Forgotten Australia
Created by Michael Adams, author of The Murder Squad and Hanging Ned Kelly, Forgotten Australia delves deep into bloody crimes, dark histories, unsolved mysteries, eccentric personalities and bizarre happenings that are almost always stranger than fiction. Each episode brings to life people and events that were once known to everyone but are now barely remembered by anyone. Based on intensive original research, Forgotten Australia is crafted with a novelist’s eye for character and detail to create gripping narratives that sound so fresh it's like they're ripped from today's headlines. This is the history you wish you’d been taught in s...
Episodes
This Week in 1931: The Man Who Fell To Earth – Part Two
After Stanley Thomas’s rapid rise to parachuting success in Sydney, his career starts to stall with a series of jumps that are erratic and dangerous.*Part Three is available now early and ad-free for supporters. You'll also get access to ot…
This Week in 1931: The Man Who Fell To Earth – Part One
Stanley Thomas was a young parachutist who made himself into a star in Sydney in the early years of the Great Depression. In public, he thrilled with his daredevil stunts. In private, he wrestled the darkest of demons. In the first instalme…
This Week in 1906: The Golden Rule Axe Murder
When John Hassett was murdered in his Adelaide hotel room, Australia wasn’t faced with a whodunnit but a whydunnit.Why had his wife Ada committed this cold-blooded crime?Is she was insane, what had broken her mind?For the first time, Ada’s …
The Curious Case of the Two-Headed Baby – Part Two
Reuben Doodeward faces court, but he’s not backing down, and neither is the NSW government, with the fight over the fate of the two-headed baby headed for the High Court… and beyond.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to…
The Curious Case of the Two-Headed Baby – Part One
In 1906, Australia was scandalised that Sydney showman Reuben Doodeward (pictured) had exhibited a two-headed baby preserved in a bottle of spirits. Yet he was only doing what his dear old dad had done in Dunedin nearly 30 years earlier. Th…
Before the Mushroom Trial – The Poisoned Footy Player: Part Three
While the evidence against Veronica Monty was damning, she was also damned by the hypocritical morality of Australia in the 1950s. Tried for attempted murder, she was convicted of far worse — and would pay the price.It’s easy to get a free …
Before the Mushroom Trial – The Poisoned Footy Player: Part Two
When Sydney detectives confirm star Balmain rugby league player Bob Lulham has been poisoned with Thall-Rat, they begin an investigation that at first turns up few leads. A series of mysterious phone calls to the CIB keeps the police wonder…
Before the Mushroom Trial – The Poisoned Footy Player: Part One
On the 20th of July 1953, Sydney detectives discovered that someone had used rat poison to try to murder star Balmain rugby league player Bob Lulham. More than 70 years later, this remains one of Australian sport’s most sensational, strange…
This Week in 1980 – The Family Court Murders, Miracle Babies and Birds, Our Richest Real Estate and the Village People Conquer Australia
A judge is gunned down, we welcome our first test tube baby and we try to save the world’s rarest bird. Meanwhile, Sydney sets a record house price and the Village People score bigly Down Under. Plus: Why does President Trump love the YMCA?…
This Week in 1955 – Part Two: A Ban on Aboriginal People, Putting An End to Polio, the Murder Manhunt and the ‘Murderphobia’ Case
While Sydney welcomes African-American entertainers, Moree bans Aboriginal Australians from exercising their human rights on the land that’s always been their home. But this regressive act will have progressive consequences… eventually. Plu…
This Week in 1955 – Part One: A Murderer Escapes, Our Politicians Jail Pressmen and an Aussie Witnesses Horror at Le Mans
Up in the Queensland, a murderer and a robber break out of prison, while down in Canberra our Federal Parliament puts a couple of newspaper blokes behind bars for breaching privilege. Meanwhile, a veteran Aussie journo at Le Mans witnesses …
Before the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Five
Following the verdict, Ronald Griggs has one last trick up his sleeve to amaze Australia. It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit either of these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgotten…
Before the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Four
Having already been convicted by the newspapers, Ronald Griggs stands trial for the murder of his wife. If he’s found guilty, he’ll be sentenced to death.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus ep…
This Week in 1930 - America's Tariff Apocalypse, Aviatrix Amy Johnson Awes Aussies... and Ferris Bueller?
