The Dead Can't Sue

ABC Australia
  • 3.7 (9)
  • History
  • Updated Weekly

Serious academics. Dead subjects. A bit of gossip.  Is it appropriate for historians to gossip about the dead? Associate Professors Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher aren't afraid to find out. In The Dead Can't Sue, they poke around in the entrails of Australian history, dishing up the best dirt and juiciest scoops on our nation's dead. Each week, you'll join us for the best dinner party conversations you've ever overheard, as Alecia and Leigh bring you their unfiltered takes. There'll be big names you'll get to know in new ways, as well as names you've never heard of, with jaw-dropping stories. Rebels, divas, convicts, heroes, scoundrels and everything in between.

  1. 5d ago

    Faith Bandler: The ‘gentle’ activist with an ASIO file who changed the constitution (part 1)

    Faith Bandler was the daughter of a slave, who became the face of the 1967 referendum and a celebrity in the process. And she did it all while keeping house and raising kids.  Few know her name now, yet Alecia argues that Faith is just as important to the fight for racial justice in Australia as Martin Luther King was to the USA.  Despite many people’s assumptions, Faith was not a First Nations Australian. So how did a South Sea Islander woman, with Indian and Scottish heritage, become the face of one of Australia’s biggest Indigenous causes?    Special thanks to ABC's senior cultural advisor Miriam Corowa and Waskam Emelda Davis.  SOURCES Marilyn Lake, Faith Bandler, Gentle Activist, Allen and Unwin, 2002  Ryan Butta, Blackbirding, Black Inc, 2026  Tracey Banivanuar Mar, Stabilising violence in colonial rule: Settlement and the indentured labour trade in Queensland in the 1870s, Liverpool University Press, 2017  Tracey Banivanuar Mar, Decolonisation and the Pacific: Indigenous Globalisation and the Ends of Empire, Cambridge University Press, 2016   Faith Bandler and Len Fox, The Time was ripe: a history of the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship (1956-69), 1983  Faith Bandler oral history interview by Carolyn Craig, MLOH 307, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales  Faith Bandler, ASIO file: Mitchell Library 3/55. FCAATSI  Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichProducer: Hannah JoseVideo producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

  2. Sep 7

    Nellie Melba: How a facelift downed our diva (part 2)

    To rise to stardom, our OG diva needed a rebrand, so she trades her given name - Helen (not exactly giving superstar, no offence to all the Helens) - and takes on Nellie Melba.   In the second part of her story, Nellie becomes the Kylie Minogue of her time, charming the masses in London's best theatres and touring the world drumming up support for the war effort (with some suspicious accidents along the way).  But beneath the glamour, Nellie is in a domestic war of her own. Leigh and Alecia try to make sense of how she faced her own battles, and then how she came to her own sudden, somewhat peculiar death.  Warning: This episode discusses intimate partner violence. SOURCES Melba, Nellie. Melodies and Memories. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1925.  “Melba Remembers—An Interview with Dame Nellie Melba.” The Home: An Australian Quarterly 3, no. 2 (June 1, 1922)  “Coombe Cottage: Dame Nellie Melba’s Home—Third of a Series of Studies of Notable Australian Homes.” The Australian Home Beautiful: A Journal for the Home Builder 6, no. 6 (June 1, 1928)  “In Dame Nellie Melba’s Paris Home.” The Home: An Australian Quarterly 11, no. 7 (July 1, 1930)  Campbell, Rachel M. “Dame Nellie Melba: Celebrity and the Portrait.” Context: A Journal of Music Research, no. 40 (January 2015): 69–79.  Modjeska, Drusilla, Susan Dermody, and John Docker, eds. Nellie Melba, Ginger Meggs and Friends: Essays in Australian Cultural History. Malmsbury: Kibble Books, 1982.  Blainey, Ann. I Am Melba: A Biography. Melbourne: Black Inc., 2008.  Wainwright, Robert. Nellie: The life and loves of Dame Nellie Melba. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 2021  Davis, Richard. Nellie Melba: The legend lives. Mile End: Wakefield Press, 2025 Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichProducer: Hannah JoseVideo producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

    Nellie Melba: How a facelift downed our diva (part 2)

  3. Aug 31

    Nellie Melba: How the prima donna dodged her sh*tty husband to find fame and fortune (part 1)

