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 school. You can get early ad-free access and bonus Forgotten Australia episodes by subscribing at Apple or supporting at Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Celebrated high diver Peter Murtough takes the plunge when he marries Emma Hanbury – my colourful great-grandmother. But being a husband and father to three young children doesn't stop him from taking the greatest risk of his life – enlisting at age 40 to fight in the Great War. As Emma cheers him on with her special version of 'It's A Long Way To Tipperary', she can't know that the horrors of the Western Front will upend all of th...
After the patriotic fervour that sends Peter Murtough to South Africa, he and hundreds of thousands of soldiers discover the reality of the Boer War is hunger, thirst, filth and sudden bursts of deadly violence. But the most dangerous enemy? Typhoid. Fortunately, a vaccine has been developed – but most soldiers won't take it.
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It’s easy to get a f...
In July 1898, my great-grandfather Peter Murtough competes for the title of best diver in the world. But seeking more than the thrills of the life aquatic, he ratchets up the risks to himself – and future me – by enlisting to fight the Boer in South Africa.
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Having fought the French and beaten the odds, Bernard Murtough’s family goes on to prominence in peacetime, establishing themselves and their mineral water business in Portsea. While raised a child of privilege, restless youngster Peter Murtough strikes out for London, set on high adventure as a high diver.
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It’s easy to get a free trial that will...
I recently discovered that my great-grandfather was a champion diver who was active in the very same London scene as the doomed stuntmen who featured in my recent miniseries Death-Defying Death Divers!
With this as my, um, jumping off point, I’m taking a plunge into my family history, tracing the men and women of the Murtough family, from the Battle of Waterloo, the Boer War and the Western Front, to the wilds of Western Austral...
From a run-in with the future Nazi villain, to working with the master of movie suspense, Aussie musical genius Arthur Benjamin lived a big life, even if he’s these days overshadowed in our cultural history by the scandalous Percy Grainger and Eugene Goosens.
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Apple: ap...
A century and a half ago, the age of the typewriter dawned in Australia.
Who was the first to import these new American gizmos? Would they cause the extinction of handwriting?
Would typewriters increase efficiency or simply empower people to churn out rubbish?
How many parallels are there to the modern push for AI?
To read Robert Messenger’s typewriter histories, check out:
https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/
It’s easy...
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Australian flag being raised for the first time – the winning design selected from a competition that attracted over 32,000 entries.
Who sponsored the contest and why?
How many winning designers were there?
How did one chap so successfully claim sole credit over the next half century that two Australian prime ministers felt it necessary to officially try to set the record straight?
Having just retired from the NSW police, infamously bent Sydney detective Ray Kelly injects himself into the Beaumont case in what is one of Australia’s most cynical newspaper stunts. At the same time, the disappearance of two teens in Victoria marks the sad start to another haunting murder mystery. Plus: Aussie dollars and cents finally drop, Gough Whitlam vs Arthur Calwell, and the Rolling Stones roll into town… with Keith Richar...
In Spain, a B-52 accident has left a nuke lost at sea – while on land a fallout cover-up is in full swing. In Australia, even as more Diggers than ever are dying on the battlefield, and our Americans allies are freezing us out of planning, new Prime Minister Harold Hold doubles down on our commitment to the war in Vietnam. Plus: the BBC bans an unsparing atomic war documentary because it’s too realistic, Australia’s Nazi leader rai...
In the second week of February 1966, Australians are preparing for ‘Changeover Day’, when we’ll say 'G’bye' to pounds, shillings and pence and say 'G’day' to dollars and cents. But would we have been better off with a currency called the ‘Roo’, the ‘Dinkum’ or the… ‘Nostril’? Plus: Sir Robert Menzies retires in the dark, Harold Holt is immortalised in wax, and the Russians land on the moon.
*Hear Part 2 and Part 3 now ad-free as...
Australia is shocked by three Sydney murders – even as a spate of brutal attacks on sex workers goes ignored by the police and tabloid media. Plus: Lindy Chamberlain freed as the newspapers dodge accountability, and David Brett’s strange tale gets lost; DNA set to revolutionise crime fighting, while science explains how you don’t get AIDS; Paul Hogan's peak year gathers pace; and cult leaders L. Ron Hubbard and Charles Manson ...
In the Philippines, authoritarian ‘strongman’ President Ferdinand Marcos – having once survived a sex tape scandal that should've sunk him, and having siphoned billions from the people he's impoverished, oppressed, tortured and murdered – unleashes his police and military goons to assassinate and terrorise the opposition during ‘free’ elections.
Plus: Rupert Murdoch smashes the print unions; Maggie Thatcher hit by two scandals;...
After an Englishman fell to his death at Uluru on Australia Day 1986, a search of the area would find the crucial evidence that proved Lindy Chamberlain was innocent of the murder of her baby daughter Azaria. But who was the tortured soul whose fate set her free?
Also: the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster; Star Wars can't live up to the hype; President Reagan guns for Colonel Gadaffi; and Donald Trump explains his Russia-friendly p...
Welcome to the first episode of Forgotten Australia Spotlight, which is to showcase the work of other history storytellers. First up, History Daily, with their episode about the Rum Rebellion, which took place on the 20th anniversary of what would later be called Australia Day.
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/fo...
Having left his mark on Australia, Professor Charles Peart’s legend is to fade with the years, even as others step up to even greater heights for even more dangerous plunges – intentional and accidental.
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Lifeline
13 11 14
0477 13 11 14
https://www.lifeline.org.au/
Want more original Australian true crime and hist...
Arriving in Australia, Professor Charles Peart lives up the hype and wows crowds in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, before showing New Zealand audiences what he can do. But the daredevil has even wilder stunts planned for his return season in 1896.
Hear the final instalment now early and ad-free by becoming a Forgotten Australia supporter.
Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustralia
Apple: apple.co/forgottenaustralia
Life...
After a diving tragedy shocks London, Professor Charles Peart rises to fame with his daring and dizzying head-first pool stunts.
When Australian circus owners come looking for acts to take Down Under, they believe they’ve found a star performer.
Hear Death-Defying Death Divers parts 3 and 4 now early and ad-free as a Forgotten Australia supporter.
You can use a free trial that's easy to cancel. If you decide to continue supporti...
Welcome to Season 10! There are a lot of wild stranger-than-fiction episodes and miniseries coming your way in 2026. To start the New Year, let's splashback 130 years...
In 1895, Australians were astounded by Charles Peart, whose claim to fame was diving head-first from 100 feet into water just six feet deep. How did he do it? How long could he do it?
In this four-part miniseries, we plunge into the strange world of striving dive...
In 1881, plucky Mary Stoddard won the Great Australian Christmas Card Competition and launched her long and brilliant career in the Sydney art scene. While colonial gentlemen usually didn’t take ‘lady artists’ terribly seriously, Mary’s mastery of the pen and brush, particularly when doing portraits of powerful men, commanded respect, praise and plenty more prizes. She was a true pioneer.
To hear the bonus episode 'The Day ...
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