In the first week of June 1930, America was on the brink of economic apocalypse with its Smoot-Hawley tariffs – and their effects would be felt terribly Down Under and around the world. In this very same week, Aussies set in motion a proces…
Before the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Three
After Lottie Condon’s shock confession, Ronald Griggs becomes infamous overnight when Truth newspaper publishes every sordid detail of his scandalous love life. But with his wife’s body exhumed and the true cause of her death established, p…
Before the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Two
Following the mysterious death of his wife in the mountain town of Omeo, rumours about Methodist preacher Ronald Griggs reach a fever pitch — and a veteran detective is sent from Melbourne CIB to investigate.Parts three, four and five are a…
Before the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part One
Nearly a century before Erin Patterson was put on trial in the mushroom murder case, Australia was scandalised by allegations that a young preacher from country Victoria had poisoned his wife, Ethel, the mother of his baby girl, so he could…
This Week in 1905: Aussie Feminist Highs & Lows, the First Empire Day, an American President Ends a Russian War, and a Ratcatcher Echoes in Eternity
In London this week, the Aussie suffragist Nellie Martel explains to English women how they can win the vote, while back at home pioneering feminist Louisa Lawson’s publication The Dawn teeters on the brink of closure. Plus: the first Empir…
This Week in 1979: Aussie Movies Go Global, Ye Olde TV Listings & Our Forgotten Comedy Genius
This week at the Cannes Film Festival, My Brilliant Career made Australian film history, while back home Rupert Murdoch became a Sydney TV mogul, setting the stage for his world-changing Fox News empire. Meanwhile, Aussies lived with limite…
This Week in 1954 - Sydney Anarchy, Killer Trains, a Climate Warming Warning, Record Setters & the Roo Roo Hop
Pirates, sailors, mountaineers and the Abominable Snowman run riot through Sydney – a Sydney were you risk life and limb every time you catch a train. Also this week: scientists prove that the world is warming – and cite civilisation as the…
Short – Nazi Aftertaste
85 years before American President Donald Trump gave unelected social media mogul Elon Musk unprecedented power with DOGE, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies gave unelected newspaper mogul Keith Murdoch unprecedented power as DGI - th…
This Week in 1929: The Blind Digger – Part Two
Just as Frank’s radio career is taking off, his private life is laid bare in a racy tabloid expose. But the sequel to this scandal is to be far more shocking and sinister. Nearly a century later, questions remain…For free trial access to ea…
This Week in 1929: The Blind Digger – Part One
Terribly wounded on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli, AIF Private Frank Downes would be celebrated as The Blind Digger. After returning home on the first hospital ship from Egypt, he was an Anzac hero, a patriotic public speaker, a radio personal…
This Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part Two
Did you have to be crazy to take on 10 cops at once? Was Percy Ramage 'perfectly insane'? The question was key but Melbourne’s best and brightest just couldn’t agree. Percy cashed in on his notoriety with a memoir and tried to go straight. …
This Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part One
In Melbourne and Geelong from the 1890s, Percy Ramage saw red whenever he saw the cops. Known as 'The Policeman Puncher', he was such a 'human tiger' that no-one knew where his badness ended and his madness began. But in trying to contain h…
Short: Cocaine Kurtz
This German-born thug's misadventures included shooting his dad in the butt, taking to the bush as an escapee, doing time in a POW camp, selling cocaine in Sydney and dicing with the Razor Gangs. But his life would have an unexpected final …
This Week in 1978: Dead End – The Bloody Last Stand of a Brazen Bank Bandit
A Brisbane armed robber had hit three banks in twelve months. In the second week of April 1978, the cops had laid a trap he couldn’t escape. Until he did. What followed was an extraordinary car chase and gun battle, all caught by news camer…
This Week in 1953: One Murderous Cop, Two Serial Killers & Roy Cohn Runs Riot Against the 'Reds'
It was a big week for true crime and the Red Scare. In Sydney, Roger Rogerson’s future hero, Detective-Sergeant Ray ‘the Gunner’ Kelly, was in court and explaining how and why he’d shot another criminal dead. In London, the cops caught seri…
This Week in 1928: Cocaine Raids, Razor Gangs, Racist Orgy Conspiracies and Girl Bosses vs Man Worms!