    Opera star Dame Nellie Melba is the face of our $100 note, and the inspiration for the famous Peach Melba dessert. In short she’s an icon – one of Australia’s original divas. But how did she go from young Melbourne tomboy to domestic abuse survivor and then global superstar?  Leigh dives deep on Nellie’s life of tragedy and drama, worthy of its own opera, and proves to Alecia this diva is a little saltier than the sweet pudding named in her honour.  Plus, we explore the origins of long service leave and how Nellie falls flat on her face during her first audition in Europe.  Warning: This episode discusses intimate partner violence. Melba, Nellie. Melodies and Memories. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1925.  “Melba Remembers—An Interview with Dame Nellie Melba.” The Home: An Australian Quarterly 3, no. 2 (June 1, 1922)  “Coombe Cottage: Dame Nellie Melba’s Home—Third of a Series of Studies of Notable Australian Homes.” The Australian Home Beautiful: A Journal for the Home Builder 6, no. 6 (June 1, 1928)  “In Dame Nellie Melba’s Paris Home.” The Home: An Australian Quarterly 11, no. 7 (July 1, 1930)  Campbell, Rachel M. “Dame Nellie Melba: Celebrity and the Portrait.” Context: A Journal of Music Research, no. 40 (January 2015): 69–79.  Modjeska, Drusilla, Susan Dermody, and John Docker, eds. Nellie Melba, Ginger Meggs and Friends: Essays in Australian Cultural History. Malmsbury: Kibble Books, 1982.  Blainey, Ann. I Am Melba: A Biography. Melbourne: Black Inc., 2008.  Wainwright, Robert. Nellie: The life and loves of Dame Nellie Melba. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 2021  Davis, Richard. Nellie Melba: The legend lives. Mile End: Wakefield Press, 2025  Woollacott, Angela. To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity. Oxford University Press USA, 2001.  Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichProducer: Hannah JoseVideo producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

    Nellie Melba: How the prima donna dodged her sh*tty husband to find fame and fortune (part 1)

  4. Aug 24

    Miles Franklin: Our feminist hero flirts with fascism (part 2)

    While the blokes were off on the frontlines of WWI, Miles Franklin used writing as her weapon for changing the world. But was our much-loved matriarch of Australian literature a tad fascist?  In the second part of Miles Franklin's story, we see her go from bush girl to political animal. Starting with Miles’s globe-trotting feminist and labour activist days, to her flirtations with not one but two millionaire brothers, it’s a wild ride.  Warning: This episode discusses sexual assault.  SOURCES  Roe, Jill. Her brilliant career: the life of Stella Miles Franklin. Harvard University Press, 2009  Barnard, Marjorie. Miles Franklin, Hill of Content, 1967  Roe, Jill. Miles Franklin: A Short Biography, 2018  Lapierre, Alexandre. The Very Secretive and Passionate Stella Miles Franklin, Allen & Unwin,  2026  Sheridan, Susan. "Louisa Lawson, Miles Franklin and Feminist Writing, 1888–1901." Australian Feminist Studies 3.7-8 (1988): 29-47  Knowles, Sandra. "The not quite real Miles Franklin: Diaries as performance." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 4 (2005): 185-200  Franks, Rachel. "Miles Franklin." State Library of New South Wales, 2022  Knowles, Sandra. The performances of a psychic privacy: waiting for the real Miles Franklin. Diss. UNSW Sydney, 2007  Bird, David. Nazi Dreamtime: Australian Enthusiasts for Hitler's Germany. Anthem Press, 2014  Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichProducer: Hannah JoseVideo producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

    Miles Franklin: Our feminist hero flirts with fascism (part 2)

  5. Aug 17

    Miles Franklin: The flirty bush girl behind My Brilliant Career (part 1)

    Miles Franklin’s name is inseparable from Australian literature. She’s a late 1800s bush girl who told a bold story of marriage rejection (My Brilliant Career) that went global. And it continues to captivate audiences today (see: the new Netflix adaptation by the same name).  Everyone read the book as semi-autobiographical, with its protagonist, Sybylla, standing in for a young, flirty Miles. But how much more is there to Miles Franklin’s story beyond this juicy novel?   On this first part of her story, Alecia and Leigh explore the temptations Miles Franklin faced as a writer and a woman, and the many other lives she lived beyond Sybylla’s.  SOURCES Roe, Jill. Her brilliant career: the life of Stella Miles Franklin. Harvard University Press, 2009  Barnard, Marjorie. Miles Franklin, Hill of Content, 1967  Roe, Jill. Miles Franklin: A Short Biography, 2018  Lapierre, Alexandre. The Very Secretive and Passionate Stella Miles Franklin, Allen & Unwin,  2026  Franklin, Miles. My brilliant career. ReadHowYouWant. com, 1986  Sheridan, Susan. "Louisa Lawson, Miles Franklin and Feminist Writing, 1888–1901." Australian Feminist Studies 3.7-8 (1988): 29-47  Franklin, Miles. Childhood at Brindabella: my first ten years. Ett Imprint, 2018  Knowles, Sandra. "The not quite real Miles Franklin: Diaries as performance." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 4 (2005): 185-200  Franks, Rachel. "Miles Franklin." State Library of New South Wales, 2022  Knowles, Sandra. The performances of a psychic privacy: waiting for the real Miles Franklin. Diss. UNSW Sydney, 2007  Davies, Kerrie. Miles Franklin Undercover, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2025  Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichProducer: Hannah JoseVideo producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

    Miles Franklin: The flirty bush girl behind My Brilliant Career (part 1)

  6. Aug 10

    Harold Holt: The tragic demise of a people-pleasing PM (part 2)

