Ratbags & Roustabouts

In 1832, when a group of indentured servants ran off from their jobs with the Van Diemen’s Land Company in northwest Tasmania, the ramifications would be severe — both for them and for their former master, Edward Curr.

At the fledgling settlement of Circular Head in March 1832, the Forth ship brought a group of indentured servants from England, ready to get to work for a set number of years in the service of the Van Diemen’s Land Co...

In 1883, Kelly Gang wannabes James Sutherland and James Ogden carried out their brief but bloody bushranging careers near Epping Forest, Tasmania. But they never achieved the same infamy as their hero Ned Kelly.

In the middle of the night, William Wilson and his wife Theresa were woken by the sound of stones hitting the roof of their small house in the north midlands of Tasmaina. But when William went outside to see what it was, he ...

In 1925, Audrey Jacob walked through the crowded ballroom of Perth’s Government House, tapped Cyril Gidley on the shoulder and shot him point blank in the chest. But after a sensational trial, she was cleared of murder. So just how was she found not guilty?

Audrey Jacob was just 20 years old when she was out with a friend at the annual St John of God ball in Perth and she saw her fiance, 25-year-old Cyril Gidley, dancing with anothe...

SUMMER SPECIAL: There’s a reason women always exclaim in delight when they realise a garment has pockets, and it is a story that is woven through hundreds of years of history — and firmly entrenched in the suffragette movement.

In this special summer edition of Ratbags & Roustabouts, we unravel the history of the pocket, learning about how fashion for both men and women changed over the centuries and the close link between our c...

SUMMER SPECIAL: In 1930, the elusive Planet X — later named Pluto — was introduced to the world to much fanfare as the solar system’s ninth planet. So why was it rejected again, just 76 years later?

When US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh first found Pluto on the edge of the solar system, he joined the small and exclusive club of planet discoverers. The world was, frankly, over the moon about the newest, littlest planet. They loved it so ...

In 1892, two plumbers unearthed a grisly secret while laying pipes in a Sydney backyard — they found the bodies of two babies. Soon suspicion fell on John and Sarah Makin, who made a living out of raising other people’s infants. But how many more bodies would police find?
In all, 15 babies all aged under six months old were dug up from backyards around Sydney’s inner suburbs — all houses where the Makin family had lived.
Jo...

All kinds of Australian inventions throughout history have changed the world. This episode we talk about four of them — from inventions that saved lives to icons of Outback Australia.
On a hot day in January 1907, two boys got in trouble in the surf at Bondi. Luckily for them, a new invention, the rescue reel, had just been installed on the beach. Invented by Lyster Ormsby among others, it was a standard piece of equipment on b...

After explorer Ludwig Leichhardt went missing in 1848, Andrew Hume, made it his life’s mission to find out what had happened to him. But no one would believe the secrets he uncovered in Australia’s punishing interior. Was Hume a bushman or a conman?
Andrew Hume felt an affinity with the Australian bush he grew up in. He loved the land and he honed his bush skills living with Indigenous tribes.
But when famed German explorer...

When war broke out in 1914, thousands were eager to join up for the adventure, including John Langford. But his four years serving as a stretcher bearer in the RAMC would change the way he viewed life forever.
To commemorate Remembrance Day, we head to the Western Front during World War I as we follow the work of the Royal Army Medical Corps and in particular young private John Langford who served as a stretcher bearer for the ...

Edward Broughton and Matthew McAvoy were executed in 1831 for being “illegally at large”. It seemed a harsh punishment for two runaways. But after their deaths, the truth would emerge of the crimes they had committed — which included murder and cannibalism.

In 1830, two escaped convicts stumbled out of the Tasmanian wilderness with an incredible tale of survival. But authorities were skeptical as to whether their story was true.

Edwa...

In the late 1800s, the northwest of Tasmania was a wild place, where only the wildest of people survived. One such man was T.B. Margetts. 
Born in Leicestershire but raised in Tasmania, he was a pioneer, adventurer, farmer and horseman. He was stubborn as they come, a bit hot-headed and never lost a battle.
An encounter with a bushranger in his youth also made him so security-conscious it was bordering on the paranoid, and ...

Sometimes the death sentence is just the start of the story. In this episode, we hear about six times capital punishment from Australia’s convict days didn’t go to plan — from equipment malfunctions to out and out brawls. 
Even the first execution in the British settlement at Port Jackson didn’t go very well when they couldn’t convince anyone among the First Fleeters to act as hangman. In fact, the first official hangman of the...

In a world of spies and con-artists, deceptions and double-crosses, Baron Rudolf von Koenig conned, manipulated and blackmailed his way around the world. But the fraudster also played a vital part in helping the Allies crack the German Enigma code and win WWII.
In a nondescript hotel in Belgium in 1931, a transaction takes place between a seasoned spy and his new contact. The contact opens the briefcase he has carried on the tr...

In this episode, we meet up again with convict highwayman Dicky White as he faces the tyranny of Major Foveaux on Norfolk Island, builds a pub in Launceston, and gets locked up in a madhouse in London. 
After the trials of the voyage to New South Wales on board the Hillsborough convict ship, Dicky White finds himself first in the settlement of Port Jackson and then shipped off again to Norfolk Island.
There, under the harsh...

From the American Revolution to the shores of Sydney Cove, this tale follows the highs and lows of the life of Dicky White. 
When 24-year-old Dicky was driven to commit highway robbery in London in 1797, he was condemned to execution. 
It was the birth of his son John and the death of his wife which saw a legal act of mercy, swapping the noose for a one-way ticket to New South Wales.
After the horrors of Newgate Prison ...

When notorious bushranger Thomas Jeffries took a young family hostage in 1825, he performed an act so despicable, he had the entire island of Van Diemen’s Land calling for his execution. 
It was New Year’s Eve in 1825 when John and Elizabeth Tibbs with their five-month-old baby were visited by a group of bushrangers. The leader was Thomas Jeffries, a killer who had earnt himself the nickname, The Monster. 
The outlaws turne...

This is the tragic tale of John Basham, a young farmer in Van Diemen’s Land in 1825 who was caught in the crossfire when Governor George Arthur began a personal war with bushranger Matthew Brady.
In March 1825, John Basham and his stockman Joseph Hindes were tending their sheep on the banks of the Tamar River when they looked up and saw two men holding shotguns walking towards them. The men were outlaws Matthew Brady and James ...