In a bumper episode brought to you by the newfangled "Electric Newspaper" of 1928, Sydney and Melbourne cops carry out spectacular public raids to save white women from the evils of cocaine and African-American jazz men – and, more broadly,…
Short: Murder at the Melbourne Races
In 1906, when a young bookie tried to cheat his customers, he died as the very public victim of a bloodthirsty mob of Melburnians. His murder left the city searching for his killers – and for answers about a state government that continued …
This Week in 1903: Gaslight in Perth – Bella Heckler, the Reverend and the Rape Scandal
In the third week of 1903, Perth was transfixed by one of the most sensational libel cases in Australian history. The legal action had been brought by a popular clergyman, who claimed a newspaper had falsely accused him of being a vile pred…
This Week in 1977: Just Like Jaws
This week was a busy one – a royal visit from the Queen, the Centenary Test and mad bulls running through the streets of Melbourne. But no story was more dramatic than the horrific shark attack off Brisbane, which seemed straight out of tha…
This Week in 1952: Miss Kangaroo & the Great Koala Heist
Long before Crocodile Dundee put Australia on the map for American moviegoers, Miss Kangaroo was sent to the USA on a similar mission. But this young polio survivor wouldn’t be alone on her whirlwind 30-city tour – Miss Kangaroo was to chap…
Short: The Brutal Birth of Mardi Gras
In 1978, the first Mardi Gras was met with police intimidation, violence and mass arrests that were followed by custodial abuse, bashings and malicious prosecutions. Though the cops, courts, Labor premier Neville Wran and even the Sydney Mo…
This Week In… 1927: The First Miss Australia & the Newspaper Stunt that Launched a Media Empire
In the last week of February 1927, Sydneysiders could go to the Crystal Palace Theatre to see Australia’s very own ‘Queen’ – the winner of the first Miss Australia pageant. Not only would she appear in her costumes, she’d tell of her advent…
This Week in 1902: Bubonic Plague, the Crutchy Push, Breaker Morant, Boer War barbarities & the first choice for an Aussie capital
In the third week of February 1902: the first Australian senators select a sweet site for our national capital and the first Australian commonwealth soldiers embark for overseas service... right as Australia's first prime minister and first…
Your Stories: ‘My Father was Count Copernicus!'
As an adoptee, Pam Korreng always wondered about her biological parents. In 2021, hoping for some answers, she used Ancestry DNA. What Pam discovered was that her dad, Dave Clark, was an immensely talented singer, musician, actor, comedian,…
This Week in… 1976: Ned Kelly lives, Apocalypse Now dies, sex sells cinema tix but Australia’s star stripper quits
In this special movie episode: the same week that we rediscover the first filmic Ned Kelly, we lose the chance to have Apocalypse Now made in Australia – and while sexy times sell ‘sinema’ tickets, singer-stripper-philosopher-turned-soft co…
This Week In… 1951: Melbourne’s Retro “Teacher’s Pet” Case
This week in 1951, Melbourne’s detectives and a police diver were searching the waters off Frankston for the body of Caroline Scully, a wife and mother who’d been missing for eight months. The chief suspect in her suspected murder? Her husb…
This Week in... 1926: Ugly Men, Tesla's Predictions, a Fascist ‘Footloose’ and a Mysterious Masked Dancer
As a sensuous Catwoman seduces Sydney society and Perth’s Ugly Men stage their annual carnival at Uglieland, ugly meanie Mussolini uses his new executive powers to protect fascist Italy from having fun while Elon Musk's original man crush N…