    Yes, the undercurrent tragically killed our 17th Prime Minister, but were his days in office already numbered?  Leigh argues that Holt was sinking (politically) before he died. So how did the man whose brief tenure as PM included the 1967 Referendum and the start of dismantling the White Australia Policy lose his audience?   We tell you how we think it all went down and give you the final say on the conspiracies that swirl around his disappearance.  Plus, charisma bomb Gough Whitlam makes an appearance thereby flustering Holt and all of us.  SOURCES 'Prime Minister Harold Holt's Briefcase' National Archives M4298,1 'New Prime Minister and His Wife' Australian Women's Weekly Feb 2 1966 Hancock, Ian (2026). 'Harold Edward Hold' in Australia's Prime Ministers edited by Michelle Grattan (New Holland Publishers) Walker, Ross (2022). Harold Holt: Always One Step Further (Latobe University Press) Frame, Tom (2005). The Life and Death of Harold Holt (Allen and Unwin) Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherProducer: Hannah JoseSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichVideo Producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

    Harold Holt: The tragic demise of a people-pleasing PM (part 2)

  7. Aug 3

    Harold Holt: How a kid called 'Puss' conquered Canberra (part 1)

    It's fair to say for a lot of Australians, Harold Holt has become more of a meme than a man, let alone Australia's 17th Prime Minister. Yes, he drowned in mysterious circumstances and it's weird there's a pool named after him, but Leigh is more fixated on the less well-known quirks of our dear Harry. For example, did his pretty privilege charm Canberra? Where did his high school nickname 'puss' come from? How did his ex-girlfriend end up marrying his father? And were Zara Holt's kids — born while she was married to another man — actually Harold's? SOURCES 'Prime Minister Harold Holt's Briefcase' National Archives M4298,1 'New Prime Minister and His Wife' Australian Women's Weekly Feb 2 1966 'Speeches by Harold Holt' PM Transcripts: Australian Government, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Hancock, Ian (2026). 'Harold Edward Hold' in Australia's Prime Ministers edited by Michelle Grattan (New Holland Publishers) Walker, Ross (2022). Harold Holt: Always One Step Further (Latobe University Press) Frame, Tom (2005). The Life and Death of Harold Holt (Allen and Unwin) Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherProducer: Hannah JoseSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichVideo Producer: Christian HarimanowExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves

    Harold Holt: How a kid called 'Puss' conquered Canberra (part 1)

  8. Jul 27

    William Buckley: How an escaped convict spent 30 years with an Indigenous group

    Perhaps you're familiar with the phrase "Buckley's chance!". Well, it's thought that it originates from William Buckley, a man who defied all odds to escape his fate as a convict.  Buckley was a brickie from Northern England who ends up being adopted by the Wathaurong people in 1800s Victoria.   Leigh investigates the legend of Buckley’s survival, what the Wathaurong had to gain from him, and how things finally came to a head.   Psst - he also debunks a few famous convict myths we love to tell.  SOURCES  Reminiscences of James Buckley who lived for thirty years among the Wallawarro or Watourong tribes at Geelong Port Phillip, communicated by him to George Langhorne, 1837 (State Library of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection)  Bonwick, James (1856). William Buckley: the wild white man, and his Port Phillip black friends, (Melbourne)  Morgan, John (1856). The life and adventures of William Buckley: thirty-two years a wanderer amongst the Aborigines (Melbourne)  Flannery, Tim (ed) (2017). The Life and Adventures of William Buckley (Melbourne: Text Publishing)  Tipping, Marjorie (1988). Convicts Unbound (Melbourne: Viking O’Neill)  McKinnon, Crystal and McLisky, Clare (2022). “Settler Colonial Emotions... in the William Buckley Story” in The Routledge History of Emotions   Tudehope, CM (1962). “William Buckley” in Victorian Historical Magazine,1962 Tipping, Marjorie (2006). William Buckley (1780–1856), Australian Dictionary of Biography  Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh BoucherSupervising Producer: Hannah ReichDevelopment Producer: Beverley WangExecutive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric GeorgeHead of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica RadburnTheme: Martin PeraltaArtwork: Gabriel Virata-AlvesSound Engineering: Ross Richardson

    William Buckley: How an escaped convict spent 30 years with an Indigenous group
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3.7
out of 5
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About

Serious academics. Dead subjects. A bit of gossip.  Is it appropriate for historians to gossip about the dead? Associate Professors Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher aren't afraid to find out. In The Dead Can't Sue, they poke around in the entrails of Australian history, dishing up the best dirt and juiciest scoops on our nation's dead. Each week, you'll join us for the best dinner party conversations you've ever overheard, as Alecia and Leigh bring you their unfiltered takes. There'll be big names you'll get to know in new ways, as well as names you've never heard of, with jaw-dropping stories. Rebels, divas, convicts, heroes, scoundrels and everything in between.

Information

  • Creator
    ABC Australia
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Dead Can't Sue