Australian Stories

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Channel • 2 Shows

History

History

Monthly
True Crime

True Crime

Updated weekly

12 JAN

The Backpacker Murders, Part One

For decades, the road between Sydney and Melbourne has been a trusted passage — a route taken by families, freight drivers, and young travellers chasing work or experience. In the late 1980s, hitchhiking along this corridor is common and unremarkable. But when multiple travellers vanish without witnesses, a forest just off the highway begins to emerge as something more than a place on the map. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Jan

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26 min
4 MAR

Bushranger Book Two: Bold Jack Donohoe

Three decades after the colony’s first bushranger, the settlement was larger, harsher, and more organised — and so were its outlaws. Along the roads west of Sydney, a transported convict named Jack Donohoe moved from escape to armed resistance. In a colony now governed by patrols, proclamations, and printed rewards, bushranging was no longer improvisation. It was becoming a crisis the government could no longer ignore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 Mar

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23 min
29 JAN

Bushranger Book One: Black Caesar

Before Australia had roads, towns, or a stable food supply, the colony was already producing its first outcasts. In a settlement governed by hunger and discipline, one transported convict—known to history as Black Caesar—crossed the line between containment and survival. Unknowingly, he set in motion the earliest form of bushranging, before it had a name and before the colony knew how to respond to it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

29 Jan

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31 min
17/07/2025

The Emu War

In the sun-scorched expanse of Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, late 1932 brought more than just drought and economic hardship—it brought an invader unlike any other. Not soldiers, not bandits, but a battalion of emus: towering, flightless birds with long legs that could outrun a man and a stubbornness that made them the unlikeliest adversaries in the annals of warfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17/07/2025

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21 min
24/07/2025

The Batavia Shipwreck

In 1629, the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia wrecked on the treacherous reefs of the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia. What followed was one of history’s most horrifying tales of survival, mutiny, and mass murder. Stranded on the lawless barren islands with no immediate rescue, a power-hungry merchant named Jeronymus Cornelisz seized control, unleashing a brutal reign of terror that saw over 100 men, women, and children slaughtered. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

24/07/2025

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36 min
06/08/2025

The Thalidomide Scandal

In the early 1960s, a new "wonder drug" swept through Australian pharmacies—promising relief from morning sickness and sleepless nights. It was hailed as safe, gentle, and modern. But behind its glossy packaging, something sinister was unfolding. The truth about the drug would take years to surface—and when it did, it would reveal one of the darkest and most avoidable medical disasters in Australian history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

06/08/2025

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24 min
10/12/2025

The Savoy Christmas Fire

In Kings Cross during the summer of 1975, the Savoy Hotel is one of many old boarding houses offering cheap beds to those with nowhere else to go. But on Christmas morning, neighbours look up to see residents trapped behind windows and smoke pouring from the stairwell. What first appears to be a tragic accident will soon expose a far darker origin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10/12/2025

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28 min
12 FEB

The Beaconsfield Mine Collapse

During Australia’s gold-rush era, miners were drawn not just to rivers and fields, but to deep quartz reefs locked inside hard rock. At Beaconsfield in northern Tasmania, that discovery led to a mine that would operate, in different forms, for more than a century. In April 2006, a seismic event underground interrupted that long history, turning routine work into an uncertain crisis beneath the surface. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Feb

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25 min
26 JAN

The Backpacker Murders, Part Three

Police have unearthed a total of seven bodies when they conclude their search at Belanglo State Forest. Attention now turns away from the forest and toward finding who is responsible. Thanks to Paul Onions, a survivor of an earlier attack in the same forest, Task Force Air gets its breakthrough. On the 5th of May 1994, police fly Paul to Australia and show him a series of images. He identifies the man he says attacked him. His name is Ivan Milat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

26 Jan

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25 min
3 MAR

The Lindt Cafe Siege

On a Monday morning in December 2014, customers sit down for coffee in Martin Place. Minutes later, a shotgun is produced and the doors are locked. For the next seventeen hours, a group of hostages move when instructed, speak when permitted, and wait while police negotiate from outside. As hours pass and daylight fades, the siege narrows toward a final break. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3 Mar

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29 min

True tales of convict capers, bushranger blunders and political pickles come alive. Unearth the dusty bits of our past you didn’t know you existed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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HISTORY
Factual, engaging and succinct retellings of Australia's unique crime. Join the ‘Ned Kelly Gang’ for exclusive episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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TRUE CRIME