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. The Lithgow Panther - Australian Mystery

    4D AGO

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

    MAR 26

    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
  3. The Old London Affair - The Unrung Bell - Australian True Crime

    MAR 24

    The Old London Affair - The Unrung Bell - Australian True Crime

    Australian True Crime - Part 1 of 2  On April 17, 1991, a stranger walked in off the street and stood behind the hairdresser without making a sound. The door had a bell. It hadn't rung. He watched her in the mirror, told her he didn't like hairdressers, and said he'd be back. Claire Acocks locked up and went home early. She told her friends she had never, in her life, been so frightened. On May 3, tragedy struck Claire and a customer in that very salon. In part one of The Old London Affair, we trace the crime, the victims, and the single most unsettling detail in this case: a stranger who knew how to move through that building unseen, and who might have come back sixteen days after he first appeared in Claire Acocks' mirror. 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: Wallace, L. (2012). Horrible Man: Sinister Secrets and Truths Untold — The Portland Hair Salon Murders. Fontaine Press. The Standard, Warrnambool. "Portland's salon killings still chill 20 years on." 2011. The Standard, Warrnambool. "Portland's darkest day still the talk of the town." April 13, 2015. The Standard, Warrnambool. "Husband Robert Penny charged over cold case murders at Portland hair salon." April 13, 2015. Wright, T. "Portland hairdresser murder mystery persists after all these years." The Age, October 2, 2017. 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.

    25 min
  4. Kaikoura Lights - New Zealand Mystery

    MAR 17

    Kaikoura Lights - New Zealand Mystery

    December, 1978, senior Wellington air traffic controller John Cordy watched five unidentified radar targets appear over the Kaikoura coast. Solid returns. No flight plans. No radio contact. One of them sat on his screen for three hours. Days later, an Australian television crew who had heard about these strange lights boarded a routine cargo flight along the same stretch of coastline, hoping for background footage to help to tell this fascinating story. What they found in the skies over New Zealand was something else entirely. Objects paced the plane for fifteen minutes, moving at speeds the instruments couldn't account for. They manoeuvred in ways that no atmospheric phenomenon, no fishing vessel, and no known aircraft could explain to the satisfaction of every investigator who later tried. In this, the first ever episode of Strewth Abroad, our new series exploring mysteries from beyond Australian shores. We examine what happened on those fateful nights and explore the theories and stories that surround these events. 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 Maccabee, Bruce S. "Optical power output of an unidentified high altitude light source." Letter to Applied Optics, Vol. 18, No. 15, August 1, 1979. US Naval Surface Weapons Center, Silver Spring, Maryland. Ireland, W.H. and Andrews, M.K. "Comments on 'Optical power output of an unidentified high altitude light source.'" Applied Optics, Vol. 18, No. 24, December 15, 1979. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Zealand. Maccabee, Bruce S. "Reply to Comments on 'Optical power output of an unidentified high altitude light source.'" Applied Optics, Vol. 19, No. 12, June 15, 1980. Fogarty, Quentin. Let's Hope They're Friendly. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1982.  RNZAF investigation file AIR 1080/6/897. Archives New Zealand. Declassified December 22, 2010. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). UFO investigation report and briefing to the United Nations. January 1979. New Zealand Defence Force UFO files release, December 22, 2010.

    39 min
  5. Wanda Beach - Lingering Questions - Australian True Crime

    MAR 10

    Wanda Beach - Lingering Questions - Australian True Crime

    WANDA BEACH: PART TWO - LINGERING QUESTIONS The bodies of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock were found on 12 January 1965. By April 1966, approximately 7,000 people had been interviewed in what was then the largest criminal investigation in Australian history. By 1981, that figure had risen to more than 16,000. The case file exceeded 10,000 pages.  Three suspects have emerged across the decades. Derek Percy, Australia's longest-serving prisoner, whose grandmother lived on the same street as both victims. Christopher Wilder, who was living on the Northern Beaches at the time of the murders and had a 1963 conviction for another serious offence at a Sydney beach. Alan Bassett gave a painting to detective Cec Johnson in 1975 that Johnson beieved depicted details of the Wanda Beach crime scene.  In part two, we examine sixty years of unanswered questions and try to solve this heartbreaking mystery. Sources Whiticker, Alan J. Wanda: The Untold Story of the Wanda Beach Murders. New Holland Publishers, 2003. Illawarra Mercury. "Australian serial killer Christopher Wilder linked to the Wanda Beach murders," 14 June 2018. https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/5461703 St George and Sutherland Shire Leader. "Australian serial killer linked to nation's most infamous cold case," 11 June 2018. https://www.theleader.com.au/story/5458975 Forgotten Illawarra. "The Last Dance" (Carolyn Orphin / Alan Bassett), January 2017. https://forgottenillawarra.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/the-last-dance/ Forgotten Illawarra. "The Piccadilly Murder" (Wilhelmina Kruger), June 2013. https://forgottenillawarra.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/the-piccadilly-murder/ Australian Missing Persons Register. "Carolyn Orphin." https://australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/CarolynOrphin.htm Sunday Night, Channel Seven, broadcast 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQDW9pr_KzA  Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com

