate — "Crucified body identified" (August 2018): coffscoastadvocate.com.au Strange Remains — "Who killed Australia's Rack Man?" (October 2015): strangeremains.com Justine Ford, Unsolved Australia, Macmillan Publishing, 2015 — Chapter: "Who Was the Rack Man?" pp. 115–123 Cold Case Australia — "Who is the mystery man found in the Hawkesbury, tied to a crucifix?" (January 2019): coldcaseaustralia.home.blog

    29 min
  7. The Lithgow Panther - Australian Mystery

    31 MAR

    The Lithgow Panther - Australian Mystery

    The Lithgow Panther - Unsolved Australian Mystery For over a century, something large and black has been moving through the sandstone gorges and eucalyptus forest west of Sydney. Farmers have found their sheep with broken necks and grass still between their teeth killed instantly, mid-graze. Carcasses have been discovered wedged in the forks of trees, well above the ground. A seventeen-year-old boy came home one night covered in blood. More than five hundred and sixty people have formally reported seeing it since 1998 alone. Four NSW government inquiries have been commissioned. Two concluded its existence was more likely than not. One of those reports was edited before public release, its finding quietly removed, its author instructed not to speak publicly on the subject. No body has ever been found. No DNA confirmed. No camera trap has ever captured a frame. In this episode of Strewth, we go deep into the Blue Mountains to follow the evidence and the cover-up behind Australia's most enduring predator mystery. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: NSW Department of Primary Industries, Large Free-Ranging Felines in New South Wales: A Review, John Parkes (2013) Dr Johannes Bauer, ecological assessment commissioned by NSW Agriculture (1999) Michael Williams & Rebecca Lang, Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers (2010) Kevin Sheridan correspondence, released under Freedom of Information Hills Shire Times, March 2003 (Luke Walker attack) Hawkesbury Gazette, December 2013 (Peter Russel encounter) Lithgow Mercury, March 2018 (Sam Maher encounter)

    38 min
  8. The Old London Affair - The Curiously Overlooked - Australian True Crime

    26 MAR

    The Old London Affair - The Curiously Overlooked - Australian True Crime

    Australian True Crime - The Portland Murders The Old London Affair - Part 2 - The Curiously Overlooked  In 2013, a cold case detective named Tom Hogan sat down with eleven hundred reports and began reading. The investigation into the murders of Claire Acocks and Margaret Penny had been running, in various forms, for more than twenty years. Five thousand people had been interviewed. Detectives had worked in every Australian state. No one had been charged. By the time Hogan was deep enough into the file to form a picture, something was bothering him. Not one thing. A shape in the negative space. A figure the investigation had looked at briefly, decided didn't fit, and moved past. He would later describe Robert Penny, Margaret's husband, as "curiously overlooked." In part two of The Old London Affair, we go inside the investigation: the suspects who died before they could be cleared, the fugitive from a separate Adelaide family massacre who turned up in Portland one month after the murders, the phone intercept that caught an elderly man discussing a theory he had no good reason to have, and the DNA result that arrived on day two of the committal hearing and changed everything. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - strewthpodcast@gmail.com  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources The Standard, Warrnambool. "Portland's salon killings still chill 20 years on." 2011. Wallace, L. (2012). Horrible Man: Sinister Secrets and Truths Untold — The Portland Hair Salon Murders. Fontaine Press. The Standard, Warrnambool. "Husband Robert Penny charged over cold case murders at Portland hair salon." April 13, 2015. The Standard, Warrnambool. "Families left in the dark." June 30, 2017. Wright, T. "Portland hairdresser murder mystery persists after all these years." The Age, October 2, 2017. 3AW. "Man charged over Portland hairdressing murders dies while on bail." March 2016. Coroner Jacqui Hawkins, findings of inquest, June 30, 2017. Cited via The Standard and The Age. Presswire. Statement from Aphra Williams regarding film project, June 29, 2017. News. "Renewed search for SA murder fugitive." October 2, 2016.

    24 min
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4.8
out of 5
52 Ratings

About

Welcome to Strewth, where we uncover Australia's most captivating tales of true crime and mysterious happenings. Yarns so extraordinary they'll make you stop and say, "Strewth!" From the sun-scorched outback to the seedy underbelly of our biggest cities, Australia harbours some of the world's most perplexing mysteries. Stories so bizarre that even hardened detectives could only mutter that distinctly Australian expression of disbelief. Each episode takes you deep into extraordinary cases through atmospheric storytelling and meticulous research. You'll walk alongside the detectives, feel the frustration of families seeking answers, and experience the shock of communities torn apart by inexplicable events. Strewth reveals how these cases shaped Australian society and exposes the dark undercurrents flowing beneath the nation's beautiful facade. From colonial-era crimes to modern forensic breakthroughs, these are the stories that made headlines and left investigators scratching their heads. New episodes weekly. Because some stories are too strange not to tell.

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