    30 min
  6. Wanda Beach - Into the Dunes - Australian True Crime

    MAR 10

    Wanda Beach - Into the Dunes - Australian True Crime

    WANDA BEACH: PART ONE — INTO THE DUNES On the morning of Monday 11 January 1965, fifteen-year-old best friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock caught the train south from West Ryde with Marianne's four younger siblings for a summer day at Cronulla.  At around 1pm, after walking north along the beach, the group stopped and Marianne told the younger children she and Christine were going back south to collect the bags. Instead, both girls turned north, deeper into the dunes. When ten-year-old Peter called out that they were going the wrong way, Marianne laughed and kept walking. The four younger children waited until 5pm but the girls never returned. Part One of the Wanda Beach Murders tells the story of the day itself. The gale that emptied the beach, an unexplained absence, and what the four children saw on the beach that day. Sources Whiticker, Alan J. Wanda: The Untold Story of the Wanda Beach Murders. New Holland Publishers, 2003. Sydney Morning Herald, January–April 1965. https://trove.nla.gov.au/  St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, January 1965. https://trove.nla.gov.au/  National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. "True Crime Mysteries: Wanda Beach and Beaumont Kids." https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/true-crime-mysteries-wanda-beach-and-beaumont-kids Australian Missing Persons Register. "Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt." http://www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/SharrockSchmidt.htm   Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us:  strewthpodcast@gmail.com

    32 min
  7. Screams From the Darkness - Australian Mystery

    MAR 3

    Screams From the Darkness - Australian Mystery

    Somewhere in the Outer Barcoo, on a remote cattle station in central-western Queensland, there is a waterhole that terrified a district for sixty years. Station hands abandoned a hut they would never return to. Shearers fled in the middle of the night, leaving their swags behind. Two men went out armed with rifles to settle the matter once and for all. They came back without answers, and with their weapons discharged. The sounds they heard were described consistently, across multiple independent accounts spanning six decades. Wailing, screaming, something that built from silence until it filled the whole night. Something that, by the repeated testimony of people who had spent their lives in the Australian bush, could not have been made by any animal or bird they knew. It stopped around 1925. Nobody knows why. Nobody heard it again. Sources: Bill Beatty, "The Wilga Waterhole Ghost," Sydney Morning Herald, 4 January 1947, p.10 (Trove article #18004435) Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 14 February 1947, p.4 (Trove article #98205020) S.W. Cleary, letter to the editor, Narromine News and Trangie Advocate, 4 March 1932, p.5 (Trove article #98921925)  Bill Beatty, A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales and Traditions (1960), chapter "Here's a Queer Tale" Philip Shields, "In Search of the Wilga Ghost," Ontology Site (19 August 2017): https://ontologysite.wordpress.com/2017/08/19/in-search-of-the-wilga-ghost/ Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com

    32 min
  8. Beneath the Pines - Australian True Crime

    FEB 24

    Beneath the Pines - Australian True Crime

    On the night of Friday 26 February 1971, twenty-year-old dental nurse Keren Ellen Rowland attended the Royal Canberra Show. She bought a silver bracelet as a gift for a friend, left the showgrounds, and ran out of petrol on Parkes Way, a quiet stretch of road through the parkland beside Lake Burley Griffin. A witness saw her walking toward a dark-coloured sedan with New South Wales plates, already parked on the verge ahead of her. She was reported missing by midnight. Her remains were found eighty days later in the Fairbairn Pine Plantation, near the Air Disaster Memorial on the city's southeastern fringe. The bracelet was not there. Fifty-four years later, no one has ever been charged with her murder. Her case remains officially open. In this episode of Strewth, we trace the full story of Keren's disappearance and death, from the investigation led by Detective-Inspector Reg Kennedy in 1971, through the startling near-confession of 1973 that came to nothing, to the shadow cast by serial killer Ivan Milat, and the 2020 cold case revival that brought new witnesses forward after half a century of silence.  Sources Overall, Nichole. Capital Crime Files, Season 1 (Keren Rowland). Podcast. capitalcrimefiles.podbean.com. Gribbin, Mark. "In a lonely place beneath the pines, a fresh search in a 49-year-old murder mystery." The Canberra Times, 9 December 2020. canberratimes.com.au "For Nichole, Keren's murder is getting personal." Canberra CityNews, December 2020. citynews.com.au "Police hunt forest for bracelet in Keren Rowland case." Canberra Daily / Canberra Weekly, December 2020. canberraweekly.com.au "Was Canberra murder victim Keren Rowland one of Ivan Milat's earliest victims?" Knowledia. news.knowledia.com Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay Strewth Social Media Links:  https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us:  strewthpodcast@gmail.com

    36 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 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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